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

1. Introduction • 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 thing • Short development cycles - RAD • 24 x 7 development & testing using multiple, multi location teams

2. Be First Only & Best! • To win in any market it helps to be: • First or • Only or • Best • 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.

3. Wave or Life Cycle theory • Phases of life cycle of most businesses • Innovation • Investment • Management • Competition • Comoditisation • The big bucks are made by phase 3 • After that the margins start to drop • In the end - deep pockets often win

4. 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

5. McKinsey Global Survey of Business Executives • 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.

6. 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. Technology + Industry Expertise = Less Labor Intensity

7. What are providers doing today.. • Localisation providers supply to clients: • Project management • Globalisation technology for content • Localisation/engineering/testing for • Software • Web applications

8. GILT • Most commentators now see our business as GILT • Globalisation, • Internationalisation, • Localisation • Translation • You can in fact see beyond that - • broad language/locale/cultural services

9. List of some additional Language/Cultural Services that can be outsourced • Content Creation/Management • Technical Writing • Terminology Management • Web Globalisation • Producing Multimedia in multilingual environments • Testing - (as described elsewhere) • Linguistic Quality testing • Multilingual Product marketing material • Multicultural Brand Management • Cultural Assessments

10. Other things to look........ • Increased content quality • Lower content volume • Maximise readiness of content for localisation • New markets due to open standards/ open source • You should not underestimate local knowledge - the OS, Cultural, Technical

11. So what does that mean... • Localisation remains a key part of any global business strategy • BUT it is not the only part • It 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"

12. So what does this mean.... • 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 processes • Processes can be outsourced

13. Speed is of the essence... • 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.

14. Look for the gaps.... • 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 more • Know your client needs - anticipate them!

15. Rapid Application Development or RAD development tools • 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.

16. Eclipse • 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 technology • Eclipse based tools give developers freedom of choice in a • multi-language, multi-platform, multi-vendor environment • Is written in Java with extensive plug-in construction toolkits and examples. • 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

17. Who make up Eclipse • Selection of members: • Borland, IBM, Rational Software3, Red Hat, SuSE, Sybase, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, Oracle,Catalyst Systems, SAP, teamstudio Ericsson, Intel, etc.,

18. 24 X 7 Cycles • Short RAD cycles demand quick turnarounds • Work is spread over many locations • Asia, Europe, America etc. • Work gets passed from one team to the next • Common access to builds and deployments • every team can work on the same task held in a common area.

19. Globalisation Testing • Not just about UI testing • there are many other services that can be provided: • functionality • usability • System testing and interoperability • performance • scalability

20. Testing Phases Unit test Function test Performance test System Test Integration test Globalisation Verification Test Translation Verification test Service test

21. Globalisation Verification • Globalisation (G11N) • 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. • Ensuring that the product under test is internationalised and localisable.

22. Internationalisation verification • Internationalisation (I18N) • Process of producing a product that is independent of any particular language, script, culture, and coded character set. • 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.

23. Localisation verification • Localisation (L10N) • The process of modifying products or services to account for differences in distinct markets. • 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..

24. 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.

25. Types of Localization Packs • 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