Prestige Network Achieve New ISO 9001:2008 Standard

June 9th, 2009

Prestige Network has become one of the first companies in the UK to be awarded the new ISO standard certification – the nationally recognised accreditation ISO 9001:2008 for its comprehensive Quality Control Management System, which incorporates all aspects of its operations.

iso-team-2009

The new standard is more comprehensive than the old ISO 9001 which it replaces – it now monitors how effective quality controls are, rather than just that they are in place.

One of the key findings from the ISO 9001:2008 audit of Prestige Network shows that customer satisfaction (monitored via surveys) is now at 92%.

Shawn Khorassani, Business Development Director at Prestige Network, said: “We are thrilled to be amongst the first to be awarded this new standard certification. From a management point of view, this ISO certification is a lot more useful than the old one – it shows us that our quality controls are effective.”

*Update* A  summary of the customer survey results is now available on our main site.

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Introducing Our Language Services

August 9th, 2010

A brief introduction to our Language translation services for new visitors to our sites.

Our main language services include:

- Translation
- Face to face Interpreting
- Telephone Interpreting
- British Sign Language (BSL)
- Voiceovers
- Web site translation and localisation
- Multilingual document translation

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Simultaneous Interpreting – The Process, The Practical Application and The Advantage

August 2nd, 2010

The Process

To provide an audience made up of individuals who speak different languages with a facility to understanding the content of what is being spoken, Simultaneous Interpreting (or SI) is used. The information is captured by the professional interpreter; interpreted, as spoken from the speaker’s source-language. The interpreter then accurately conveys the translated message usually into a microphone which is, in turn, delivered to the audience via their headsets. This whole process happens simultaneously, hence the term “Simultaneous Interpreting”.

The Practical Application

Simultaneous Interpreting allows efficient and accurate communication of a target language to the relevant target audience as it is spoken.

Seminars, conferences and other such events can call for the placement of an individual, or individuals, to provide such a service. Invariably, these individuals will need both an excellent command of their respective languages as well as an erudite knowledge of the terms, phraseology and industry specific parlances that are often used during the event.

The Advantage

To express and exchange your ideas to existing and potential commercial partners is one major advantage in holding a seminar, or related event. This being the case, to have the facility and resource to enable your ideas to be expressed clearly and succinctly gives you optimum opportunity to engage with your audience by accommodating to their individual language needs. Where you are presented with a multinational audience at such an event, the benefits that a simultaneous interpreter can provide are immediately apparent.

Simultaneous Interpreting brings many benefits to both public and private sector industries. For example; a business wants to distribute a generic product. This product could be utilised by anyone, but currently it only has promotional and instructional materials written in a certain language; let’s say English. Regardless of how useful this item may be, unless its potential benefits are expressed to other audiences in a way that they can understand, no-one will realise what a great product it is.

What We Can Provide

We, as Language Service Providers, can offer organisations the ability to speak to their customers and clients clearly and effectively, regardless of what language they speak; to provide a communication aid where the obstacle of a language barrier is rendered unobtrusive, as much as is possible.

We can supply our customers with the right individuals for the assignment. This will provide invaluable access to a facility to convey your message to your audience in a manner that is both professional and integrated. Our complete, end-to-end language service includes the organisation of travel arrangements for our linguists as well as to provide the required audio equipment on site.

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Not all translations are perfect – or “Why you should use our Professional Translation Services”

July 28th, 2010

There are many tools that can provide a ‘quick and dirty’ translation out there these days but when accuracy matters there’s still no substitue for Profesional Translation Services. For example you wouldn’t want to see some of the following mistakes on your business’s marketing materials! Not everyone gets it right – here are a few random examples.

Sign at a Chinese Zoo: Please don’t hurt the animals while teasing them

“To Take Notice of Safe; The Slippery are Very Crafty”. – a road sign on Beijing’s Avenue of Eternal Peace

“Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.” -on a Swiss restaurant menu

“Please take advantage of the chambermaids” – on a Romainian hotel brochure.

“If you consider our help impolite, you should see the manager.” -sign in an Athens hotel.

“We take your bags and send them in all directions.” – on a sign at a Scandinavian airport

And of course the classic:

“Please leave your values at the front desk.”
-sign in a hotel in Paris.

