Rosario Translations presents the results of its III Annual Survey of the Argentine Translation Industry, aimed at identifying  key attributes  and uncovering other aspects that result useful for decision makers.    

In its development,  relevant industry players  --translators and project managers--were surveyed with a total of 285 participants. The survey was conducted in May 2019.  Some of the most interesting trends and findings from this year's survey about Argentine PMs (project managers) are highlighted below. 

 

 

 

 

Diversity is a characteristic of the training background of Argentine project managers. Although 36% are translators, 50% have other backgrounds, including business administration, marketing, international relations, social communication, language degrees, accounting and even project management. There are also professors (9%) and engineers (4%) among those who are working as project managers.  

 

 

 

Over half (55%) of PMs responded that they had been trained as project managers, and 86% indicated that they felt they needed additional training.  

 

The main areas in which they are interested in receiving training include: quality assurance (58%), marketing for translators (58%), project management (47%), translation tools (41%) and time management (41%).  
 

 

 

 

 82% of PMs work as an employee and 18% are freelancers. 53% have been part of the industry for less than five years, 29% for more than five years and 18% have more than 10 years of experience.  

 As for the duration of working hours, 65% work eight hours a day, 23% over eight hours and 11% only four hours.  

Likewise, 100% of the PMs surveyed works with the English - Spanish language pair (100%); They also work with Portuguese - Spanish (62%), French - Spanish (50%), German - Spanish (37%) and Italian - Spanish (31%).  
 

 

In their relationship with the translation companies they work for, PMs prioritize a good relationship and good working environment 47%, good contractual status; 35%, job stability; 6%, payment terms; 6%, attitude in the face of comments or problems related to their work, 6%.  
 

With respect to the work of the translator/editor to whom they assign projects, PMs prioritize the quality of the work delivered (53%), delivery of the work on time (12%), ease of communication (12%), attitude in response to comments or problems related to their work (12%) and schedule availability (6%).  

In regard to the relationship with the client they manage projects for, PMs prioritize ease of communication (41%), clear working guidelines (35%) and good relationship with the client's project manager (23%). 

When evaluating expectations in relation to the future, 65% of the PMs surveyed said they've seen an increase in work in the last three years, 29% indicated no change, and 6% indicated a decrease. For the next three years, 71% expect it to increase and 29% expect no change. 

 

In regard to the management programs most used by PMs, the most cited included Plunet (100%), WordBee (42%), XTM (28%), Projetex (21%) and Gespoint Translator Business (7%). Meanwhile, when given the opportunity to rank the different management programs, the following preferences emerged: Plunet (92%), Projetex (21%), WordBee (14%), XTM (7%).  
 

As for the tools that they consider they should use more, they highlighted: XTM (66%), Plunet (44%), WordBee (33%), Projetex (22%) and Gespoint Translator Business (22%). The most used translation programs were: SDL Trados Studio 

(82%), MemoQ (64%), Xbench (64%), Wordfast (47%), Memsource (47%), XTRF (17%) and Catalyst (5%). Preferred programs included: Trados Studio (56%), MemoQ (56%), Memsource (25%), Wordfast (12%) and Xbench (12%).  

Finally, PMs indicated an interest in learning more about: Trados Studio (41%), MemoQ (33%), Wordfast (33%), XTRF (8%), Memsource (16%), Catalyst (25%), MateCat (33%) and Lilt (25%).