Summary
A significant 68% of businesses are dissatisfied with their translation outsourcing, often due to issues like lost formatting, slow turnarounds, and security risks.
Key pain points with traditional translation include broken document layouts requiring manual rework, hidden costs that inflate budgets, and inadequate security for sensitive files.
To avoid these pitfalls, it's crucial to ask potential providers about their process for preserving formatting, true end-to-end delivery times, and specific security measures.
Modern AI platforms like Bluente are designed to solve these issues by automatically preserving document formatting, ensuring enterprise-grade security, and delivering translations in minutes, not days.
Did you know that 68% of businesses are dissatisfied with their translation outsourcing decisions within the first year? That's a staggering statistic that reveals a critical disconnect between expectations and reality in the translation industry.
Many professionals find themselves frustrated, with one executive admitting, "I end up spending more time copying the format than actually translating." Others worry about security, with experts advising that "if you are sending any kind of sensitive information for translation, you should ask lots of questions about how the files will be transferred and stored."
Whether you're considering outsourcing to a traditional translation agency or adopting a technology platform, asking the right questions upfront can save you countless hours of frustration, unexpected costs, and potential security breaches.
Let's examine the seven essential questions you should ask before signing any translation contract.
1. Will my formatting be preserved?
Why it matters: Formatting isn't just about aesthetics—it's fundamental to your document's usability and professionalism. Broken tables, misaligned charts, or incorrect legal numbering can render a translated document unusable and require hours of manual rework.
As one translation expert notes, "the only way to recreate the original format is manual DTP (Desktop Publishing), around which there's a whole outsourcing industry in India." This additional step can significantly increase costs and delay projects.
Traditional translation processes often struggle with complex documents. According to Microsoft's support forums, common issues include text running over images or font sizes being shrunk to accommodate languages (like Spanish) that require more space than English.
How Bluente addresses this: Bluente's AI Document Translation Platform was designed specifically to solve this formatting challenge. Its layout-aware engine preserves your document's original structure with pixel-perfect accuracy, including headers, footers, tables, charts, images, footnotes, and complex legal numbering across multiple file types (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX).
Unlike generic translators that break layouts, Bluente eliminates the need for post-translation cleanup, allowing you to use your translated documents immediately.
2. What are the true turnaround times?
Why it matters: In business, time is money. Critical workflows like M&A due diligence, eDiscovery, and litigation depend on speed and accuracy. Traditional agencies may promise fast delivery but often face delays due to manual processes, translator availability, and reformatting issues.
This disconnect between promised and actual timelines can jeopardize projects and create costly delays. Many businesses report waiting days or even weeks for translations that were promised in 24-48 hours.
The reality check: Ask for specific turnaround times based on your typical document types and lengths. Request examples of how the provider handles rush jobs and what contingencies they have in place for unexpected volume increases.
Many traditional agencies quote turnaround times that only include the translation phase, not the formatting, quality assurance, or revision cycles that follow. These hidden steps can double or triple the expected delivery time.
How modern solutions compare: AI-powered platforms like Bluente can translate large files and multi-document batches within minutes instead of days. This empowers teams to review, share, and file time-sensitive documents immediately, accelerating critical business operations without sacrificing quality.
3. How are review cycles handled?
Why it matters: Translation is rarely a one-and-done process. Review cycles are essential for ensuring accuracy and quality, especially in legal and financial contexts where precision is non-negotiable.
Without the right review tools, this process becomes cumbersome, leading to confusion, errors, and wasted time. As one user pointed out, it's crucial to have "a remedy in place if the agency returns something with too many errors."
Questions to ask: Does the provider offer collaborative review tools? How are changes tracked and implemented? What happens if significant revisions are needed?
How effective review works: Modern translation platforms should facilitate efficient review processes. Bluente generates bilingual, side-by-side outputs that allow reviewers to compare original and translated text in a single view for quick verification.
Additionally, Bluente supports translating tracked changes and comments, which is vital for cross-border contract negotiations and collaborative legal reviews. This ensures nothing gets lost in the revision process and maintains a clear audit trail.
4. What security measures protect my documents?
Why it matters: Business documents—whether contracts, financial statements, M&A deal rooms, or evidence files—often contain highly sensitive information. A data breach during the translation process can have severe legal, financial, and reputational consequences.
As one cautious user on Reddit warned, if you're not getting reassuring answers about security protocols, "that's a red flag."
Security essentials to demand: To ensure your data is protected, businesses should insist on:
End-to-end encryption for all file transfers
Controlled access protocols limiting who can view documents
Binding Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)
A secure translation management system
Clear data retention and deletion policies
Enterprise-grade protection: Bluente offers enterprise-grade confidentiality with encrypted processing and automatic file deletion policies to minimize data exposure. This makes it suitable for handling the most sensitive materials for legal, finance, and corporate teams.
5. Can you handle scanned documents?
Why it matters: A significant portion of business documentation still exists in paper form. Scanned contracts, historical filings, and image-based evidence are common challenges in the business world.
These documents contain non-selectable text, making them impossible for standard translators to process without OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology. This is a major pain point, with users reporting that "the text recognition was poor" and acknowledging that "No OCR is perfect."
Poor quality OCR leads to garbled text and inaccurate translations, often requiring manual re-typing of entire documents—a time-consuming and error-prone process.
The OCR challenge: Most traditional translation services either don't offer OCR capabilities or use basic tools that struggle with complex layouts, watermarks, and poor-quality scans. Those that do typically charge significant premiums for this service.
