They say good planning is half the battle. And that goes for translation just as it does elsewhere! If you can plan your translation projects in advance and give the agency plenty of time to deliver them, you can benefit from advance planning discounts and save money with every project.
Bulk discounts are commonplace in the translation industry, but often the problem is that businesses don’t have enough translations to reach the required threshold. The discount is often applied at the end of the year, and before then you don’t know if you’ll give the agency enough work to get it – and you can’t plan ahead with fixed prices. That’s where the advance planning discount comes in.
What is the advance planning discount?
The advance planning discount can be worthwhile if you don’t need your translations in a hurry. If you can plan ahead and give the agency and its project managers plenty of time to deliver your projects, you can get a discount on what you pay – and rather than waiting until the end of the year, you’ll get it immediately.
A typical clause in a framework agreement with a translation agency might look like this:
If the period between acceptance of the quote and the start of the translation is ≥ 10 working days, the Purchaser is entitled to a 2% discount on the project (= Advance planning discount10). If the period between acceptance of the quote and the start of the translation is ≥ 5 working days, the Purchaser is entitled to a 1% discount on the project (= Advance planning discount5). The key thing here is the time between acceptance of the quote and the start of the project. You won’t get an advance planning discount just for telling the agency in advance about an upcoming project – it has to be ordered in accordance with your formal agreement.
Why do agencies offer advance planning discounts?
Essentially, the advance planning discount is the opposite of an express fee. The more urgently a translation is needed, and the shorter the deadline, the higher the stress levels and the workload for the project managers, who sometimes have to drop everything to make sure it’s delivered on time – so agencies usually charge express fees to make these jobs worth their while. By contrast, projects that aren’t urgent make life easier for project managers and minimize their stress levels. If they have 5 or even 10 days to plan ahead and assign the project to the translators, they can manage their time more effectively. So the agency benefits from less stressed project managers, and you as the client benefit from a lower price for your projects.
What are the benefits of an advance planning discount?
The advance planning discount:
- applies regardless of the size and value of the project
- is applied immediately for every project that meets the time criteria – so it’s in your hands, and you can plan ahead with these discounts in mind
- could serve as an incentive to improve your in-house planning and encourage your colleagues not to leave everything to the last minute before sending it for translation
- is the proverbial carrot, rather than the stick. If express fees are charged for urgent projects, why shouldn’t you be rewarded for planning ahead?
- is easy to get – all you have to do is tell the project manager that there’s plenty of time for the project and choose “Advance planning discount5” or “Advance planning discount10” (based on the example above).
How does the advance planning discount work?
If the advance planning discount is included in your framework agreement, it’s easy to get the discount. If you’re ordering a translation by e-mail, simply tell the agency which advance planning discount you’d like, depending on the amount of time you’re giving them to deliver the translation. Likewise, if you’re creating a project in the customer portal, you can specify whether you want the advance planning discount, and if so which one you’d like.
So the project manager knows what’s going on and will deduct the appropriate amount from the total project price.
How much can I save with the advance planning discount?
Over the course of a year, you can save a considerable amount of money, depending on how often you have projects with plenty of time before they need to be delivered. The great thing about the advance planning discount is that you don’t need to meet a threshold in terms of how much you send the agency – it can be applied to any project, no matter how small. So not only is planning ahead a good way to make your working day easier, it will also make your colleagues in the Purchasing department much happier.
How do I get the advance planning discount?
If you’d like to find out how you can benefit from the advance planning discount in your translation projects, talk to us today!
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