LSP (Language Service Provider) is just another name for a subcontractor: a third-party company that has its own XTM Cloud instance which is connected to the Contractor's account and from which it receives translation projects.

Important point about the two meanings of the term "Subcontractor".

The first meaning refers to a separate type of subscription in XTM Cloud that is simply called “Subcontractor". Clients with this subscription cannot create projects on their account or store their own TM/terminology resources. They can only work on projects received from the Contractor and use the Contractor's resources.

This article, however, describes the possibilities and constraints affecting a "standard” client that receives a translation project from the Contractor, acting as a subcontracting party: the second meaning for “Subcontractor".

In principle, an LSP can do as much as their Contractor permits them to do in a subcontracted project, as specified in the settings in the Contractor’s XTM Cloud instance. In most cases, these settings cannot be changed anywhere in the LSP ’s XTM Cloud instance.

LSP access rights

The most important settings for an LSP are located in an Administrator-managed LSP profile in the Contractor’s XTM Cloud instance (Users → LSPs → LSP editor → Access rights).

In the LSP editor, the Contractor can, for example, specify:

• the customers to whose projects the LSP can be assigned.

• LSP level of access to LQA results and reports (see Types of LQA report – description and use case for more information).

• the customers whose terminology resources the LSP is permitted to use (if selected by the Contractor’s Project Manager at the project creation stage).

• the extent to which the LSP can manage the Contractor’s terminology.

• the customers whose translation memory (TM) resources the LSP is permitted to use (if selected by the Contractor’s Project Manager at the project creation stage).

• the extent to which the LSP can manage the Contractor’s translation memory (TM).

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Workflow and access

The second place in which LSP rights are defined is the Contractor global settings (Configuration → Settings → Translation → Workflow and access).

Although the names of some of the sections (for example, Linguist general options) might suggest otherwise, the settings in them do apply for LSPs as well as, in the context of assigning actors to a workflow, the term "linguist" also refers to subcontractors. The Linguist metadata access section is the only section in which a distinction is made between "Linguists" (internal linguists) and LSPs (subcontractors).

The only option that is specifically for LSPs is Show Customer name on LSP account in the Linguist general options section.

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Project settings

Which settings can an LSP not configure or modify?

The vast majority of the settings contained in the sections listed below, relating to a specific project, are configured when it is created and apply for an LSP. The settings in these sections can only be set or adjusted by the Contractor and the LSP cannot change them in any way:

• General information (i.e. customer, project template).

• Translation (i.e. source language and target languages, filter template, QA profile, file-joining, segment filter profile, preprocessing, subject matter, source files, additional files (reference material, segment ID, images).

• Settings (i.e. customer TM and terminology resources, anonymization, disabling of term decoration, use of not approved memory, marking of certain segments as “locked”, monitoring of target length).

• Machine translation (all settings).

• Tag settings (all settings).

In the Project Editor > General info section of a subcontracted project, on the LSP side (if enabled in the global settings by the LSP), there are some options that seem to be available for selection, but any changes to them will have no effect:

• Translation memory settings: Use not approved memory, Hide repeated segments, Mark segments as locked when:, Disable term decoration, Allow editing of ICE segments;

• Machine translation settings.

LSP-configurable project settings

In the Project Editor > General info section of a subcontracted project, on the LSP side (if enabled in the global settings by the LSP), there are some options that are available for selection/editing. However, they are primarily internal information/guidelines and have no direct effect on the project as a whole (the Contractor settings take priority):

• Project name,

• Description,

• Reference ID,

• Payment status,

• Proposal approval status,

• Project Manager,

• Custom fields,

• Due dates (i.e. workflow start date, workflow due date, delivery due date);

Other than that, the LSP can also add their own workflow steps to a project workflow.

No matter what settings have been specified by the Contractor, the LSP also faces other restrictions that are set by default and expected in the case of subcontracted projects:

1. The LSP does not have access to the Project editor → Estimates section.

2. The LSP cannot reanalyze projects.

3. The LSP cannot archive projects.

4. The LSP has the option to delete the project on their side but cannot delete TM that they have created within the framework of that project.

5. The LSP cannot force projects to be finished/re-opened.

6. The LSP cannot approve ICE or Leveraged matches.

7. The LSP cannot download a project (general) LQA report (see Types of LQA report – description and use case for more information).

8. The LSP does not have access to one of the XTM Workbench segment filters: Modification: Any updates to target, status or comments (see Changing the filter view – modification: Any updates to target, status or comments for more information).

The only restriction on the Contractor side is that, once they assign an LSP to a particular workflow step, they can neither remove nor modify the entire workflow in which it occurs, in the Workflow editor. They can only add new workflow steps, and change blocking mechanism criteria between existing steps.