Translation centre, translation agency, LSP, TSP or translation company?
Translation “centre”, from the Latin centrum and from the Greek κέντρον, is probably one of the first names given to a group of professionals working in the field of translation. While widely used in the ’60s and ’70s, and still common today, especially in France (“centre”), over the next two decades “translation agency” would take its place as the preferred term.
The term “translation centre” has been relegated to educational and cultural institutions, often non-profits. “Translation agency” was seen as a term that had a more qualified connotation and as being in line with organizations riding a wave of growing fame and popularity, such as advertising agencies, press agencies, etc.
However, as time went on, “agency” seemed to take on a derogatory meaning, making it look like the organization was performing little more than a broker role. Many operators wanted to distance themselves from this perceived role of “paper pusher”, a mere go-between between the client and the translator, the only person actually doing the work.
So they wanted to claim their rightful identity as a business, taking the translation out of the hands of the single translator and instead giving it a pivotal place as part of a complex project involving translators, revisers, terminologists, page layout specialists and so on. Translation agencies became companies and hence qualified for the label “translation companies“.
With computerization and the extensive use of new digital technologies, the term LSP — an acronym for Language Service Provider — grew in popularity. This definition is still one of the most widely used in English-speaking countries, and this Anglicism is also used by many organizations in Italy.
We can thank the European standard EN 15038, issued in late 2006, for the rising popularity of the acronym TSP “Translation Service Provider”. This standard — which deals specifically with translation services and the requirements for each provider with regard to human and technical resources, quality and project management, the contractual framework, and service procedures — gives a number of definitions, including: “Translation service provider (TSP): Person or organization supplying translation services.”
Hence, the standard aims to reconcile the differences between professionals and organizations, offering an acronym that adequately covers both.
On our long journey from Translation Agency to Language Service Provider, we thus continue to be all of the above, relying on Google to tell us under what identity we are “searched most”.