Advanced OCR solutions: Bluente's advanced OCR technology converts non-selectable text in scanned PDFs and images (JPG, PNG, TIFF) into editable, searchable, and translatable formats. Crucially, it does this while preserving the original layout—a key differentiator from generic tools.
This capability makes it possible to reliably handle even the most challenging scanned documents without breaking their structure, eliminating a major headache for legal and financial teams.
6. What happens with tracked changes?
Why it matters: This question goes deeper than basic review cycles. For legal documents, the revision history itself is critical evidence. In contract negotiations or litigation, knowing who changed what and when is paramount.
Most translation tools strip this metadata, destroying the audit trail and potentially compromising the document's legal standing. For regulatory filings or compliance documentation, this loss of provenance can be problematic.
The metadata challenge: Traditional translation processes typically involve extracting text from the original document, translating it in a separate environment, and then reinserting it into a new document. This process almost always strips tracked changes, comments, and revision history.
Preserving digital evidence: Bluente's platform translates the content of each revision while preserving the tracked changes and comments, including original author attribution and timestamps. This makes it an indispensable tool for legal teams managing cross-party reviews and maintaining the integrity of digital evidence.
7. What's the total cost, including revisions?
Why it matters: Initial quotes from translation agencies can be misleading. Hidden costs for revisions, DTP/reformatting, and project management fees can quickly inflate the final bill by 50-100%.
Users express frustration with unclear pricing models, with one advising to "ask about their 'sliding scale' and ask to see their analysis of every job." Businesses need transparent, predictable pricing to manage budgets effectively.
Cost factors to clarify:
Are there additional charges for formatting preservation?
How many revision cycles are included?
Are there rush fees for expedited delivery?
What happens if the word count changes after OCR processing?
Are there volume discounts for regular work?
Cost-effective approaches: Bluente's model eliminates the largest hidden cost: manual reformatting. Since translations are format-perfect from the start, there are no surprise DTP fees.
By using Translation Memory (TM) technology, Bluente can also save costs on repeated phrases and sentences, potentially reducing translation costs by up to 50% over time for clients with recurring needs. This provides clear, upfront understanding of the total investment, delivering better value and budget predictability.
Making the Right Choice: Your Translation Outsourcing Checklist
To avoid becoming part of the 68% of dissatisfied businesses, use this checklist when evaluating translation providers:
✓ Format Preservation: Will my complex tables, charts, and numbering remain intact?
✓ True Timelines: What's the actual delivery time, including all processing steps?
✓ Review Process: How will we collaborate on reviews and implement changes?
✓ Security Protocols: What specific measures protect my sensitive information?
✓ Scanned Documents: Can you handle non-digital content with high-quality OCR?
✓ Tracked Changes: Will revision history and comments be preserved?
✓ Total Transparency: What's the all-in cost with no surprises?
Conclusion: Beyond Traditional Outsourcing
The translation landscape has evolved dramatically, yet many businesses still rely on outdated approaches that lead to frustration, delays, and escalating costs. Modern challenges require modern solutions.
Platforms like Bluente were designed to solve these exact problems—preserving format, ensuring security, and delivering speed without sacrificing quality. By leveraging AI technology specifically built for business document translation, companies can bypass the limitations of traditional outsourcing.
As your organization navigates increasingly global operations, the ability to quickly and accurately translate complex documents becomes a competitive advantage. By asking these seven critical questions, you can ensure you're partnering with a translation solution that truly meets your needs—and avoid becoming another statistic in the 68% of dissatisfied businesses.
Whether you choose a traditional agency or an AI-powered platform, these questions will help you make an informed decision that aligns with your business goals, timeline, and budget. And if you're ready to experience a smarter way to translate, consider trying Bluente's AI Document Translation Platform for your next project.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best way to translate a document and keep the formatting?
The best way to translate a document while preserving its formatting is to use a layout-aware AI translation platform. These platforms are specifically designed to analyze the document's structure—including tables, charts, headers, and footers—and maintain it with pixel-perfect accuracy in the translated version, eliminating the need for manual reformatting.
How can I securely translate confidential business documents?
To securely translate confidential documents, you should use a service that offers enterprise-grade security measures. Look for features like end-to-end encryption, strict access controls, binding NDAs, and clear data deletion policies. A professional platform ensures your sensitive information is protected throughout the entire translation process.
What is the difference between an AI translation platform and a traditional agency?
The main differences lie in speed, cost, and consistency. An AI translation platform like Bluente offers near-instantaneous translations and preserves document formatting automatically, reducing turnaround time from days to minutes. Traditional agencies rely on manual processes, which can be slower, more expensive due to overhead like project management and reformatting, and may introduce human error.
Why is Bluente better than free online translators for business documents?
Bluente is superior to free online translators for business use because it is specifically designed to handle complex documents with a focus on formatting, security, and accuracy. Unlike free tools that often break layouts and lack security guarantees, Bluente preserves your document's original structure, offers enterprise-grade confidentiality, and includes advanced features like OCR for scanned documents and support for tracked changes.
Can scanned PDF documents be translated accurately?
Yes, scanned PDF documents can be translated accurately using a platform with advanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. A high-quality OCR engine converts non-selectable text from scans and images into an editable format. The best solutions, like Bluente, not only perform this conversion but also preserve the original layout of the scanned document, ensuring the final translation is both accurate and usable.
How are review cycles and tracked changes handled in translation?
Modern translation platforms facilitate efficient review cycles by providing bilingual, side-by-side comparison views. Critically, some advanced platforms can also preserve tracked changes and comments within documents. This capability is essential for legal and collaborative work, as it maintains the full revision history and audit trail, which is often lost when using traditional translation methods or basic tools.