New ProZ.com profile for translation agencies / companies Thread poster: Enrique Cavalitto
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Dear members,
ProZ.com profiles were originally created with translators in mind, and were not fully adequate for other types of members, such as translation companies.
To improve on this situation, a new profile and related profile updater have been created for translation agencies and companies. This will apply to all profiles that have their account type set to "Translation agency/company". Other account types will not be affected by this release.
Some ... See more Dear members,
ProZ.com profiles were originally created with translators in mind, and were not fully adequate for other types of members, such as translation companies.
To improve on this situation, a new profile and related profile updater have been created for translation agencies and companies. This will apply to all profiles that have their account type set to "Translation agency/company". Other account types will not be affected by this release.
Some characteristics of this new corporate profile:
Special fields have been added to reflect the reality of translation companies, such as:
- Official language(s): the language(s) the company does business in. As a first approach to completing this information, the existing "native language" information of current corporate profiles was copied into this field
- Currencies accepted
- Company policies regarding internships, accepting subcontracts or subcontracting work.
Better integration of corporate information already available:
- Company size
- Year established
- ISO certification
- Company logo
- Map location integrated with region and city information
Information related to individuals, not companies, has not been included in the profile:
- Native language
- Years of experience
- Default rates
- Portfolio
- Project history
- CV / Resume
- KudoZ activity
The contact information allows for several locations, including for each one:
- Name of the location: for example, "Warsaw Office"
- Description of the location: for example, "The Warsaw Office serves primarily our customers based in East Europe."
- Geographical information (country, province, city, local time, map location)
- Contact information (address, phone and fax number, email address)
Staff members can be added to the profile, including:
- First and last name
- Role(s)
- Email address
- Phone number
- Associated location
The general outlook of the related profile updater has been completely redefined. One objective was a more consistent approach to the administration of profile information and for better information provided close to where it is needed.
A key consideration was the conservation of current information. Members who currently use "company" profiles but operate more as individuals than as companies may decide to switch their account types to "freelancer and outsourcer", and they should find all their current data available in the "personal" format.
In order to provide a prompt and simple transition from the former profiles (derived from personal information) to the corporate ones, some issues have been slightly postponed:
- Ability to add options beyond the current database values for the fields "services/products", "subject matter specialties" and "software". The associated texts will be modified accordingly.
- Ability to edit the tagline from the profile updater
- Ability to upload the company logo from the profile updater (initially it will be updated from the Settings tab)
- Possibility to display WWA feedback given
- Possibility to display average LWA and amount of entries received
- Current visibility options stored in the database will remain unaffected. All visibility options will be added in the profile updater after the release
- An alternative way of reporting language pairs more appropriate for companies which handle a large number of pairs is being evaluated
- More certification options including EN 15038 and other translation standards, including status (declared or verified)
- The following features will be added to the staff members pages:
- Uploading of a picture
- Linking to a current ProZ.com profile
If your profile represents a company, you are kindly asked to review the new profile, complete the new available fields and send us your feedback by means of a support request.
As always, thanks to our members who make the operation of the site possible.
Regards,
Enrique ▲ Collapse
| | | | | What has happened to the Kudoz points? | Mar 19, 2008 |
Hi Enrique,
Could you please clarify what has happened to the Kudoz points? Have they been deleted, or could they still be transferred to the private profile?
Thanks in advance for clarifying this point.
Best regards,
Astrid
| | | | Enrique Cavalitto 
Argentina
Local time: 15:52
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
TOPIC STARTER | No information has been erased | Mar 19, 2008 |
Hi Astrid,
No information has been erased, the points are still there but they are not shown in the corporate profile.
Regards,
Enrique
| | | | Vito Smolej
Germany
Local time: 20:52
Member (2004)
English to Slovenian
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SITE LOCALIZER | My appreciation... | Mar 19, 2008 |
...To improve on this situation, a new profile and related profile updater have been created for translation agencies and companies...
A right step in the right direction. Allows agencies to be visible (mutatis mutandis) the same way as translators. Let the best prevail.
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Kristina Kolic
Croatia
Local time: 20:52
English to Croatian
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SITE LOCALIZER | What about those who recently upgraded to a corporate membership? | Mar 20, 2008 |
Dear Enrique,
I just read your post and I have to admit that I am not sure I understand...
Last month there was a ProZ campaign inviting members to upgrade to a corporate membership, while keeping both profiles and being listed in both directories at the same time. It seemed to be a bonus for all of us who actually work as translators and own a company dedicated to translation, a company that is able to manage large translation jobs by sharing the work among its own tea... See more Dear Enrique,
I just read your post and I have to admit that I am not sure I understand...
Last month there was a ProZ campaign inviting members to upgrade to a corporate membership, while keeping both profiles and being listed in both directories at the same time. It seemed to be a bonus for all of us who actually work as translators and own a company dedicated to translation, a company that is able to manage large translation jobs by sharing the work among its own team members.
It now seems that this option is no longer available (less than one month from upgrading to a corporate membership) and that we now have to opt for either a "freelancer" or an "agency/company" membership and profile. However, if we opt for an "agency/company" profile, we will be deprived of the opportunity to keep a freelancer profile including CV, KudoZ points and other references, which are not negligible.
As I see it, the "freelancer/outsourcer" option does not imply that the freelancer actually owns a company. On the contrary, it points to an individual who shares, from time to time, jobs with other fellow translators and has therefore no need to emphasize or "advertise" is/her company name in addition to his/her own name as a freelancer (individual).
