ISO 17100 certified translation services that stand up to audit
ISO 17100 certified translation services give you proven quality with audited processes. We combine qualified linguists, documented workflows, and transparent communication to reduce risk and deliver on time.
Table of Contents
What ISO 17100 certified translation services cover
ISO 17100 defines the minimum requirements for a professional translation service: qualifications, project management, linguistic review, and quality assurance. It specifies how providers plan, execute, and review work so customers know what to expect and how quality is achieved across languages and subject areas.
A certification is evidence that an independent auditor verified those processes and the provider’s ability to apply them consistently. It is not a badge you buy; it is a system you maintain. Our own ISO 17100 certification is renewed through surveillance and re-certification audits to ensure ongoing conformity.
When you request ISO 17100 certified translation services, you also gain traceability. Every job includes a defined scope, named roles, version control of files, and a permanent record of decisions. This audit trail matters in regulated industries, legal disputes, and high-stakes technical communication.
How ISO 17100 certified translation services reduce risk
The standard requires a “four-eyes” process: translation by a qualified professional and full revision by a second linguist. It also demands subject-matter competence and documented terminology management. Together, these controls prevent critical errors before they reach your end user.
Risk is further lowered by structured project setup and pre-production checks. We confirm file integrity, reference materials, and deliverables at kickoff, and we log constraints such as brand terms and style guides. For complex engineering or legal content, we pair reviewers with matching domain expertise and use targeted checks informed by previous issues.
Finally, ISO 17100 links people to outcomes. Each step is assigned to a specific role with the right competence profile. That accountability enables root-cause analysis and continuous improvement when something goes off-track, so future projects benefit from every lesson learned.
How we apply ISO 17100 in daily projects
Certification is only valuable if it changes what happens on your project. Our translation services follow a fixed backbone—scope, resourcing, execution, review, delivery—but remain flexible in how we adapt to your tools and release cadence. For example, we can align file handoffs to sprint schedules and apply partial deliveries without compromising the four-eyes principle.
Terminology is managed proactively. We extract key terms from your source files, validate meaning and context with your stakeholders, and maintain a living glossary that feeds translators and revisers. This reduces rework, speeds up later projects, and improves consistency across product families.
We also document quality plans. For safety-critical or customer-facing materials, we add extra checks (e.g., unit conversions, legal citations, or drawing references) and capture those requirements in the project brief. The result is repeatability: the outcomes you expect, delivered in the same way every time.
People and roles required by the standard
ISO 17100 defines competence requirements for translators, revisers, reviewers, and project managers. It specifies education and experience pathways, ensuring that complex texts are handled by professionals with verified backgrounds. We maintain evidence of qualifications and ongoing training for all contributors.
The reviser is not an intern or a spell-checker—they are a proven linguist with subject knowledge who performs a complete, meaning-for-meaning review. Our legal translation work, for instance, pairs translators and revisers experienced in contracts and litigation to protect the exact legal effect of each clause.
On the technical side, domain knowledge is essential. Our technical translation teams work with CAD extracts, service manuals, and safety instructions where a mistranslation could have real-world consequences. ISO 17100 requires the right competence up-front, not as an afterthought.
Turnaround, scalability, and on-time delivery
Quality and speed are not opposites if the process is designed for both. We right-size teams, distribute work with clear segmentation, and use shared translation memories and termbases to keep language aligned. Milestones are mapped to your priorities: critical paths are staffed first and validated early.
Our commitment to deadlines is formalized. See how we manage deadlines and quality without shortcuts: pre-flight checks prevent delays; early risk flags give options; and staged deliveries reduce surprises. When volume spikes or urgent updates happen, we scale with vetted linguists who have already been qualified against the same standard.
If you need purchasing assurance for a tender, we provide certificates, process descriptions, and named contacts for due-diligence questionnaires. The end result is predictable delivery, with the documentation procurement teams require.
How to evaluate providers (a quick checklist)
Ask for the certificate scope and validity dates, and confirm that ISO 17100 certified translation services are explicitly covered rather than “ISO-like” processes. Genuine certification lists the legal entity, service scope, and the standard number on the certificate.
Request a sample workflow for your content type—legal, technical, or marketing—and check who revises the work. You should see a full, independent revision step, not just a “review on request.” Clarify how terminology is created and approved, and who owns the assets after delivery.
Finally, examine responsiveness and transparency. Look for an escalation path, named project managers, and realistic schedules. If you are ready to proceed, you can request a quote with your files and target languages, or browse our Translation FAQs for practical details.
FAQ
Q1. How is ISO 17100 different from “quality guidelines” many agencies claim to follow?
ISO 17100 is a published international standard with specific requirements for roles, qualifications, processes, and records. A certified provider is audited by an accredited body, which verifies that those requirements are implemented in practice and maintained over time. “Internal guidelines” are self-declared and not independently checked.
Another key difference is scope clarity. ISO 17100 defines mandatory steps—translation and full revision by a second professional—plus project setup, terminology, and final verification. If a provider skips the independent revision or cannot show role qualifications and records, they are not operating under the standard even if they reference “best practices.”
Q2. Do ISO 17100 projects take longer or cost more?
A properly designed workflow keeps the four-eyes principle without slowing delivery. The translation and revision stages can be parallelized across segments and files when terminology and style are defined early. In practice, the extra time for full revision is offset by fewer corrections after delivery and less back-and-forth with stakeholders.
Costs are similarly optimized by reusing translation memories, approved terminology, and previous decisions. Over a product’s lifecycle, fewer defects and corrections reduce total cost of ownership. For tenders and regulated industries, certification also decreases procurement risk and auditing overhead, which can save both time and money.
Q3. What documentation will I receive for audit or tender purposes?
You receive a clear statement of work, the names or IDs of roles involved (translator, reviser, PM), and versioned deliverables. We can provide the current certificate, process map, and competence policy upon request. For sensitive projects, we also log change rationales and acceptance criteria to help with traceability.
If your purchasing department uses specific templates, we map our evidence to those forms. Typical annexes include terminology exports, segment change reports, and checklists used during verification. This level of documentation demonstrates due diligence and speeds up supplier approval cycles.
Q4. When should I request ISO 17100 certified translation services specifically?
Request them when the text has legal effect, safety implications, or high business risk: contracts, manuals, compliance training, customer-facing UI, and regulated submissions. In these scenarios, the cost of an error is high and an audit trail is essential. The standard reduces variance and enforces independent review.
They are also valuable when buying through public procurement or corporate supplier programs. Tenders often reference ISO 17100 as a minimum requirement, and certification simplifies the evaluation. If you are unsure, share your file and constraints—we will confirm whether a lighter workflow suffices or whether the ISO route is the safer choice
