PROVO -- The interesting thing about MultiLing's clients is their complete trust in the company.

When MultiLing finishes a project and delivers it to a customer, that customer usually has no idea what it's got.

The Provo-based corporation translates training materials, technical and support materials and other publications into almost 30 different languages.

"We have to build our relationships based on trust," said Emmanuel Margetic. "They don't know what they've purchased and usually don't see what they buy."

Margetic said if customers do see the translated material, most can't read it to see if it's accurate and have to depend on reaction from people in the other countries to judge the effectiveness.

"Our clients appreciate the fact that we have delivered what we have promised," he said.

President Michael Sneddon said the success of the 14-year-old company is also due in part to the standardized process that uses only professional translators.

"The key is that everything is working remotely," he said. "We use the tools of the Internet to exchange the documents."

Sneddon added that all of the translators must be native speakers of the language they are translating to, as well as experts in the subject they are translating.

"The terminology is very unique," he said. "These are people who are fascinated, they are curious about what is going on in the world."

He said a good translator should be able to translate 10,000 to 15,000 words a week. He estimated that the company translates close to a million words per month.

According to Sneddon, the company's translators are located in areas of the world where countries are most likely to do business.

"Our translations generally follow the flow of commerce," he said. "France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Korea, Japan and China are where most of our work goes."

MultiLing translates for IT companies including IBM, AT&T and Hewlett Packard. The company also does work for automotive companies like Mazda, mechanical companies in-cluding Caterpillar and medical companies like General Electric Medical Systems and IHC.

Walt Disney, Procter & Gamble and several others also use MultiLing to help them translate their company information into other languages for use in overseas markets.

One of the tools that enables MultiLing to translate large projects quickly is called Transit.

Transit is a system that supports human translators and increases productivity by maintaining translation "memories."

For example, if a company wants an updated manual translated, many of the words used in the updated version will be the same as in the original version, saving the translator time, and saving the client money.

Sneddon is happy with the achievements of the company, and plans to update and automate the project management process in the future, providing clients with more accurate reporting of where the project is in the translation process.

Tara Duggan can be reached at 344-2562 or at tduggan@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C1.