Curated for content, computing, and digital experience professionals

Month: October 2009 (Page 3 of 3)

Integrated Solutions for the Global Content Value Chain: An Interview with STAR Group

Fourth in a series of interviews with sponsors of Gilbane’s 2009 study on Multilingual Product Content: Transforming Traditional Practices into Global Content Value Chains.

We spoke with Karl Darr, an independent consultant working with STAR Group.  STAR Group is a leader in information management, localization, internationalization, and globalization solutions that address the entire lifecycle of technical communications. Karl talked with us about the importance of addressing the global content value chain (GCVC) in a comprehensive way, STAR Group’s role in delivering such solutions, and what he found compelling about the research.

Gilbane: How does your company support the value chain for global product content? (i.e., what does your company do?)

Darr: STAR Group’s mission has been to enable companies to build a single product that they can sell, ship and support anywhere in the world, along with all of the appropriate technical and end-user support literature in the native tongue for any target market. In every case, we find that the customer’s satisfaction and their perception of a quality purchase are directly related to understanding their new product in their native language. 

Early on, STAR understood that a comprehensive, integrated solution could increase efficiency, while improving data quality and consistency.  So, rather than acquire and integrate third party solutions that were not designed to work together, STAR Group developed a seamlessly integrated, end-to-end solution suite that included tools to accelerate SGML/XML authoring productivity with increased quality, integrated with Terminology Management, workflow, content management, Translation Memory, and publishing – all subject to monitoring and leaving a complete audit trail. 

All of STAR’s technologies can be purchased as stand-alone products. They integrate and interoperate very well with other vendors’ products to provide a complete solution in mixed technology environments.  However, as you might expect, STAR’s complete suite affords uncommon degrees of added efficiency, accuracy, quality and operational cost reductions.

Gilbane: Why did you choose to sponsor the Gilbane research?

Darr: STAR Group co-sponsored this research because the GCVC concept speaks directly to the sweet spot on which STAR has focused for 25 years. STAR Group has provided technologies and services to support every step along the GCVC, from information engineering, creation, and cross-functional synchronization to translation, localization, management, and static and dynamic publication along with dialog management and reporting. 

Gilbane: What, in your opinion, is the most relevant/compelling/interesting result reported in the study?

Darr: The most relevant/compelling/interesting result reported in the study is that 70% of respondents claimed that the process of integrating their GCVC technologies was difficult at best.  What is even more surprising is that, according to the research, only 20% of respondents claimed they had API-level integration between their translation management and CMS tools.

In other words, respondents are suffering from the fact that the people responsible for globalization efforts are dealing with limited vision, scope and fragmented tool sets.  This causes ambiguities, duplications and errors that unnecessarily waste time, energy, resources and corporate profitability – while damaging product and corporate images, and at the same time weakening customer affiliations with the company.

I believe that this situation can only happen when top corporate management is more focused on getting product out the door than they are on optimizing the customer experience, which is critical to increasing profits.  When customer experience is a top priority, these companies will recognize that globalization (or the GCVC) is a manufacturing process in its own right that needs to be prioritized right along with design, engineering, production and customer support. The GCVC is not a ‘bolt-on’ solution because it needs to be intimately involved in all of these processes. As such, GCVC efforts need to start as soon as the product planning process begins, be fully engaged as customer specifications become requirements, and continue in a collaborative manner throughout the process of a project becoming a product.  But, they don’t end there either.  Ongoing multilingual product support is critical for delivering an optimal customer experience, one that results in repeat or recurring business.  Because all GCVC solutions will require ongoing maintenance and support, end-user companies need to ensure that whoever is providing support can cover the full spectrum of GVCV functions. 

Often, our discussions with companies have only begun when organizations understand the depth and breadth of the GCVC. In some cases, they end up relying on us for nearly everything – from their technical writing to translation, workflow, content management and publishing, to spare parts order management with optimized diagnostics delivery and dialog management.  Many of these organizations – some among the most successful global companies – have relegated the notion of a “document” to be an artifact of a by-gone era. 

For insights into technology integration across the GCVC, see the section on “Content Management Integration” that begins on page 32 of the report. You can also learn how STAR Group helped BMW Motorrad implement an end-to-end infrastructure for global technical communication. Download the study for free.

Webinar: Corporate Marketing as a Publishing Business

October 29, 11:00 am ET

Attracting, converting, and retaining customers is the mission of every corporate marketing organization. Content is obviously central to executing the mission. The key to success, though, isn’t just delivering content on websites — it’s leveraging content to wring out its maximum value for the business and the customer.

Leading publishers have deep expertise in solving the knottiest problems associated with leveraging content. How can corporate marketers put a publisher’s knowledge and experience to work in their own domain? We discuss the issues and trends with Diane Burley, Industry  Specialist at Nstein, in a lively online conversation. Attend Everyone is a Publisher: No Matter What Industry You’re In, and gain insights into solutions that top media companies have put into practice to survive the digital economy. Topics include:

  • Engaging customers with content, and metrics to gauge performance.
  • Managing corporate marketing and brand content from multiple sources.
  • Streamlining web content workflows.
  • Creating demographic-specific microsites.

Registration is open. Sponsored by NStein. 

Coming soon: a Gilbane Beacon on publishing as every organization’s second business.

Getting started on WCM…

You may have heard that I’m the new guy in town, and I’m happy to say this is my first blog post as a member of the Gilbane Group.  I am thrilled to be a part such a well-respected organization, and I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work on all things WCM!

A little about me: I’ve been a practitioner and a consultant in the WCM space for over ten years, but I’ve worked for an analyst firm for all of two days.  The good news? I know, first hand, the pains users experience when it comes to web content management.  I empathize with the marketer who knows there must be a way to put all this content to work in her next pull-through campaign, and I sympathize with the Intranet Manager who has been directed to deploy more Web 2.0 tools into the enterprise, even in the absence of a business case. [I’m not a Web 2.0-basher, by the way.] I consider myself a passionate user advocate, and if I’m true to myself (and to you) I’ll continue to bring that perspective to all of my work here at Gilbane.

To continue my let-me-tell-you-about-me schtick, here are a few random thoughts that come to mind which will hopefully provide further insight into my philosophy as it relates to WCM:

  • Usability has become a commodity; It’s time for vendors to stop bragging about it and for users to stop accepting anything less.
  • Technology for the sake of technology leads to dissatisfaction every time.
  • “What problem am I trying to solve?” — If you can’t answer this, stop what you’re doing.
  • Technology won’t change human nature…but it will amplify it!
  • You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing…there’s a good chance they’ll fail anyway.
  • “Grassroots” applications require more planning, not less.
  • User research is never a bad idea… but don’t just ask them, watch them.

And finally,

  • If we spent as much time crafting strategies as writing RFPs and selecting tools, we’d achieve a much higher ROI.

So that’s it for now. I look forward to writing more on these pages and hope you’ll chime in with your thoughts and reactions.

 

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