Maybe I missed something, but I don't seem to get it. In my mind there are two categories: on the one hand, the translation agencies whose core business is to outsource translation jobs to other translators and act thereby as a "middleman", and, on the other hand, the translators who provide translation services by actually doing the translations while working as freelancers or in the scope of their own private company and may, from time to time, share jobs with other fellow translators in case of a heavy workload.
Therefore, the question is, will we have no other option left than to downgrade from a corporate/freelancer membership and profile to a freelancer/outsourcer membership and lose thereby our corporate exposure?
Kind regards,
Kristina ▲ Collapse
| | | | | This is in the wrong profile type | Mar 20, 2008 |
Enrique wrote:
Currencies accepted
In my humble opinion, it is not the agency who should declare what currency he is willing to pay in - I would see this in a freelancer profile, not in a corporate one. If we look at things this way, we might as well have them also declare their payment terms, their CAT tool schemes, etc. How can a freelancer negotiate if the agencies all carve such parameters in stone?
| | | | | Agencies have clients too | Mar 20, 2008 |
They don't just give work, they also get it from their clients and, IMHO, to this clients it may be important information.
| | | | Enrique Cavalitto
Argentina
Local time: 15:52
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
TOPIC STARTER | We only introduced changes in the profiles for "Translation agency/company" | Mar 20, 2008 |
Dear Kristina,
My announcement states that a new profile has been created for those users who have their account type set to "Translation agency/company".
Your profile has a different account type (Freelancer and outsourcer) and therefore has not been affected by these new features.
No access to any directory has been affected by this release.
I apologize in advance if I am missing your point, but I don't see why you should be forced to down... See more Dear Kristina,
My announcement states that a new profile has been created for those users who have their account type set to "Translation agency/company".
Your profile has a different account type (Freelancer and outsourcer) and therefore has not been affected by these new features.
No access to any directory has been affected by this release.
I apologize in advance if I am missing your point, but I don't see why you should be forced to downgrade your membership or make ProZ.com less useful or friendly for you.
Thanks a lot for your support of the site! Please post again or contact me if there are pending concerns related to this issue.
Best regards,
Enrique ▲ Collapse
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| Recent upgrade | Mar 20, 2008 |
Dear Enrique
I suppose that from your original post some of us understood that our profiles are automatically converted to Translation agency/company format, what could be quite worrying to those of us who make a large part of an income as freelancers.
Thank you for developing this site and
Happy Easter everyone
Stanislaw
| | | | Kristina Kolic
Croatia
Local time: 20:52
English to Croatian
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SITE LOCALIZER | Misunderstanding of the account now cleared | Mar 21, 2008 |
Enrique wrote:
My announcement states that a new profile has been created for those users who have their account type set to "Translation agency/company".
Your profile has a different account type (Freelancer and outsourcer) and therefore has not been affected by these new features.
Dear Enrique,
Please accept my apologies! It seems that we completely misunderstood your announcement. This goes not only for me but also for some of my colleagues in Croatia who recently upgraded from a freelancer to a corporate membership (and have now two profiles).
We (obviously wrongly) associated the word 'company' in "Translation agency/company" to our new 'corporate' membership, unaware of the fact that the corporate membership was in fact a "freelancer & outsourcer" account (with a "company name" tab in our profile) and has nothing to do with the "Translation agency/company" account. The terms "corporate" and "company" were a little bit confusing...
I am glad to see that nothing changed for us and given that there is, of course, absolutely no reason to downgrade. Thank you very much for this explanation.
Kind regards & ¡Feliz Pascua!
Kristina
| | | | Peter Adolph
Local time: 20:52
Member (2006)
English to Danish
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| Option of showing # of inhouse translators for companies | Mar 21, 2008 |
Hi Enrique
I don't know if the recent changes you describe will help me as owner of a company, but I really appreciate Proz' efforts to also fulfill some of the smaller companies' needs, so thanks for that.
One thing that I as an owner of a translation company/member of Proz.com would like to see in the future is the (searchable) ability for companies to show how many inhouse translators they have. One thing is having X number of employees, another is how many of these ... See more Hi Enrique
I don't know if the recent changes you describe will help me as owner of a company, but I really appreciate Proz' efforts to also fulfill some of the smaller companies' needs, so thanks for that.
One thing that I as an owner of a translation company/member of Proz.com would like to see in the future is the (searchable) ability for companies to show how many inhouse translators they have. One thing is having X number of employees, another is how many of these are linguists and working as such; some companies outsource almost everything (translation and quality control) keeping only project management inhouse.
As a vendor, I believe that having inhouse translators is an advantage for my company as I can place a job faster and perform a faster/better quality control than those who don't have (at least in theory ...).
Therefore I would be really happy if that advantage could be displayed in some way on Proz allowing me to compete on another level with e.g. those that choose to compete on price.
As an outsourcer, I would like to find those potential vendors in a fast and easy manner.
Will you implement that, Enrique/Henry?
Kind regards,
Peter
PS. Just for the record: I don't get that many jobs via Proz.com, simply because most of the outsourcers search for (cheap) freelancers and are not willing to pay the fee that my company needs. Nevertheless, at least two things make me want to be/stay a member: Firstly, Proz is a great community for finding new, qualified freelancers in a very fast manner (although I prefer working with companies, but I use Proz.com as a rescue solution), and secondly, I stay in contact with the mumble of the freelance jungle. ▲ Collapse
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