Recently in Content Management Category

Well, our blogging hiatus is over. No, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth, as some loyal readers might have thought. Quite the contrary. We've been criss-crossing countries and continents since April, speaking at industry events, user group meetings, and our own conference in San Francisco.

What's really keeping us busy, though, is new original research and analysis on content globalization within multinational organizations. Gilbane Group'sMultilingual Communications as a Business Imperative: Why Organizations Need to Optimize the Global Content Value Chain will be published this summer. The report provides an in-depth look at the current state of content globalization initiatives and emerging best practices. Highlights include profiles of companies with worldwide brands who are bringing together people, process, and technology to align multilingual content initiatives with strategic global business goals.

You may have gotten a sneak peek at preliminary results if you attended Gilbane San Francisco, Localization World in Berlin or the STC annual meeting in Philadelphia, or Sajan or SDL customer events in May. In the weeks ahead, the research will be featured in several webinar events, such as the July 24 event with study sponsor RedDot, and in our blog entries (so check back often).

In addition to RedDot, sponsors are Jonckers, Sajan, Sitecore, SDL Tridion, Systran, and Jahia.

We're very excited about the insights we uncovered in the research, and we look forward to sharing them with our readers. Stay tuned.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Candy Moss, Creative Director with Translations.com, to discuss the importance of multilingual brand management as a success criterion for global organizations.

LC: What role does a creative team play within Translations.com?
CM: Our Creative Team operates as a resource to our corporate clients' marketing and advertising teams. Our Multicultural Marketing Department provides cross-cultural branding research, copy transcreation, and image consulting services as part of Translations.com's core service offering.

LC: What is your background?
CM: 20 years in multicultural marketing consulting, with a background in content and creative design; my experience at Translations.com has increased my expertise in Hispanic markets in the U.S. as well as global markets considerably.

LC: How large is the Creative Team and what kinds of tasks are they involved with?
CM: We have close to 20 full time staff across multiple, global production centers. We also contract copy writers, graphic designers, and linguists. Our tasks include researching the impact of brand names, package design, website layout and content; any elements that impact of the global products nuances such as tone, style, design, content, format, color and illustrations.

LC: So that means your team does both transadaptation and transcreation work, correct? For global branding projects, which skill set is needed most?
CM: Both are important. However, adapting marketing messages has more to do preserving the concept (of the message) and changing the execution than with word for word translations. The example on "The Lighter Side" of our Web site demonstrates the challenge of dealing with the intricacies of culture.

LC: What kinds of research does the creative team rely on?
CM: We have extensive qualitative data based on 10 years of proprietary research. We develop customized survey tools based on each client's needs. Once we get feedback from the target market, we work closely with the client's creative team. This is also essential because they are the subject matter experts in their company's product, positioning goals, and target customers. Generally, we function as an extension of a company's brand champion team: the advertising agency is, in my experience, the group that is the first to recognize the need for our services. In the end, we team up with the agency and the company's internal staff, serving as a general resource to the group.

LC: What are some of the best practices you have seen in global branding efforts?
CM: Understanding the need for due diligence in obtaining, understanding, and incorporating the voice of the local customer. And then, having the skills to distinguish between individual opinions and reactions to those of the larger culture. Overall? Understand your goals: why are you making these localization efforts and how effectively do they convey your company's goals.

LC: And the worst?
CM: The idea that one person can assume what a culture will or will not bear. You really have to be open minded so that you are receptive to what impact a phrase or image will have in each cultural setting. A single line of copy or image can have a lasting impact -- you want to do everything you can to be sure that impact is positive. Even after 20 years in the industry, and evaluating more survey responses than I can count, I learn something new every day.

LC: What is your advice for those striving to communicate the importance of the local in globalization?
CM: Ask your team to put themselves in the target market's shoes. If that market receives only x percentage of localized content, the perception may be that they are only as important as the effort put into communicating with them. In terms of marketing and global branding efforts, think of the effort put into the taglines or slogans in the source language, usually English. When adapting the message to a different culture, give the effort the same level of respect.

I distinctly remember asking this question to my peers (and to myself!) at various companies throughout my technical writing career. Lots of times I got the same question as the answer. And most times, the "who's go it" discussion occurred in the midst of a post-mortem point release meeting or as a result of a technical support inquiry based on conflicting documentation narrative or procedures.

