A unique feature of providing a service is the disparity between the implementation / scope of offerings and the perceived / expected suitability. Translation and localization is no different – being a blend of management, linguistics, software engineering, research and of course translation, it is not always trivial to understand the inner workings. Customers may as well ask: What does a service encompass and why? How does cost relate to value? What pieces of information may help create the best fitting output? Why not rely on automation in every step of the way? What is the breakdown of the production timeline? Which management path to take or file format to use? And why are these questions important at all? On the other, the provider’s side of the coin, customer priorities and goals are not always clear.

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