Your supplier works
in their language. So does the form.
Asking an overseas supplier to complete a compliance questionnaire in English is asking them to do the hardest version of a job they are not being paid for. The form runs in theirs. Your record stays in yours.
Not a translation problem
Teams treat language as a nice to have. In practice it decides whether a whole category of supplier ever finishes onboarding at all.
Suppliers you were losing now finish
A questionnaire in a second language is where onboarding quietly fails, and the supplier rarely tells you that is why.
Nobody inside your team becomes the translator
The informal arrangement where one colleague handles suppliers in a particular language is a dependency, and it disappears when they are on leave.
Fewer clarification emails
Most support questions during onboarding are about what a question means. Asking it in the supplier's language removes a large share of them.
Moments a procurement team will recognise
An overseas supplier stops replying
Often a language barrier rather than disinterest, and this is the cheapest way to test that.
Learn more
A certificate arrives in another language
Read on arrival with the expiry captured rather than sitting in an inbox awaiting interpretation.
Learn moreOne colleague handles all suppliers in a language
A dependency worth removing before they take annual leave.
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You need consistent records regardless
The record arrives in the same shape whatever language the supplier used.
Learn moreAnd what each approach costs
Everyone has a workaround. The question is what it costs and whether it scales.
English, and hope
The questionnaire goes out in English regardless, and suppliers who struggle either muddle through or quietly stop.
Their language, by default
The form opens in the supplier's language without anybody arranging it, and your record is unaffected.
A colleague translates
Someone internally translates the form, then translates the answers back, which works until they are busy or leave.
Nobody translates
The supplier reads their language, you read English, and there is no step in between for anyone to own.
Arrive in any language
Certificates come in the supplier's language and somebody has to work out what they are and when they expire.
Read on arrival
Documents are read as they land, with the expiry captured and the file placed against the supplier.
Clarification threads
A large share of onboarding email is suppliers asking what a question means, which is a translation problem wearing a different hat.
Fewer questions asked
When the question is legible, most clarification requests never arise.