I worked with an exceptional group of writers during the late 80's through the mid-90's. We were dedicated to accuracy, consistency, reusability, and making sure that Engineering and Quality Assurance never forgot where we sat. We were pioneers at the time in achieving single-sourced print, electronic, and online help documentation without the benefits of mature commercial tools. When managing the translation of documentation products, we spent lots and lots of time on the phone. We were stressed. Highly stressed.

For all our good intentions, a paper-based Style Guide complete with change pages and various scribbles in the margins to document new decisions didn't cut it. Rigorously-developed templates and in turn DTDs, did not deliver the foul-proof uniformity insurance we imagined. After all, we were creative and passionate writers! Bound by common goals for quality, but invigorated by the chance to innovatively describe complex and technical subjects in new and interesting ways ;-). Unfortunately for our translator-counterparts, there were times it just didn't compute.

I've shown my age by reminiscing as a "that was then, this is now" exercise. Content creation and in particular, managing team-authored product support content has come a long way. Social computing technologies will undoubtedly take it even farther. What I'm most impressed with now, is the availability and value of authoring assistance (as opposed to absolute control) that brings a living, breathing corporate Style Guide into the technical writing and translation environments without disrupting creative flow or requiring re-training.

Join me on April 9th to discuss the value of authoring assistance with technology provider across Systems, language services provider Argo Translation, Inc., and Quad/Graphics, a customer reaping the benefits of authoring assistance technology in a FrameMaker environment.

Just a quick observation about the March 11 edition of Gilbane's email news round-up. Five of the ten "news-of-note" summaries were developments in the globalization space that we cover in this blog.

• Across Systems formally establishes presence in North America.


• Translations.com merges with Alchemy.


• Clay Tablet partners with Oracle.


• Sajan releases new search-and-match technology for multilingual content.


• MultiCorpora offers packaged solutions for corporate translation applications.

More evidence that there's lots shaking in the world of people, process, and technology for multilingual business communications.

One of the blogs I read regularly is penned by Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Chairman Emeritus from the IBM Academy of Technology. A 37-year IBM veteran (and recent retiree as of May, 2007) Wladawsky-Berger writes on innovation, corporate culture, knowledge management, and as you would expect, technology. Usually thought-provoking, I've been re-visiting a particular entry while observing "the winds of change" in the content and translation management software industries.

In this entry, Wladawsky-Berger writes, "While it is easy to focus on the global, universal aspects of the successful innovation hubs - great technologists, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists - they miss the very local, human elements that make it all work." Words close to my pet peeve, the significance of the triad of people, process, and technology in global content management strategies. IMO, it is no mistake that this age-old expression lists people first, technology last, and process as element that ties the two together.

Truly localized content, more than just red = rojo, is impossible to produce without cooperation, collective responsibility, and the premise that "differences still matter" and perhaps the world isn't so flat after all. (Wladawsky-Berger's entry spurred me to purchase Pankaj Ghemawat's book, Redefining Global Strategy, published this past September.)

When globalization is an incidental black box in the process model with planning and execution relegated to the final stage of product support or web content delivery, the local part of globalization disappears. Granted, even the power of the Internet does not erase the fact that merging collective, culturally-aware, and local expertise is hard. But hey, collaboration has always been hard, simply because it's not about technology, it's about motivation, feedback, a sense of responsibility, a feeling of community -- you know, all those human complexities.

We believe social computing has the energy to encourage and enable innovative collaboration in global content management, but even these applications will face the user adoption test: usability and relevancy to the task at hand. We're off to find some of the most intriguing examples of success. Got one? Comment here and stay tuned.

Our conference in San Francisco from June 18-20 extends our discussion of global content to the West Coast. We'll be talking about the ability to create, define and manage a Global Content Value Chain within two distinct operational areas: customer service and brand management, both highly dependent on accurate, consistent, and contextual multilingual communications.

We'll also provide content professionals with a succinct knowledge map of translation process and technology components, increasingly handy as the content and translation management worlds collide. Then, onto an update on system integration opportunities based on enterprise strategy rather than ad-hoc processes. Join us!

GCM-1: Optimizing the Global Content Value Chain: Focus on Product Support Content
Wednesday, June 18: 2:00 - 3:30pm
Product support content includes technical documentation as well as the content that lives with a product or service in many formats and contexts, including pre-sales, post-sales, aftermarket, training, and service. The global economy adds languages as yet another output to the traditional multichannel formula, increasing content volume due to the nuances of dialect and culture. Speakers explain how to build global content value chains that combine core content technologies with heavy doses of authoring assistance, collaboration, automated workflows and project management to documentation and translation processes. Results include multilingual product content that satisfies customers, enables simultaneous shipment of products worldwide, and delivers cost and operational efficiencies.

