The document discusses the strategic considerations of building versus buying translation technology for organizations, emphasizing unique requirements, security, content ownership, and data protection laws. It raises questions about the feasibility, cost, and management of custom-built systems versus off-the-shelf solutions, as well as the evolving landscape of localization technology. Additionally, it touches on the importance of budget allocation and decision authority in technology adoption within localization departments.

1. Make or Buy
Spence Green, Lilt
Sergey Parievsky, VMWare
Justin Thorne, Age of Learning
Yan Yu, Spartan Software
Jack Welde, Smartling
or

2. What would be some reasons for choosing to build, rather than buy a
commercial product/platform?

3. Is building / owning translation technology every truly strategic to an
organization?

4. One of the common reasons given for building internal systems is
because of “unique requirements”. Is this legitimate?

5. Is there a hybrid approach, using off-the-shelf platform technology,
customized via API?

6. Why is this industry so hesitant to embrace the cloud?

7. What about:
• security considerations?
• content ownership?
• data protection laws?
How should we mitigate these risks?

8. Outside of tech companies, how likely are companies able to build
their own translation tech?
To host and maintain their own MT engines?

9. How costly is ongoing maintenance for custom-built tech?
As content platforms evolve and integrations change, are companies
capable of keeping up with these changes?

10. Is the organizational change management easier with a home-built
platform or a purchased platform?
How do you mitigate risks of migration and manage change in both
situations, build vs. buy?

11. In your experience as a buyer, is it better to buy from one vendor or
use multiple vendor products?

12. How does open source change the decision process of build vs. buy?

13. Do localization departments actively monitor the vendor and
technology landscape?
How are localization managers educating themselves on the various
offerings on the market?

14. Are localization departments even given proper budgets and decision
authority to purchase technology?
How might an organization go about getting the necessary budgets
and decision authority?
Are localization managers empowered?

15. Going forward, do you see more companies building their own
translation technology?
Or are more companies buying off-the-shelf tech?