Our Analysts' Insights

The glory days of globetrotting for simultaneous interpreters are slowly fading. First, remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI) eliminated some of their frequent flyer miles. The next technological disruption to the conference interpreting market – real-time on-demand language access powered by machine interpreting – will be even more momentous. The first solutions are now available for conferences and have the potential to start picking up revenue from conference organizers.

Soliciting referrals and recommendations is an important sales technique that LSPs should pursue – whether or not they have a dedicated sales force. Yet even proactive referral requests aren’t enough to grow your business sustainably. Every provider needs a healthy supply of pre-qualified prospects to increase its chances of securing new sales. How LSPs find qualified leads varies from one company to another. What works? What doesn’t? Based on 497 responses in a recently published report, CSA...

Artificial intelligence has become the new buzzword in the language services industry, with countless technology vendors and LSPs proclaiming that their AI efforts will revolutionize the field. Providers are scrambling to keep up with the fast pace of development to understand how it will affect their business and how to remain relevant in a world full of automation. Buyers are trying to figure out what it means for both their own processes and when they purchase services from vendors. Humans at...

The start of the new year is synonymous with a review and update of business plans. Successful companies conduct a yearly strategic planning session. Strategic planning is a process for defining a business strategy to shape and guide your operation. It focuses on a vision of the future and what you must do to achieve it. Executives use the technique to make decisions on what the company does, where it is going, which actions are required to make progress, what level budgets and which resources a...

Language service providers frequently go out of their way to avoid involving procurement teams at client companies or prospects. They fear that working through such groups will be fraught with delays and challenges, especially if their staff knows nothing about language services or forces providers to lower rates beyond their comfort level.

The market for outsourced language services and supporting technology grew 7.99% to US$46.52 billion from $43.08 between 2017 and 2018. When CSA Research analyzed 531 responses to our annual global market survey, we computed that 64% of respondents experienced an increase in revenue. However, all providers don’t share the same experience.

In January 2018, CSA Research reported on the business outlook on 2017 and early 2018 based on a survey of 85 CEOs of the language service providers in our list of top 100 providers. In August and September 2018, we surveyed respondents on their mid-year results and their predictions for the rest of the year.

Growth is an evergreen topic for language service providers (LSPs). Those that struggle to increase revenue want to figure out how to formalize their sales function, while those that already have positive sales numbers want to grow more or do it more sustainably. The fourth quarter is sales and marketing prime-time. Not only it is a critical to finish the year strong, but it’s also the perfect time to focus on the year ahead.

Language service providers often tell CSA Research that they struggle to get visibility and brand recognition. They feel that their marketing and sales efforts fall on deaf ears so meeting sales targets becomes difficult.

Intel founder and former CEO Andy Grove wrote that, “Measurement against a standard makes you think through WHY the results were what they were.” Business-savvy organizations live by this dictum. They monitor various datapoints and develop key performance indicators (KPIs) – assessable values that show whether a company is meeting its strategic business objectives.