GCM-2: Optimizing the Global Content Value Chain: Focus on Web Content
Thursday, June 19: 8:30 - 10:00am
Customer-facing Web content must consistently communicate an organization's core brand regardless of the language through which the message is delivered. The integral role of company Web sites in engaging with customers worldwide means that effective management of multilingual Web content must be central to content and IT strategies. Effectively managing this content presents specialized considerations such as understanding the benefits of machine translation, integration with analytics and search engine optimization tools, and segment-based translation that keeps multiple Web sites in multiple languages in synch with customer expectations. Speakers explain how to build global content value chains that combine brand management techniques with web content creation, management and distribution processes. The result is multilingual Web content that ensures the best brand experience in any language, at any time.

GCM-3: Case Studies in Translation and Localization: Process and Technology Overview for Content Managers
Thursday, June 19: 11 - 12pm
The worlds of language professionals, content managers, program and product managers, and IT are colliding, driven by the growing demand for integrating content management, translation process management, and other processes and practices comprising the global content value chain. The collision can be managed more effectively if all participants understand what's in the toolboxes of the other groups and how to put them to good use in the context of a total solution. In a case study format, language professionals explain their tools of the trade and show you how they add value to multilingual content. A session in partnership with Multilingual Magazine and Localization World.

GCM-4 & WCM-6: Case Studies in Integration: WCM & GM
Thursday, June 19: 3:30- 5pm
Content and translation management are core processes in the global content value chain. Integrating the systems that handle them is essential to streamlining processes, increasing the volume of language translations, controlling costs, improving efficiencies and ensuring customer satisfaction. To make the most of investment in people, process, and technology, integration of WCM and GM requires an enterprise strategy, not ad hoc processes that are recreated each time a new website is launched. This session uses real-world scenarios to walk you through different approaches to integration so that you can make an informed decision about strategies and practices that are right for your organization.

As the initial dust settles on the announcement of SDL's acquisition of Idiom, we noticed a couple of interesting trends -- some anticipated, some surprising, and some just plain troubling.

Expected trends? A steady outcry from the translation community, bemoaning the loss of the "Switzerland" of translation technology. A logical assessment, given that Idiom built an enviable brand as a pure technology provider and posed no threat to neither Language Service Providers (LSP) nor ECM players. OTOH, the neutrality factor left the status quo in place, leaving room for translation and content management players to handle integration needs as partnerships and in some cases, fairly loose integrations. Also expected? Fear-driven reactions inevitable to consolidation in any software segment, summed up by the "what now" debate.

Our take? Consolidation happens. The ECM market has demonstrated it for over 10 years -- the Search and BPMS market are well on their way. The platform players, i.e., the Microsoft, Oracle and IBM's of the world, have eaten more than their share, by some analyst accounts. So, consolidation happens. It is not really "what now?" that's the most important question; rather it is "what's next?" Consolidation is not always positive; it's disruptive, no doubt about it. In addition, technology mergers and acquisitions are notorious for the length of time they take to strategically integrate what's purchased. Some never do. Others have a plan from the get-go.

However, there's room for upstream opportunity and technology metamorphosis within disruption, both of which the translation industry is in need of. By all accounts, this industry is overdue for major change, requiring innovation from technology, service providers, pricing, and from our perspective, "the corporate champions," currently struggling to raise the visibility of globalization as an enterprise priority. We're not ready to predict that this acquisition will bring positive changes to any of these elements. That's for the new product roadmap to lay out -- and our advice to SDL/Idiom would be to tackle this sooner rather than later.

Whose does? Well, THE BUYER, silly. In terms of translation as part of the global content value chain, the documentation world is ripe and I dare say ready, for innovation based on solid knowledge of single sourcing and multichannel strategies. Add the ferocious uptake of DITA over the past 2 years, and you have a situation where a language can be an output rather than an overdue afterthought. Over on the "other side of the house," marketing is still trying to prove the value of geographically-targeted web sites as critical to brand and new revenue. Though these audiences may currently search for different solutions to their problems, they are today's buyers of translation and localization technologies.

