Large institutional assignments involve more than parallel translation. Procurement teams and language partners need a credible way to coordinate files, deadlines and quality across languages. Volume, format and terminology shape the schedule as much as word count does.
Why tenders need a delivery plan, not only a price
When a public body awards a multilingual assignment, the contract often fixes deliverables, formats and deadlines from the start. Contracting authorities then need confidence that the language partner can deliver every file, in every language, in the agreed form.
In the EU, public procurement above certain thresholds follows common EU rules ↗, and those tenders are published on TED, the online supplement to the Official Journal of the EU ↗. Work for government and EU institutions therefore starts with careful reading of the tender documents.
The workflow behind a bid matters as much as the rate. Our article on selecting a Greek language partner lists questions that reveal process maturity.
Measure the source properly
Check scans, annexes, tables, repeated text and version changes. A page count may not describe actual translation effort: a scanned annex may need preparation, while repeated text may be reusable from translation memory.
Ask early for editable source files where they exist. Working from native files rather than PDFs reduces preparation and layout effort, and lowers the risk of missing text hidden in images or tables.
Define the deliverable format and any certification or invoice requirements before committing a timetable. If the contracting authority expects official translations or a specific layout, that requirement affects the schedule from day one.
Build a common brief
Agree language-specific style, controlled terms, names, dates and reviewer responsibilities. Shared instructions reduce divergence without forcing every language to follow unnatural syntax.
The brief should also say how each language handles dates, numbers, quotation marks and references to legislation. Reviewers then avoid correcting the same issue in different ways.
A shared termbase anchors multilingual consistency. For EU work, IATE ↗ is a common reference for institutional terminology, but programme-specific decisions should still be recorded in one place; our article on EU terminology governance explains how.
Plan how questions will be answered and distributed to all teams. A query raised in one language often affects the others, so each answer should reach every team at the same time.
Reserve time for integration
File assembly, cross-file checks and final QA need a distinct window. Track every deliverable against the source inventory so that an appendix or page is not lost. Cross-file checks confirm that names, figures and references match between documents and between languages, not only within each file.
Integration is easy to underestimate, because each language team may finish on time while the combined package is not yet ready. Schedule multilingual DTP and final checks as tasks with their own owners, not as an afterthought.
A delivery log makes the handover auditable.
Make the handover verifiable
A delivery manifest should name each source file, target language, version, format and final filename. Ask the receiving team to acknowledge any missing or unreadable source pages before production.
This small record reduces disputes at the end of a large assignment and makes later amendments easier to locate. Traceable records are also part of how we run our ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 17100:2015 certified processes, described on our quality page.
Checklist for a multilingual tender delivery
- Inventory every source and annex. Note scans, tables, repeated text and version changes.
- Confirm formats and formal requirements. Record the deliverable format, any certification needs and invoicing rules.
- Agree a common brief. Cover style, controlled terms, names, dates and reviewer roles.
- Set one decision channel for terminology. Share each answer with every language team at once.
- Budget time for final assembly and QA. Give integration its own window and named owners.
- Deliver with a manifest. List each file, language, version, format and final filename.
Further reading: TED – EU tenders ↗; European Commission, Public procurement: legal rules and implementation ↗; IATE – Interactive Terminology for Europe ↗. Always follow the specific requirements set out in the tender documents.