Author: Leonor Ciarlone (Page 6 of 13)

Got quality?

Join Mary, Shannon Zimmerman from Sajan, and myself on Wednesday October 24th for a discussion of quality in the Global Information Age, in which mere information availability no longer suffices. Today’s customer expectations demand relevant information that is culturally acceptable, appealing, and most important, understood. Delivering contextual, multilingual information – communications that make sense in the customer’s language of choice – is fundamental.

Any company with a multinational revenue profile knows that fusing quality and translation is a significant part of the formula for success in a global economy. In and of itself however, the act of translation provides no “certificate of excellence” or “seal of approval” for its quality quotient. So, the obvious question is: What is quality translation and how will organizations know when they achieve it? What is a quality quotient?
Join the discussion as we offer our take on improving, maintaining, and measuring the quality quotient of information products for the Global Information Age. Register here.

The results to our poll on the Growth in Language Translations are in. Take a look:

A couple of data points jump right out:

• There is clearly a significant decline in those who are currently translating to only 1-3 languages when we look at plans for 2008/2010.
• In terms of changes from 2007 to 2008, the increase in language translations appears to be moving up from 3 languages maximum to 10 languages maximum. That’s more than doubling “translation capacity” over a relatively short period of time.

Adding to some of the stats in Mary’s blog on Emerging Markets: The Brass Ring?, economists agree that a revolution in the global economy is well underway. Donald Hepburn, corporate economist for Unilever, notes that “companies that do not understand the economics of developing nations will miss out,” and predicts a major shift in consumer consumption by 2010. The Economist concurs, noting that the shift is not just about China and India. And a Goldman Sachs study takes it a step further, predicting that by 2040, the world’s ten biggest economies will include Brazil, Russia, India and China, aka BRIC.

Begs the question, how are companies preparing for the increase in demand for translated content and localized user interfaces? Mary and I are on vacation next week, July 30 through August 4, but we’ll have more commentary when we return. Happy summer!

The recording from our June 26th webinar, “Utilizing Web CMS as an eMarketing Platform to Deliver Tangible ROI” is now available here.

During the webinar, my co-presenters from Hot Banana Software and I talked about how the Web is a critical component of marketing and sales strategies for organizations large and small. We noted that more and more marketing dollars are moving to online activities, in billions. Not many would argue with that. But we also reminded our audience that “the other side of the coin” in having more money to spend is the parallel rise in corporate expectations for ROI on that spend. Not many can argue with that.

The heat is on. Organizations want eMarketing to drive sales, period. Proving that it can – and quantifying that it does – remains the conundrum for many. As we discussed how to prove marketing ROI, we asked the audience to tell us about their eMarketing goals. Their responses clearly have accountability (read: measurement!) in mind:

We also talked about the fact that eMarketing is a dizzying challenge, given an array of emerging approaches, techniques, and technologies. Selecting the most lucrative methods is as far from a one-dimensional process as you can get. Here’s a snapshot of the methods our webinar audience is using today:

It can be interesting for both analysts and technology vendors to understand the rate of technology adoption within the field — as opposed to within the market forecast. Here’s a case in point, where “2.0”-driven techniques such as social media advertising and RSS content distribution lag begin more traditional “e” methods, focused squarely around email and search.

Want to read more on Web CMS and eMarketing? Download here.

This week’s topic: Growth in language translations.
5 questions,
30 seconds,
Promise.