from good to great - how to beef up your localization program
TRANSCRIPT
“Some localization managers are borngreat, some achieve greatness, and
some
have greatness thrust upon 'em.”
From Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, 1602 (adapted)
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You’ve Come a Long Way…
• Essential localization processes set up
• Consumers of local content reasonable happy
• Some metrics and KPIs in place
• Localization budget exists• Solid internal buy-in and
visibility• “Things work, but…”
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What’s Different Now• Reuse lags behind industry
standards• Inconsistencies• Scalability is an issue• Increasing # of internal
customers and stakeholders• Multiple LSPs to manage• Multiple in-country resources• Workflows are now more
complex• Local audiences more granular• Localization assets scattered• Translations technologies not
integrated, or missing completely
Localization Program
Localization Production
International Brand
Oversight
Localization Support
Infrastructure
Emerging Globalization Program Management
• Supports all business groups neutrally
• Easier to scale• Maximizes
economy of scale and buying leverage
Linguistic Quality Program Manager & PMs• Manage and track
linguistic quality program via clearly defined metrics
• Satisfy linguistic requests of market stakeholders in all regions
Localization Technology and Workflow Manager• TMS• Localization tools• Workflow automation
Localization Program Manager• Oversee logistics of
global program• Satisfy internal
customers• Oversee Quality
Program• Manage vendors
Localization Brand / Product Manager(s)• Oversee brand/product quality• Ensure quality and on-time
project delivery• Standard localization project
management functions
Localization Program
Localization Production
International Brand
Oversight
Localization Support
Infrastructure
Emerging Globalization Program Management
• You don’t really know how good (or bad) your quality is
• You have lots of quality data, but it’s difficult to interpret it and share internally
• Negative feedback from your in-country reviewers
• Lower user acceptance than expected• High rate of linguistic bugs logged in
testing• Disproportionately high support
demands in one or more markets• Inconsistencies over time and across
languages and products • High site traffic bounce rates• Multiple quality frameworks, often after
an acquisition
Typical Pain Points & Symptoms
• Start adopting an enterprise-level LQA program…
• …but take it step by step
• Look at the big picture: quality is as an ecosystem with many interrelated parts
Solution
Content audited Quality
metrics set
Content strategy
Workflows defined
Review cycles
defined
SLAs and KPIs
established
Linguistic review team
in place
Language assets
managed
Dashboards, BI and
analytics available
Set Your Priorities Right
• Fix a translation before release as needed• Diagnose recurring problems• Create/manage your language assets
– TMs, style guides & glossaries
• Build a dedicated reviewer program• Aggregate program-wide quality data• Monitor and analyze performance
Quality metrics set
Workflows defined
Review cycles
defined
Linguistic review team in place
Language assets
managed
Phase I Focus
Content audited
Content strategy
SLAs and KPIs
established
Dashboards, BI and
analytics available
Phase II Focus
Aim for Quality at Source
Effective asset management aligns stakeholders, translators and reviewers around clear guidelines, resulting in: • consistency• faithfulness to brand• efficiency• cost savings
CreationManageme
ntAutomation
Glossaries• A list of
approved product or industry terms, defined and translated
Translation Memories• Database of
past translations that can be reused
Style Guides• Clearly defined
stylistic preferences such as voice, tone, grammar and punctuation
Suggested Clean-Up Activities
• Consolidate and classify existing assets• Create or update style guides / branding guides• Audit / clean up current TMs and glossaries• Schedule regular maintenance of assets • Deploy tools to build / manage these assets• Deploy automatic language checkers to enforce consistency• Create a blueprint so you can quickly ramp up with new
languages
Dashboards and Analytics
• Aggregate quality data from across your linguistic program to get hard data and insights that inform business decisions
• Make custom reports and dashboards that deliver the most important views of real-time data with click-through access to details by:• language
• vendor
• content type
• business unit
• date range
• other segments
• Data analysis; trends, patterns
Recommendations
• Understand the style and terminology of major platforms as used in individual locals– Microsoft– Apple– Google
• Align yourself first, distinguish yourself later• Understand target demographics and user profiles
Make Sure Your Voice Stays Current
• Watch for gradual x radical changes
• If your product speaks the language of your users, they tend to develop a much tighter, personal relationship with them
• Trends– Consumerization– More personal language, using everyday words– Simpler terminology– Even colloquial and playful expressions
Sequence of Implementing Translation-Related Technologies (Simplified)
Translation & localization tools
Translation Memory (TM)
Terminology Management System
Content Management System (CMS, WCMS)
Content Authoring System
Translation Management System (TMS) & Workflow automation
Content Optimization
Machine Translation
Community translation platform
Quality Assurance checking tools
Yes, You Will• As you consolidate and centralize
localization, you WILL need a TMS and workflow automation at some stage
• Don’t invest in or rely on obsolete technologies
• There are dozens of TMS’ on the market today
• All marketed as the “right” solution to the enterprise customer yet each caters to a different set of needs
• No one system is right for everyone regardless of the hype
• With average investment of no less than $50,000 for an enterprise implementation, carefully evaluate how well the system conforms to your needs
Recommendations
• Involve all key stakeholders that touch translation in any way– Including any groups utilizing freelance translators,
LSPs, in-house reviewers, in-country resources, SMEs, subsidiaries and resellers in linguistic tasks on a regular basis
• Gain a big picture view of current globalization strategy and how the translation cycle fits into that process– Including types of content, company priorities,
content creation & translation workflows, critical needs, technology budget, long and short term goals and company policies regarding adding new technology
• Pay special attention to customizable workflows, offline/online capabilities for translators, and integrations with your existing systems
Build
• Your product, process and/or business model is truly unique
• Standards support ineffective• Uncomfortable tie-in to
localization services• Limited customization options• Not truly enterprise scale• You have the resources and
capabilities
Buy
• You don’t have the resources nor capabilities
• Time is of the essence• Capabilities to customize TMS to
suit your specific needs• By coding your platform to meet
your specific needs, you would tie your hands and prevent future agility
Reach “the Next One Billion”
• Expand your language coverage
• Focus on long tail languages• Expand into content for new
audiences in existing locales• Re-prioritize content for
translation• Get serious about Machine
Translation• Involve local communities to
help accelerate market penetration
Marketing and demand
generationSales tools
and collateral
Public relations
Local social media
Product
User InterfaceUser Assistance
Website and online
presence
Multilingual SEO
Customer and product support
Training
Legal
Update Your Key Metrics & KPIs
• Concrete ROI– Contribution to top line revenue– Efficiency increases– Include internal costs
• Productivity metrics• Comparison with industry benchmarks and peers• Language quality metrics are evolving
– Drop LISA, think levels of quality for individual target audiences
– Local user feedback and engagement
• Make them 100% transparent and visible
• This is an exciting stage of development
• Use newly available resources to increase scalability and efficiency
• Make quality a non-issue• Increase your visibility and
importance internally• Invest into future; be ready to
drop the old• Get ready for the next stage