Quality at the Source: Gilbane Boston Session Summary

The Globalization Track's "Quality at the Source: Creating Global Customer Experience" provided advice from those in the trenches striving to do just that: bake in quality from the "get-go." From Gilbane's perspective, delivering customer experience is one thing; delivering global customer experience is quite another.

Our presenters understood this perspective from a "been there, doing that" frame of mind. Mary and I would like to thank Dee Stribling, Project Manager at SAS, Lori Kegel, Manager Technical Communications at Boston Scientific, and Richard Sikes, Senior Consultant & Advisor at The Localization Institute for demonstrating that global customer experience is not yet another industry phrase designed to bolster new marketing campaigns. Putting the global in customer experience is a necessity, critical for those with multinational revenue profiles, and presents tangible challenges for organizations to view the content lifecycle from a totally different perspective.

When perspective morphs to reality, organizations often unearth champions with a range of specialties that define the pillars for "going global." Consider the following quotes from our presenters that epitomize some of the success factors for globalization in organizations that clearly get it:

• On terminology management: "Words are the building blocks of an organization’s conceptual framework. The quality of terminology directly relates to an organization’s presence in the global community – words are an essential corporate asset!" Dee Stribling, SAS.


• On source inconsistencies: "The whip cracks loudest at the farthest end. Follow the creative process back along the whip to minimize fluctuations at the source." Richard Sikes, Localization Institute.


• On globalization issues within an M&A environment: "The overall end goal is the same for both business units. There are nuances specific to each business unit based on their internal goals and objectives (portfolios are different and cultures are different). These differences are largely due to where in the translation, memory management, and content management processes a business unit is functioning; one can be at the infancy stage and one can be much further in the growth within these processes." Lori Kegel, Boston Scientific.

Many thanks to our panel for sending the message that a satisfying customer experience happens only when communication is clear, consistent, error-free, and in the customer's native language.