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

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.

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.

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.

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

• achieved phenomenal financial growth in the last financial year (2008/2009) – its turnover grew by 65%.

• received an award for its Business Management Team in the RBS Management Team Award 2009, part of the Thames Valley Business Magazine Awards.

• was nominated for the West Berkshire Enterprise Award 2009 under the category ‘Job Creation’.

• was recognised in the highly sought-after Coutts Prize for Family Business earlier this year (2009) for the contribution its family business makes to the economy and society.

• made history in October 2009 by providing two British Sign Language/English interpreters (BSL) for a series of UK Youth Parliament debates in the House of Commons, the first time that BSL/English interpreters had ever been used there.

• became one of the first language services companies in UK to be awarded the new ISO standard certificate – the nationally recognised accreditation ISO 9001:2008 for its comprehensive Quality Control Management System.

• expanded into the office next door in Thatcham Business Village, to accommodate more staff. It doubled the square footage of office space to cope with current growth and ensure capacity for future growth.

Read the full details on our Translation Services News Section.

Shawn Khorassani, Business Development and Strategy Director of family business language services company Prestige Network, shares his thoughts on succeeding during the recession in the latest Language and Translation Services Article on the Prestige Network’s channel on youtube.

“Earlier this year, we celebrated financial success with the announcement that our turnover had soared 65% in the previous 12 months to a phenomenal £3 million. This spurred us on to think hard about the reasons for our success.”

The objective of the event was to encourage women who may have thought of starting up in business but haven’t yet taken the next steps, as well as to help women who have already started a business and are in the first 12 months of trading, to sustain and grow their business.

The ‘She Means Business!’ seminar was part of a regional What’s Stopping You event in Slough, Berkshire. It was staged by Business Link Berkshire, with funding from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA).

Shohreh said: “It was a very enjoyable day – in fact, I loved doing it because I was talking about something I have a passion for. It was very flattering to be asked to be a panellist. I was asked to speak on how I started my own business providing translation services, the hurdles I overcame and any help I sought along the way.”

Shohreh added: It’s a subject I could talk about from my heart. The only problem was working out how to fit 18 years of a successful business into an eight-minute presentation!

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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.

Maria Wallin - General Manager, Prestige Network

Prestige Network has appointed Maria Wallin as General Manager.

 Maria, who speaks four languages (Swedish, English, German and Spanish), joined language services company Prestige Network in 2007 as PA to CEO Shohreh Fleming, working her way up to Administration/HR Manager before being appointed General Manager from 1 June (2009).

She said: “I was looking for a career change and seeking an industry where I could be exposed to a multi-cultural working environment and that’s way I was attracted to work for Prestige Network. I enjoy challenges and stepping outside of my comfort zone – I thrive on that – that’s what’s different about me. I adapt very quickly to new countries and new environments.

Maria, 35, was born in Seoul, Korea and has lived in six countries. She started her international ‘jet-setting’ life at the tender age of three months when she moved to Sweden to be with her adoptive parents. During her years growing up, she also lived in Saudi Arabia and Spain (Marbella) – her father’s job as a civil engineer took the family around the world. At age 19, Maria left home to move to Switzerland to do a BA in Business Management.

Her career started in Jersey, where she worked her way up from receptionist to General Manager in a variety of hotels, but the travelling bug caught up with her and she left to take a year out on a world tour, travelling around all of the continents.

Last year, Maria led Prestige Network’s management team to be awarded an Internationally recognised ISO 9001 certification by BM Trada, an accredited certification body, for its comprehensive Quality Management System which incorporates all aspects of its operation.

She said: “When Prestige Network was awarded ISO 9001 certificate, this was my biggest achievement here. The ISO 9001 confirms that every single procedure of Prestige Network’s operations, from linguist recruitment to appropriate invoicing, is quality checked – thus ensuring a professional service to all of our customers and suppliers. We are one of the few companies in the industry to achieve this.”