Cesco expanding language service offerings

Published in Denver Business Journal – September 28, 2008

Cesco Linguistic Services focuses on filling the communication gap — whether it’s for an international client, a doctor with a foreign patient or a lawyer dissecting a case.

The Littleton-based company provides an array of language services, and recently received attention as the language interpreter at events surrounding the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) — a nonprofit organization that works with Democratic countries worldwide — hired Cesco for linguistic services for its convention, which was held in Denver the same week as the DNC.

“Personally speaking, I felt like the experience was extraordinary,” said Cesco founder Giovanna Carriero-Contreras. “We were a part of history.”

Six interpreters from Cesco worked various seminars, including one hosted by Madeleine Albright, the U.S. secretary of state under former President Bill Clinton.

Cesco was founded in 2004 and provides companies mainly with Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German, Italian and Spanish interpreters. But its 35 independent contractors can interpret almost any language requested.

Its clientele is comprised mainly of hundreds of Colorado businesses. Medical and legal translation services are the core of the company’s business.

“The medical and legal sector in our industry is related to a lot of injuries,” Carriero-Contreras said. “We work a lot with worker compensation companies. We see a very high peak [in business] in the summer months because a lot of activity is taking place outside.”

Midtown Occupational Health Services in Denver uses Cesco interpreters every day.

“We use them a lot for our Spanish interpretation services so that there’s a clear communication between the doctor and the patient,” said Michelle Martinez, workers’ compensation coordinator at Midtown.

Cesco has had a 37 percent spike in business clients this year, which is credited to referrals, an increase of calls from immigrants who don’t speak English and its international business services,such as oil companies making conference calls to Japan.

Cesco’s 2009 goal is to pick up more international business clients.

The company’s main source of business comes from those seeking interpretation — the spoken word. “Translation” usually refers to the written word, a sector of linguistics services Cesco wants to tap.

“The international companies bring a lot of translation work with them, but not interpretation,” Carriero-Contreras said.

To get a piece of the international business, Cesco plans to market translation services to international companies in Denver, said Joel Contreras, Cesco Linguistics president and the husband of Carriero-Contreras.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service in Colorado often calls Cesco for help, but the work isn’t consistent.

“It’s goes up and down,” Carriero-Contreras said. “It’s a cycle that reaches its high point, then it’s steady. The only time I’ve seen business slow down is when there’s discussion about immigration laws.”