“We have had a lot of success working with GlobalVision… They are very receptive to our feedback during the project, and delivered a translation localization that was careful and deliberate.”
“GlobalVision has been a great fit for our translation localization needs. We deliver a technically complex, high-value product, and we need translation quality that reflects that value.”
“GlobalVision understands the ramifications of incorrect technical data to a company that does a lot of engineering. Fortunately, they seem to get it right every time.”
“I’d like to thank you and your team for a job well done. Speaking on behalf of the team you’ve made this a pleasant, efficient and painless experience.”
“… GlobalVision has been our sole translation partner for all major releases and service packs since then. They are very cost-competitive, with strong project management skills…”
“We are very impressed with GlobalVision’s professional approach to localization. Our product-update localization efforts and costs have gone down by as much as 30%.”
“Working with GlobalVision is a breeze, I wish all our suppliers had the same work ethic! I never have to worry about prompt delivery and they provide us with excellent and thoroughly checked translation services.”
“I am quite positively impressed. You met a very demanding schedule with a minimum of fuss required on my part. That is a big bonus for me. I haven’t had to nurse this project along…”
“GlobalVision’s attentiveness to our needs and wants has made them an easy choice for our company’s translations. We can send them a document and it comes back ready to use, no extra work on our end.”
“…we solely use GlobalVision for all our translation needs, software, marketing materials and product specs. The delivery was always on time (many times ahead of time)”
“Highly recommended! … They have always been a pleasure to work with, and have provided our company with high-quality finished products.”
“While GlobalVision has provided excellent translation work for us, they also have very strong project management that allows them to meet their commitments on cost and delivery.”
“We have been extremely pleased that we have found the right company to go to as we expand into other international markets.”
“GlobalVision have the experience, expertise and takes pride in what they do and it shows in their professionalism in managing the project and delivering quality results on time… Highly, Highly recommended!”
“Translation is often a very difficult and challenging endeavor. GlobalVision always takes on the task with a high degree of initiative, thoroughness and professionalism.”
“The work completed by GlobalVision was done on time, in budget, and conducted in a very professional manner. We would highly recommend GlobalVision as a supplier to any company needing translation services…”
“… Now that we have used GlobalVision to translate work into 13 differed languages our Customers tell us that they could not have done a better translation.”
“GlobalVision was a key part of launching our company’s international strategy. Their superior team helped us translate key web pages into eight foreign languages quickly and professionally.”
“We do appreciate how easy they have made this entire effort. Also, they were exceptionally pleasant to work with. Thank you.”
“After ten years of partnership with GlobalVision, SolidWorks can clearly attest to the success of the working relationship… The quality of the language translations has been high…”
“I always recommend GlobalVision to both clients and colleagues because I know their translations are accurate… they have not let me or my clients down!”
“GlobalVision is a top-notch company who not only delivers quality translations that meet or often beat deadlines, but also gives peace of mind that you are always receiving the best value in the industry.”
“The service and professionalism of the staff was A+ … the staff maintained continued contact until the job was 100% complete.”
“GlobalVision always showed professionalism along with a detailed status of how the job was progressing. Their pricing was very competitive and projects were done on time.”
“I have worked with several translation agencies before discovering GlobalVision, and I can attest that GlobalVision’s quality of customer service is unparalleled.”
“Product section looks really good, I’m impressed by the good translations!”
Enabling Globalization
Your Localization Strategy Should Evolve With Your Needs
InfoMail, Q3-2002
GlobalVision International, Inc.
With low overhead and relatively small startup costs, software companies continue to mushroom in the U.S. to provide thousands of applications to niche markets. Once successful at home, efforts are made to quickly expand globally to gain market share and increase revenues.
This is when the need for localization first arises. The challenge at hand is to be able to provide a localized product, while maintaining a stronghold on continuing to improve and evolve the product. The separation and the fusion of product development and product localization become the paradox to solve, requiring the implementation of a workable localization strategy.
Depending on the importance of the localization task, quality control, time-to-market and the availability of funds, different strategies may better fit the requirements. Following are the different available options.
Over-the-wall
The “Over-the-wall” strategy, is when a company does not want to deal with the localization efforts or incur its direct costs. It delegates to its international value added resellers (VARs) or distributors to take care of the localization of its products.
In turn, the VAR will either do the localization effort internally, or out-source to a local company. In most cases, the VAR assumes part or the entire cost of localization as part of the added value that it brings to its local clientele.
The main advantages for using this strategy are that it:
The disadvantages are however numerous:
Yet even with the numerous disadvantages, many smaller companies with limited funds find this option attractive since it enables them to compete with other vendors on the international arena, or meet international regulations, or customer demands.
Coupled
As their international business matures in key geographies and becomes strategically important, companies opt to hold tighter controls over quality, schedules and ownership of their localized products.
At this point a loosely coupled integration between the software company development group and the localization staff will become required. In which case, the company either hires localization staff or works directly with a localization vendor, or both.
The localization staff coordinates with the development team and localization efforts are planned in conjunction with product release schedules. The localization effort will usually begin shortly after the product is stable enough and its documentation is taking shape. This could be at the beta or pre-release stages of the product.
The disadvantages of this strategy are the following:
The key advantages of the Coupled strategy are however many:
If you are a marketing executive, these advantages will enable you to plan worldwide rollouts of your product while maintaining the quality image that you seek for both your company and product. It also buys you leverage over VARs or distributors worldwide. Often you have to rely on more than one distributor in key geographies and by owning the localized product you will remain in control.
Integrated
Simultaneous releases of English and localized products are becoming a requirement for some companies. Worldwide users want to buy a localized version of the software as soon, or shortly after, the English version is available. Also, to gain the world’s attention as well as effectively promote their products worldwide, marketing executives, while doing worldwide rollouts of their products, have discovered the necessity of simultaneous localized releases.
Simultaneous releases require larger software companies, with non-standard, complex or numerous applications, to localize their graphical user interfaces (GUI) in parallel to software development. This will require the adoption of the Integrated localization strategy.
This strategy enables the release of beta or pre-release software in multiple languages at once. Beta testing can therefore take place simultaneously in all the necessary geographies. This permits feedback on all localized products to be provided, in a timely fashion, to make any necessary modifications to the source code before the English version is fully released.
Manuals, online help files, release notes and other documents can still be finalized after the English source is stable. These files do not have an impact on the source code.
The fully integrated strategy will require the localization staff to have continuous access to GUI files. Often localization staffs working on the GUI files in an integrated environment work onsite where they have access to RCS or the repository file vault used by the software developers.
Also, frequent updates to the GUI files will be necessary to keep up with the development effort and to permit frequent builds of the localized software, for the localized products to be ready for beta or pre-release with the English version.
The main disadvantage of the Integrated strategy is that it will add to the costs of localization and sometimes make it unjustifiably high for smaller companies.
Process is king
Luckily, with advances in computer aided translation tools and software standards, the Integrated strategy is considered overkill for most companies. With the advent of software standards, many localization tasks can be separated from the development effort. Also, GUI binary localization tools, translation reuse, translation databases and terminology banks have directly contributed to considerably shrink localization costs and schedules, making the Coupled localization strategy approach the most efficient one to adopt.
If your company has a global vision, the localization process it needs to enable an efficient and effective Coupled localization strategy remains to be of paramount importance.