1.
v
From Good to Great:
How to Beef Up Your
Localization Program

2.
“Some localization managers are born
great, some achieve greatness, and some
have greatness thrust upon 'em.”
From Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, 1602 (adapted)

3.
c
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…”

4.
c
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

5.
Establish a Central Localization
Team as a “Shared Service”1

6.
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

7.
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

8.
Linguistic Quality & Review
Process2

9.
• 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

10.
• 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

11.
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

12.
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

13.
Quality
metrics set
Workflows
defined
Review
cycles
defined
Linguistic
review team
in place
Language
assets
managed
Phase I Focus

14.
Content
audited
Content
strategy
SLAs and
KPIs
established
Dashboards,
BI and
analytics
available
Phase II Focus

15.
Get Your Language Assets in
Order3

16.
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
Creation
Management
Automation
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

17.
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

18.
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

19.
Create Your Own Voice and Tone
4

20.
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

21.
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

22.
Example: New Microsoft Voice & Tone

23.
Build or Buy Decisions on
Localization Platforms5

24.
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

25.
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

26.
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

27.
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

28.
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

29.
Reach “the Next One Billion”
6

30.
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

31.
Marketing and
demand
generation
Sales tools and
collateral
Public relations
Local social
media
Product
User Interface
User Assistance
Website and
online presence
Multilingual SEO
Customer and
product support
Training
Legal

32.
Update Your Key Metrics
7

33.
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

34.
Final Recommendations
8

35.
• 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

36.
Q&A