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I'm having a debate with friends on which contract type to use for Translation Service (T&M or IDIQ). The translation service charges per word / language and has a fixed hourly rate. It recently was setup as T&M, and I don't think that was the proper contract type, remind you that the enduser doesn't have a set number/ quantity of words. What do you think? Pleas advise.

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I'm having a debate with friends on which contract type to use for Translation Service (T&M or IDIQ). The translation service charges per word / language and has a fixed hourly rate. It recently was setup as T&M, and I don't think that was the proper contract type, remind you that the enduser doesn't have a set number/ quantity of words. What do you think? Pleas advise.

The first problem I'm having with your question is you suggest there's a choice to be made between "T&M or IDIQ." You're comparing apples to oranges. IDIQ contracts can be priced on a fixed price basis, a cost-reimbursement basis or a T&M basis.

The second problem I have is your statement that the "translation service charges per word / language and has a fixed hourly rate." How can you have a charge "per word" as well as per hour ("fixed hourly rate")? It seems to me that you can have one or the other, but not both, unless you mean that the ordering officer has a choice of ordering on a per word basis or a per hour basis.

Finally, are you contemplating a multiple-award contract scenario, or a single award?

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To further the discussion. If this was a new procurement and all that one knew about it is that there is a set price per word and there is no way of knowing ahead of time how many words or documents would be translated from the other language, then what type of vehicle would be the best way of subcontracting with the subcontractor to minimize the risk the most for the company? Thanks for your inputs.

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Guest Vern Edwards
I'm having a debate with friends on which contract type to use for Translation Service (T&M or IDIQ). The translation service charges per word / language and has a fixed hourly rate. It recently was setup as T&M, and I don't think that was the proper contract type, remind you that the enduser doesn't have a set number/ quantity of words. What do you think? Pleas advise.
To further the discussion. If this was a new procurement and all that one knew about it is that there is a set price per word and there is no way of knowing ahead of time how many words or documents would be translated from the other language, then what type of vehicle would be the best way of subcontracting with the subcontractor to minimize the risk the most for the company?

It seems to me that an IDIQ contract with a fixed-price per word would work fine. Market rates appear to range between $ 0.16 to$ 0.22 per word, with some variations for different kinds of material (e.g., legal and technical) and obscure languages. I would think that an hourly rate would be dicey, since you can't be sure how many words would be translated in an hour. The number would almost certainly vary with the language expertise of the translator and his or her familiarity with the type of material to be translated. So I would stick with market pricing and use a per word rate. It should not be difficult to determine the word count for particular documents, so each order could be priced in advance.

What am I missing?

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