My background is recently in Software but I have worked in engineering and publishing localisation

Depending on the industry you can be at different stages of development

Global economy is right now is going through significant change

Looking for the next big thingShort development cycles - RAD24 x 7 development & testing using multiple, multi location teams

Introduction

To win in any market it helps to be:ƒ First orƒ Only or ƒ Bestƒ or all three! (dream on)

In reality being first and best gives you the strongest chance to win in a market.

Its about creating a special position for your company in any market.

Be First Only & Best!

Phases of life cycle of most businessesƒ Innovationƒ Investmentƒ Managementƒ Competitionƒ Comoditisation

The big bucks are made by phase 3After that the margins start to dropIn the end - deep pockets often win

Wave or Life Cycle theory

Where is Localisation today?

It varies company by company But somewhere between Competition and Comoditisation

You can enter a market at this stage but it is much tougher unless you own a niche

The future lies in Localisation "services" and a much wider array of engineering/test work

7300 Executives around the world believe that the global economy has improved over the past six months, but many think the improvement will level off during the next six. Also the hunt for talent and the sustainability of consumer spending are also significant issues.

Executives regard outsourcing as beneficial, .. Asia is considered the region with the most promising growth prospects in the upcoming year .. expect that the pace of merger activity will continue to increase.

McKinsey Global Survey of Business Executives

Technology + Industry Expertise = Less Labor Intensity

Merrill Lynch report:The next big thing - Process Outsourcing

The definition of the IT industry will be expanded. Today vendors fight over the customer's IT budget. In the future, customers' costs of goods and expense lines will become available to IT vendors through process outsourcing.

Localisation providers supply to clients: Project managementGlobalisation technology for contentLocalisation/engineering/testing for ƒ Softwareƒ Web applications

What are providers doing today..

Most commentators now see our business as GILTƒ Globalisation, ƒ Internationalisation, ƒ Localisationƒ Translation

You can in fact see beyond that -ƒ broad language/locale/cultural services

GILT

Content Creation/ManagementTechnical WritingTerminology ManagementWeb GlobalisationProducing Multimedia in multilingual environmentsTesting - (as described elsewhere)Linguistic Quality testingMultilingual Product marketing materialMulticultural Brand ManagementCultural Assessments

List of some additional Language/Cultural Services that can be outsourced

Increased content qualityLower content volumeMaximise readiness of content for localisationNew markets due to open standards/ open source

You should not underestimate local knowledge - the OS, Cultural, Technical

Other things to look........

So what does that mean...

Localisation remains a key part of any global business strategy

BUT it is not the only partIt needs to demonstrate that it has a first and best culture

There will remain a very significant number of clients coming into the market for the first time looking for solutions

There are still big numbers of clients using older business models due to "cost"

At the end of the day the majority of the business will move - the 80:20 rule applies

Product Develop cycles used to be 18mth + for major releases

Now there down to 8 months!New tools help but we also need ...Better and faster & reliable processesProcesses can be outsourced

So what does this mean....

Turn around is now the most critical factor Many cite the example of 6 Sigma - an excellent quality process for established products where you want to drive down costs and raise efficiency

You can loose out to competitors who innovate while you try to put a complex process in place.

Its horses for courses.

Speed is of the essence...

Not every client will be staffed (or want to be) to cover all content and locale issues

Even the largest client companies will outsouce (or be oursource providers themselves)

Smaller companies will outsouce even moreKnow your client needs - anticipate them!

Look for the gaps....

RAD is working on extending the Eclipse platform, which is supported by an open-source community for multi-vendor software tool integration. Using Eclipse-based tools, developers can integrate tasks easily and quickly to improve the quality of applications and time to market.

RAD tools enable users to quickly build applications and application templates, using visual editors, without having to program the code.

Rapid Application Development or RAD development tools

Open source open platform for tool integration Built by an open community of tool providers Common public license - royalty free source code & world wide redistribution rights

Ultimate flexibility and control over software technologyEclipse based tools give developers freedom of choice in a

ƒ multi-language, multi-platform, multi-vendor environmentƒ Is written in Java with extensive plug-in construction toolkits and

examples.ƒ Deployed on Linux, QNX, OSx and Windows based systems.

A full description of the Eclipse community and white papers documenting the design and use of the Eclipse Platform are available at http://www.eclipse.org

Eclipse

Selection of members:ƒ Borland, IBM, Rational Software3, Red Hat,

SuSE, Sybase, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, Oracle,Catalyst Systems, SAP, teamstudio Ericsson, Intel, etc.,

Who make up Eclipse

24 X 7 Cycles

Short RAD cycles demand quick turnaroundsWork is spread over many locationsƒ Asia, Europe, America etc.

Work gets passed from one team to the nextCommon access to builds and deployments ƒ every team can work on the same task held in a

common area.

Globalisation Testing

Not just about UI testingthere are many other services that can be provided:ƒ functionalityƒ usabilityƒ System testing and interoperabilityƒ performance ƒ scalability

Unit test System TestPerformance

testFunction test Integration test

Globalisation Verification Test

Translation Verification

testService test

Testing Phases

Globalisation (G11N)ƒ The proper design and execution of systems,

software, services, and procedures so that one instance of software, executing on a single server or end user machine, can process multilingual data, and present data culturally correctly in a multicultural environment.

ƒ Ensuring that the product under test is internationalised and localisable.

Globalisation Verification

Internationalisation (I18N)ƒ Process of producing a product that is independent of

any particular language, script, culture, and coded character set.

ƒ Making sure the product will work in the required locales prior to localisation. This means for example that the English version needs to be able to handle Japanese text when being used by someone in Korea. Internationalisation is sometimes referred to as international enabling or NLS.

Internationalisation verification

Localisation (L10N)ƒ The process of modifying products or services

to account for differences in distinct markets.ƒ This usually means ensuring that the product

under test is able to be translated without reduction of functionality. Other example of localisation would be adapting rules to meet local regulations and business practices such as sales tax calculations etc..

Localisation verification

Single exe / Localization Pack

Single program one executable for multiple locales with standardised approach to working with different sets of locale-specific program data.

LPs contains Program data that is specific to a language in a country or region

Also includes user visible text. May have date and time format, currency format, number format, collating information, and text layout information.

A product needs to be able to support multiple localisation packs simultaneously so that it can support users from different parts of the world at the same time, and data from multiple locales.

Installable - only one locale can be installed and used at a time.

Pluggable - multiple pluggable localization packs can be used by a single installed copy of an executable

Run-time pluggable - new or changed localization packs can be accessed by the main program without requiring a program restart.

On-Demand - new or changed localization packs can be located by a running program or platform without user intervention - administrator authorisation may be required

Types of Localization Packs