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Testing Translation Services the Right Way

More companies are using translation tests as part of their procurement cycle. Testing translation can be beneficial, but it is essential that you understand “what” you are trying to gain from the test. For a test to be successful, you must match your test translation requirements to the most appropriate vendor strategy for your organization. The [...]

What does the 2009 Fortune Global 500 tell us?

The Fortune Global 500 is a list of the worlds largest companies by revenue. The list was formed in 1995 – before which US and non-US companies had their own lists. What can we see from the 2009 list – and in particular is there anything we can we see that effects the localization business?
This [...]

How healthy is your localization partner’s supply-chain?

In the July/August edition, the Harvard Business Review had an interesting article entitled Just How Healthy Is Your Global Business Partner which highlighted how corporations were changing the way they assessed outsourcing relationships. Although the article profiled manufacturing I thought it was particularly relevant in the localization business which traditionally relies so heavily on outsourcing and subcontracting as [...]

Measuring and using TCO in localization

SDL is kicking off a series of webinars on Tuesday (the 7th July) that tackle a set of best-practices around improving the total cost of ownership of localization – the first being increasing the Return on Investment for localization budget. The others tackle localization testing, machine translation, multimedia, validation and review processes, localization in Agile environments and culminating in Business Process Outsourcing on the 18th of August. Most of these webinars and many others put on by SDL as well as other vendors are aimed at improving the Total Cost of Ownership when it comes to localization – but what really is the Total Cost of Ownership when it comes to localization, and how do you go about quanitifying it, and how do you then understand what you can do once you know the number.

Does localization strategy follow the business – or does the business follow the localization strategy?

Taken from an interview and Q&A with Michael Buckham-White of Premiere Global at one of SDLs recent localization best-practice events.
Is it generally better for the business to drive localization strategy or do you find the business.
Good question… so I will come at this from my perspective, from my experiences. My background is in web, specifically [...]

Review of Localization networking event, Atlanta

More detailed Q&A with each of the speakers coming as soon as they are transcribed.
I was lucky enough to sit on the panel alongside Scott DeFusco of Deltek and Michael Buckham-White of Premiere Global yesterday. I have met Scott a number of times in the past but not Michael.
Michael is a 15-year veteran of human [...]

Managing Your Global Image

Brand image has always played a major role in establishing expectations and thresholds in home market success.  As corporations rely on international revenues to meet sales targets there is a temptation to push strong-performing domestic products in to each new market as quickly as possible.  While this practice is consistent across industry verticals it has a [...]

Strategic Management of Corporate Localization

Making localization central to corporate strategy
 
As the market continues to be volatile, many companies are looking to cut expenses and hold on to their cash – conversely, leaders are also aware that an economic downturn is the perfect time to capitalize on competitors troubles and leap ahead. Expanding into new global markets is one [...]