Brief History of our Vendor Database

Posted On: 10/29/2024

By 2004, we transitioned to storing all vendor information in Excel files, structured for quick search. In 2007, we commissioned a young web developer, to create a standalone program to manage vendor data and enable multi-criteria searches, inspired by Proz.

In 2009, we upgraded this program to a global online platform, by implementing the transformation to support our expanding operations worldwide. 

With a blank database in 2009, we invited qualified vendors to complete our structured 6-step online application form, which marked the beginning of our evaluation process. The form’s detailed nature discouraged less committed vendors, leaving only those with a high level of professionalism to successfully apply. This process has resulted in approximately 340 applications per year, giving us a well-curated database of 5,100 vendors to date.

Our project managers now have powerful search capabilities, allowing them to refine vendor selections by language pairs, specialization, CAT tools, pricing, and to review work history and internal notes for efficient decision-making.

In 2012, we added new modules such us Vendor Feeback, Customer Feeback, Translator Testing, Crowdsoursing.

By 2016, it became clear that our database was no longer dynamic and was slowly becoming obsolete, as vendors were unable to update their profiles, and we couldn’t keep up with manual updates. To solve this, we made adjustments so vendors could have login credentials and access to update their profiles directly. We now regularly communicate with our vendors, prompting updates on their rates, services, and CAT tool expertise; for instance, a recent addition includes an option for post-editing services. 

In 2022, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was implemented across EU countries, leading us to encrypt all vendor details and email communications.

As of today, world is at the crossroad of a new era, driven by Al. We have started to working on bringing our Global Vendor Network to the next step, by integrating with forward-thinking Project Management Platform to be finished at the end of 2024, which will lead to implementation of well though Al automations in 2025.

Prepared by Alafranga team