the world top-20 language services group, thebigword, has announced a major expansion of its Over the Phone Interpreting (OPI) operation in the United States. OPI enables people who speak different languages to communicate over the phone and hold a one-to-one conversation via an interpreter.
thebigword will open new OPI hubs in New York and San Francisco to facilitate its growing US Government and private sector business. Its aim is to simultaneously maintain quality and drive down costs which, for the US Government, will deliver savings of up to $80 million (USD).
The move is expected to create 600 new jobs within thebigword and its sub-contractors and will simplify overseas communications for US organisations. It enables Executives to speak one-to-one to overseas customers and contacts without the cost and environmental impact of international travel.
thebigword’s rapid expansion – 43 per cent growth in the past year – has been fuelled by major contract wins to provide Over the Phone Interpreting to UK and US Government departments and it is already on track to make significant cost savings for the UK Government.
The company is making rapid inroads into the US OPI market – estimated at $700 million (USD) a year – by using technology and outsourcing to drive down costs whilst taking a socially responsible approach to suppliers and implementing quality assessments for every interpreter.
The company’s investment in technology and an innovative pricing strategy is key to the high-quality, low-cost service. thebigword has delivered savings by introducing a billing mechanism that measures to the 100th of a second, matched with a pricing strategy that includes no rounding up or minimum charges. Having also dispensed with set-up, monthly maintenance and low usage charges, the company delivers price-per-minute savings of up to 56 per cent against competitor services. Charging is done by an e‑invoicing system that provides call-by-call analysis.
thebigword has recently been awarded contracts for the States of Iowa and Idaho, and is providing OPI for the Californian health sector. In the UK, it operates OPI (known there as Telephone Interpreting) for three of the Government’s biggest departments: the Home Office, Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, and the Department for Work and Pensions.
thebigword’s Chief Commercial Officer, Josh Gould, has recently returned to the company’s UK HQ following three years in New York heading up its US operation. He says: “As a highly flexible company operated by owner management, thebigword has been able to challenge the status quo on OPI pricing, which is delivering real savings to our customers”.
“As an example, the price of Spanish OPI has been driven down from two dollars fifty a minute to around 60 cents a minute without a reduction in quality, and we expect it could go lower.”
In the US, thebigword is working with Federal, State and Local Government departments to find ways of reducing cost whilst improving service.
Currently ranked 17th in the world, thebigword has an ambitious target to reach the top five within three years, fuelled by business wins and acquisition.