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Vendor Acquisition: Researching Potential Vendors

How do you find and select a vendor?

Captioning vendors do not need to be local. Many are accustomed to receiving video files online or through a shipping service. So whether location is an issue is dependent on your needs, such as whether your funding requires the use of in-state services.

Check the Captioning Vendors segment in the Resources section for more information on how to find qualified vendors. Ask colleagues for references. Focus on:

Reliability – did the captioner deliver what was promised?
Turnaround time.
Quality of work.
Customer service – were they easy to work with?

Understand the Pricing

You want to get a clear understanding of costs. If the vendor has to do any conversion work, such as extracting the video from a DVD or converting from one file format to another, they will often charge you for that process.

Different vendors have different pricing models. For example, some have a flat per-minute rate while others charge based on the total minutes of your video. Do the math so that you can accurately compare costs.
Understand any rush charges. If your deadlines for posting web videos are relatively inflexible, you may want to compare rush capabilities and charges. For example, suppose your producer can't complete the video as quickly as expected, but the online deadline can't change, which means you want a quicker captioning turnaround than planned. First, ask the vendor whether this is possible. Some vendors may have more control over their production capabilities than others. Second, how much will the rush cost you?