| Nutzer | Initiator des Themas: rebeccalyne Match, fuzzy match, exact match..how do you rate these? |
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rebeccalyne 
Vereinigte Staaten
Französisch > Englisch
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Hi all,
I am looking for some pricing logic. I don't use a CAT tool but have been asked to quote based on CAT tool pricing. I will use in-house software for the job.
How do you price the following in relation to your standard rates?
1. no match (so standard rates)
2. fuzzy match
3. exact matc
Thanks!
Rebecca
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Allesklar
Australien
  Mitglied (2005)
Englisch > Deutsch
+ ...
| | Too many unknown factors in this equation | Apr 28 |
If you agree to accept let's say 50% of your normal pay for a fuzzy match and 25% for 100%/repetition, then you are betting that these will only take you a corresponding amount of time to process.
This may or may not be the case, depending on:
First of all on the software: how familiar are you with it, how robust is it's term recognition, how user-friendly is it in general. It is very well to agree to get less money for a Trados fuzzy match, but what if their software doesn't work as well or is such a pain to use that it slows you down? See if you can get to do a test run on the software with a representative sample and work out how long it takes you. Alternatively accept a small portion first.
Will they supply an existing TM ? If so, how good is it - could be anything between a great help down to a major headache.
Then there is nature of the text, if it's a product list, specification table or some repetitive instructions where grammar doesn't come into play, the TM will be very useful. In other types of text, also depending on your language combination, adapting an 80% match mey well be more than 50% of the translation effort.
Anyway, I don't like those scales and find that the best clients I am having pay flat rates. An agency will have negotiated a price for the job with the end client (or budgeted for the job, if they are the end client), so they really could just give you a straightforward rate. The only purpose of these pricing scales is that they are trying to barter you down, which I find annoyingly stingy.
But there is good news: I know for fact from the occasional proofreading job I am doing that even agencies who pay reasonable prices are struggling to find translators who can do a good job - and these are the ones I want to work for.
 
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Heinrich Pesch
Finnland
Mitglied (2003)
Finnisch > Deutsch
+ ...
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If you don't use a CAT-tool there is no reason for you to take these faktors into account. Just cite a charge depending on text amount and difficulty.
Without CAT-tool you'll spend more time on the job than a translator with CAT, so you could eventually be more expensive.
And if you try to look up the tm without a CAT-tool, you'll spend even more time.
Cheers
Heinrich
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Samuel Murray
Südafrika
Mitglied (2006)
Englisch > Afrikaans
+ ...
| | Quote based on what's realistic | Apr 29 |
rebeccalyne wrote:
I don't use a CAT tool but have been asked to quote based on CAT tool pricing. I will use in-house software for the job. |
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Try to guess how much quicker you can translate a fuzzy match compared to an exact match. If you think it'll take you only half as long to translate a fuzzy match, then charge half your usual rate for it.
Ultimately you get paid per hour. The word rate is simply a simple way of calculating the most likely hourly rate. The same goes for fuzzy matches. Just convert the hourly rate into the fuzzy word rate.
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rebeccalyne
Vereinigte Staaten
Französisch > Englisch
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Thanks everyone
How then do you define a "fuzzy" match?
Thanks again!
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Vito Smolej
Deutschland
Mitglied (2004)
Englisch > Slowenisch
+ ...
| | Its nothing until a CAT tool called it | Apr 29 |
| How then do you define a "fuzzy" match? |
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I define it as the number, TRADOS Analyse gets for me. Pretty much the same approach as in the case of the IQ: it's the results of the IQ test. The number does correlate with something called intelligence, but I would be hard-pressed to tell the algorithm / method used to get it.
I am more and more in favor of an all-or-nothing profile: charging nothing for repetitions (I do get paid for the first occurrence, the rest is N/C) and 100% not just for no-matches but for all those XX% fuzzies.
regards
Vito
[Edited at 2008-04-29 23:18]
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Allesklar
Australien
Mitglied (2005)
Englisch > Deutsch
+ ...
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In order to gain some clarity, here is a little rate calculator I have put together:
http://www.allesklar.my.proz.com/rate%20calc.exe
Obviously, I will accept no responsibility whatsoever for anything you do or don't do with this software, any decisions that you base on it or anything it may do or fail to do to you or your or someone else's computer.
It will ask you for your target hourly rate, the wordcount of the job, how long you think it is going to take, the number of NoMatches, Fuzzies and Repetitions and finally the percentage of the NoMatch rate that you offer/is offered for Fuzzies and Reps. It will then tell you how much you need to charge per word and how much per NM, FM or REP.
It's compiled in FreeBasic.
[Edited at 2008-04-30 03:50]
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rebeccalyne
Vereinigte Staaten
Französisch > Englisch
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Allesklar
Australien
Mitglied (2005)
Englisch > Deutsch
+ ...
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The translation workplace 