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Highlighting Our Legal Translation Services

July 21st, 2010

Prestige Network is a leading provider of legal language services, providing legal translation services and legal interpreting services in more than 200 languages.

Legal Language Services

One of our most popular services is providing langauage services for the legal sector. So much so that we have  dedicated sections of our new website highlighting our legal translation services and legal interpreting services. We work with Police, solicitors, courts, general disputes, fraud investigation, insurance companies and all other parts of the legal sector to provide high quality legal translation services.

We also offer Legal Translation for websites as well as interpreting from any language to another, ranging from Polish to British Sign Language (BSL) for the legal sector.

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Reading Chronicle visits Language Services Provider

July 7th, 2010

Alan Bunce, Business Editor at the Reading Chronicle, recently visited the language services provider Prestige Network to meet with Shawn Khorassani, Prestige’s Business Development Director.

They discuss how the difficult economic enviroment over the past couple of years had not dampended demand for the company’s language services including their translation and interpreting services.

The corresponding article is in the February edition of the newspaper’s Business Review supplement. To read the full article, please click the image below.

Focus on Language services

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Making translation history in the House of Commons

July 5th, 2010

Providing British Sign Language/English interpreters (BSL) for UK Youth Parliament debates in the House of Commons

Berkshire-based language services provider Prestige Network Ltd has made history by providing two British Sign Language/English interpreters (BSL) for a series of UK Youth Parliament debates in the House of Commons.

The ground-breaking move comes as the UK Youth Parliament also makes history – it is the only time in 300 years that anyone other than MPs has been allowed to speak from there.

Prestige Network’s provision of two British Sign Language interpreters has helped oil the wheels of democracy for the 11 to 18-year-old elected Members of Youth Parliament taking up the seats in the Houses of Parliament normally occupied by MPs

Find out more about Prestige Network’s British Sign Language/English interpreters.

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Opting for the cheapest could be a false economy

May 15th, 2010

There is a growing feeling within the language services profession that government agencies could get their fingers burnt by all too frequently opting for the cheapest provider when they award language contracts.

There is an increasing tendency for public sector organisations to go out to tender for language services – particularly the larger ones – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, it’s the procurement processes’ apparent reliance entirely on cost which is causing the most grief within the language services industry.

Poor quality, unreliable services could ultimately cost the Public sector more as a result of having to reschedule appointments with more likelihood of costly mistakes. When the services include Medical interpreting or Police interpreting the quality and reliability of service should be a major consideration.

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Coutts Prize for Family Business

April 7th, 2010

Prestige Network have been recognised in the highly sought-after Coutts Prize for Family Business award for the contribution its family business makes to the economy and society.

The UK based language services company, run by brother and sister Shawn Khorassani and Shohreh Fleming and her husband Anthony, was rigorously tested on criteria including how the family’s values are reflected in the way the business is run, what steps are being taken to train the next generation, the leadership style, use of non-family directors, financial performance, competitive positioning, conflict resolution and community involvement.

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Joining the debate about schoolchildren speaking 150 languages

February 9th, 2010

Shawn Khorassani, Director at Berkshire-based language services company Prestige Network, responds to an article in Monday’s Daily Telegraph (8 February) about the number of schoolchildren in Reading who have been found to speak as many as 150 different languages.

Mr Khorassani said: “The cultural richness which different languages and backgrounds add to a community needs to be celebrated.

View the full press release here.

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New legal translation services website

January 26th, 2010

Just for the legal profession

Prestige Network’s new legal translation services website showcases various language services available and their possible applications – legal translation, legal interpreter, court translation, solicitors, commercial.

 

The site is designed with ‘service finder’ and ‘quote enquiry/quote request’ facilities built into the site to make it as user-friendly for the legal profession as possible. It recognises and delivers the legal profession’s customised requirements.

Salome Wagh, Prestige Network’s sales manager, said: “We believe that extensive knowledge and experience – nearly 20 years working alongside the legal profession throughout the UK – teamed with accredited standards of professionalism and quality control put Prestige Network’s language services to the legal profession in a league of their own.”

More details about Prestige Network’s legal service is on www.legaltranslationservices.co.uk

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