We believe that a good translation is a service based on talent, which is why we identify, select, train and retain the most outstanding professional translators. In turn, our team utilises the latest developments in language technology and automatic translation in order to offer translations of optimal quality, from both a technical and linguistic point of view.
Our clients have their own dedicated project manager, who is able to provide them with personalised service and a direct point of contact and is familiar with their needs and specific requirements: from the translators who best fit their needs, to their working practices and delivery preferences.
We investigate, analyse and systematise translation processes, using advanced translation tools (such as translation memories and terminology glossaries) to guarantee the consistency, repeatability, traceability, efficiency, scalability and confidentiality of our services, among other benefits.
Our experience, and the stability and guarantees it provides, gives our clients confidence. Over the course of more than 25 years we have been able to develop an infrastructure, assemble a professional team and acquire technological resources that enable us to handle projects of any size and complexity.
At Ampersand we have more than 200 translators covering the main language combinations. Our professionals have undergone a rigorous selection process requiring them to demonstrate more than five years of translation experience in the field of the documents they are to translate, as well as exhaustive knowledge of the procedures and culture in the countries of origin and destination with regard to the official process for which the translation is required.
Ampersand was founded in 1994 by Xavier Garcia, a professional sworn translator who works with English, French, Spanish and Catalan.
Back then, translation was an antiquated profession that was struggling to adapt to the new demands of the modern market and (what were then) new technologies. IT resources consisted only of the earliest word processors, unreliable correction tools and computers that were still very limited and lacked a graphical interface. Communications were still based on the use of telephone, fax and rudimentary modems, as well as floppy disks and courier services. Dictionaries were printed on paper, while the Internet was just a rumour.
It is no wonder that Ampersand was created precisely in order to make use of the opportunities offered by IT to make the translation process more efficient. The new corpus-based translation technologies were the heirs to the eternal promise of automatic translation and, more than a decade before Google, they were beginning to suggest a future in which statistical intelligence would replace linguistics as the paradigm of computer translation.
The economy of scale permitted by these new technologies encouraged Ampersand to develop a production model that took the working philosophy of the consolidated industrial sectors (from which the agency drew its inspiration) and applied it, on a very small scale, to the process of translation. The production formula was based on a stable in-house team of high-quality translators, operating in a technological, well-organised, methodical, up-to-date, networked and collaborative work environment designed to enable the translators to realise their full potential.
However, a company is more than just its factory, and producing a translation is not the same as mass-producing cars. Ampersand has continued to evolve in line with its market, placing increasing importance on non-linguistic elements as an inherent part of the translation process: customer service, handling different formats, adaptation to the client’s processes, and personalising every aspect of the translation service. Today, Ampersand views translation as a chain of services, each with its own added value, and considers translation in the traditional sense to be just one of the links in this chain.
Ampersand is a company that strikes the perfect balance between youth and maturity. With more than 200 collaborators, it is a company that makes the most of its experience in order to continue evolving, and to consolidate its position as a leading provider of translations for businesses that have multicultural audiences and companies that have international communication needs. Companies like yours.
From technical translations to sworn translations and financial translations: all our translations are carried out by translators who have a degree in translation and interpreting (or an equivalent qualification), are native speakers of the target language and have more than five years of experience.
All of the translators who work at Ampersand have been trained by our in-house translation team and work with professional translation tools that (among other benefits) enable us to provide dedicated translation memories and terminology glossaries for each client. We also have more than 20 sworn translators who are authorised to produce official translations.
