From Small to Medium to Large to Small: What is the Best Size? This talk illustrates a personal journey through 2 decades in our industry. From a 3-people start-up in the early 90s to one of the top 30 LSPs. Whilst some things, like technology, changed dramatically, others, like customers, did not change much at all. Each phase and corresponding company size has its own threats and opportunities, strengths and weaknesses. - In-house vs. external translators? - MLV, RLV, SLV? - MT or not MT? - Growth: Organic or by Acquisition? - Oh, and there are so many more… The inevitably subjective answer to these questions and the question “Is there a best size for an LSP and if so, what is it?” will give you some valuable insights and hopefully help you make up your mind in which direction you might want to go with your business.

1. A TRAVEL THROUGH SPACE, TIME AND SIZE
a personal journey
by Matthias Caesar (@MattKeyzer)
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020

2. A TRAVEL THROUGH SPACE, TIME AND SIZE
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020
a personal journey
by Matthias Caesar (@MattKeyzer)

3. 1994
2014
2009
2004

4. TIME LINE
Single Client
Single Language
Single Site
and
all
New &
Exciting
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020

5. TIME LINE
Single Client
Single Language
Single Site
but
MLV, PEOPLE, TOOLS, TECHNOLOGY
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020

6. TIME LINE
Single Client
Single Language
Single Site
and
GROWTH, INTERNATIONAL, TRAVEL, … WOW!
but
PROCESS, TOOLS
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020

7. TIME LINE
WHAT‘s NEXT ?
?
?
?
?
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020

8. TIME LINE
300 People
TMS
11 Sites
30 Mio
but
INVESTORS, FINANCE, CASH-FLOW, REPORTING
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020

9. TIME LINE
3+2 People
2 Sites
and
SCALE, PARTNER, INFRASTRUCTURE, TECHNOLOGY, AUTOMATION, MT, CLOUD
plus
FUN!
I guess the evolution was necessary – without it, today would not be possible!
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020

10. TIME LINE
3+2 People
2 Sites
and
SCALE, PARTNER, INFRASTRUCTURE, TECHNOLOGY, AUTOMATION, MT,
CLOUD
plus
FUN!
I guess the evolution was necessary – without it, today would not be possible!
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020

11. 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020
CLOUD
• becoming a standard
• affordable
• not (yet) interconnected

12. 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020
CLOUD, SOLUTIONS
• interconnected solutions emerge
• even more affordable
• some interoperability

13. 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020
CLOUD, SOLUTIONS, LSP
• (medium-sized!) LSPs will begin to be impacted heavily
• fading out
• why?

14. 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2015 2016 2020
CLOUD SOLUTIONS LSP
GLOBAL
Marketing
& Support
Demand
Language
& Subject
Expert
1 2 3
Filter Edit
Invest 15 €
85 € Earning!
Spend 100 €
Term
db
Including
Cloud Business
o Sales
o Tools
o Email
o Office
o Website
o Accounting
o Cloud Storage
Guten Tag! - Добрый день!
LOCAL

15. BUSINESS COST
Tony Matthias
O365 7 EUR O365 6 EUR
Gmail 4 EUR incl in O365 0 EUR
OnePageCRM 15 EUR CapsuleCRM 10 EUR
Sage 700 (?) 150 EUR SageOne 15 EUR
Wordpress 0 EUR Wordpress 0 EUR
LinkedIn (50 EUR) LinkedIn 20 EUR
Hootsuite 10 EUR Link them to your blog with
Wordpress plugin
GoogleDrive 15 EUR
100 GB
OneDrive / included in O365,
unlimited (1TB)
Tweak.com Moo.com
Backup 25 EUR Server with backup on Azure
90 EUR
CleverBridge Shop 50 EUR
(shopify)
WooCommerce etc. (WP) 0 EUR
KantanMT (999 EUR) GlobalSight 0 EUR
Trados 65 EUR
MailChimp MailChimp 0 EUR
SUM 3,412 EUR SUM 2,472 EUR
current setup

16. THE EQUATION
the PERFECT COMPANY SIZE!
…but back to the point…
*
a = your age
m = market you are in
t = technology index
𝑝𝑐𝑠 𝑎, 𝑚, 𝑡 =
1
𝑎
𝑎 𝑟
2 + 𝑒 𝑎 𝑚𝑘𝑡
𝑚 𝑎, 𝑡 𝑚𝑘𝑡 + 2𝑡 𝑔𝑖𝑙𝑡 𝑎

17. SUCCESS
I wish all of us lots of success! 𝑠 = 𝑚𝑐2
maturity & curiosity

18. SUMMARY
• In-house vs. external translators?
• MLV, RLV, SLV?
• MT or not MT?
• Growth: Organic or by
Acquisition?
• …

19. MATTHIAS
CAESAR
+49.172.2332772
matthiasc@iLocIT.de
@MattKeyzer
@iLocIT
@SAPtranslations
THANK YOU!