Believe it or not, locked-in or difficult to negotiate pricing is the most common way to contract a freelancer, vendor, or agency. For both the vendor and the client, benefits are:

• It’s safer than variable cost agreements.
• It locks the vendor on a certain price quote so you don’t incur unexpected charges later.
• It locks your solution provider into a fixed scope, therefore reducing risk.

So after months of hard work, we’re more than happy to announce that Wordbee Translator enables suppliers to amend services & rates.

Fixed pricing makes the translation project safer

Complete supplier lists can now be imported into Wordbee with just one click. You can also import their rates per language and task type – all at once! A fixed-price contract gives both the buyer and seller a predictable scenario, offering stability for both during the duration of the contract. And I know you’re going to ask me: What happens when these rates need to be updated? Well, this new feature adds a price list amendment workflow. Two new access rights have been added:

1. One allows users (typically external suppliers) to amend prices and then submit a draft to the manager.
2. The other one allows internal users to review and accept changes.

Benefits of the new feature addition

The new feature provides more involvement from the supplier with the creation and maintenance of price lists. Instead of receiving price change requests by email, suppliers can now be invited to amend prices by themselves. Notifications are sent to project managers via email to notify them about those changes, and they also appear on the Wordbee project manager’s dashboard. The project manager can now log directly into the platform and see the new items submitted by the suppliers.

The project manager can also view changes, discard or approve them. The approval will replace the previous price list. Since any amendment requires approval by an authorized internal manager, the workflow is fully controlled. A fixed-price contract gives both the buyer and seller a predictable scenario, offering stability for both during the contract.

Drawbacks

Please keep in mind that fixed pricing can also have some drawbacks. For one thing, fixed pricing locks the vendor into a price with no additional fees and no possibility to change it. That’s right, some Language Service Providers (LSPs) have fixed pricing contracts and lock the vendor into a price with no additional fees. That means translators won’t be able to negotiate their pricing along the way. A lot of companies are willing to discuss rates with translators, but they maybe don’t want to offer negotiating freedom. If you run your business like that, then this isn’t for you. Sure, there are several process businesses that allow you to go around this functionality, but a lot of companies will ultimately fear that this will lead to them paying higher rates.

Conclusion

Depending on your business and needs, this feature update can be a huge benefit. It allows companies with large volumes of content to streamline the communication between supplier and PM with a certain degree of automatization. So no more sending emails back and forth! Easier for you, and faster for your clients!

Please make sure to check our User guide regarding the managing suppliers and price lists.

About Wordbee

The Luxembourg-based company Wordbee has developed Wordbee Translator, a Cloud-based collaborative translation and project management platform and Wordbee Beebox, a CMS connectivity solution. Wordbee helps renowned Language Service Providers, public and educational organisations, and global leading companies to implement high-performance translation technology.