Surprising trends? A lack of concern about tomorrow's buyer. You know, the corporate champions who already view globalization as an enterprise mandate, but can't justify an enterprise cost yet. The technology industry would be wise to "get ready," so to speak and by some accounts, they are. According to the BDO Seidman 2008 Technology Outlook Survey, 73% of CFOs at leading U.S. technology businesses expect to post increased sales revenue in 2008 over 2007. Over 39% cited consumer demand for innovative personal technology as the greatest growth driver, closely followed by 32% who cited international expansion as the main driver. Promising, yes. But what about the corporate CIO's? Many corporate champions we talk to still describe cultures that perceive translation and localization as the "black box" at the end of a larger process.

Troubling trends? The lack of response from the large US-based ECM vendors. It would not have been surprising for us -- and we dare say more "savvy" than surprising -- to see an ECM or WCM best-of-breed pick up Idiom. Perhaps SDL understands that value, in light of the Tridion acquisition as well as the Trisoft investment. We've been on the integration bandwagon for some time; there's opportunity to squelch the ad-hoc, siloed approaches to content and translation management as the norm. Trouble is, the "conversation" has yet to rise to a level where a departmental challenge transforms to an enterprise initiative. Consolidation happens. It doesn't mean the end of a market, but its reshaping. From our perspective, the time is right for vendors and users alike to collaboratively define the transformation.

Hewlett-Packard has long been a poster child for the application of people, process, and technology to content globalization solutions. The Gilbane case study on HP documented the company's commitment to satisfying customers in their local langauges. The mandate for multilingual content was made clear by the then-VP of content and product data management: 90% of HP's customers buy based on content, not on touching the product.

The importance of investment in content globalization solutions was driven home once again with HP's announcement of quarterly earnings on Feb 19. Overall, the company posted a 38% increase in earnings and a 13% rise in revenue for its fiscal first quarter. Of note to our readers:

In its first quarter, H-P's results were fueled by strong sales in its personal-computer division and robust sales overseas, particularly in markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. International markets accounted for 69% of H-P's revenue for the quarter.

Put these results together with customer buying patterns.

• 69% of the company's revenues were in markets outside the US.


• 90% of customers buy based content, not on touching the product.

Can there be any more compelling reason to develop a multilingual content strategy? And invest in people, process, and technology to execute against it?

Integration versus Acquisition, that is. Certainly the latter does not preclude the former. And we expect that it will most certainly not.

SDL and Idiom are making a strategic industry announcement with this move, with both obvious and subtle impacts on both the translation and content management industries. Most obvious is the influence it can have on the impact of integrating workflows, a year-long discussion we've having with the Gilbane community. Bringing more visibility to the Global Content Lifecycle and hopefully, more conversation on adding value throughout is a positive event. Ramifications on the state of content management interoperability, LSP neutrality, and market uptake for Idiom's deep investment in the SaaS approach will be more subtle impacts, which will be important for our community to understand.

We'll keep you posted as always, but note today's facts:

• This is not SDL's first foray into merging the translation and content management technologies, demonstrated by May's Tridion acquisition and the more recent investment in Trisoft, strengthening an already "deep" partnership albeit with no public announcement. Tridion caught the attention of marketing content management professionals; Trisoft should have caught the attention of techcomm content management professionals. Idiom will capture the attention of both.
• As we discussed in Gilbane Boston 2007, organizations that understand the impact of multilingual communications on efficiency, brand, and revenue are moving globalization strategies upstream to "bake in" quality at source content creation. One of my favorite quotes during our Quality at the Source session was from Richard Sikes from the Localization Institute, who reminded our audience that "the whip cracks loudest at the farthest end."
• The acquisition announcement will trigger more conversation on topics included in our 2008 Globalization Wish List, in particular the idea of "closing the gap."

Most of us have probably encountered user guides and manuals where we would have wanted to add some clarifying points. Even more so when the manual has been translated, sometimes less than accurately (that happens).

Now here is a thought: what if a product manufacturer would put the manual on the Web in a wiki format? That way, the end users could revise the text from the actual end user point of view. Then, an experienced technical writer, editor, or translator would edit the input to produce the "final" version or print, although the process could even be continuous. The result could be a better manual and the manufacturer would get yet another contact point to customers.

A similar model is already used, e.g., in newspapers where readers can enter news through their own blogs, and editors then pick and edit the pieces to be included in the paper. So why not at least experiment with some consumer product manuals? After all, Web 2.0 is a great place to try out new ideas!