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IntroductionAs online productivity tools, e-commerceapplications and web services become evermore ubiquitous, the need for businessesto address the fact that the Internet isindeed a global medium, becomes increas-ingly crucial. Through the early years ofInternet popularization, many NorthAmerican companies were blissfullyunaware of the fact that only 5% of theworld population considers English itsmother tongue. With the recent down-turn in the local markets, gaining access tonew foreign markets is considered a gooddiversification practice. The issue of glob-alizing one’s web presence has thusbecome an important strategic decisionfor many companies in their efforts toleverage their products and services inmore markets.

The need for globalizationFor internationally active companies, suchas the member companies of the SCCCwho may be commercially active on bothsides of the Atlantic, there are many goodreasons to consider and then implement aglobalized Internet presence. Aside fromthe obvious facts, that anything on theweb can be seen by anyone anywhere inthe world and that users on the web arebecoming progressively more interna-tional and multilingual, there are alsomore immediate business reasons thatmay sway a company to localize itswebsites.

English may currently still be the lan-guage of choice for the majority of peopleconnected to the online world, but it willnot be long before non-English webcontent is more preponderant. Especiallywhen it comes to completing a commer-

cial transaction, it is extremely importantto give the customer as much comfort aspossible and communicate to her/him asclearly as possible what the details of thetransaction are.

Even though there is a trend towardsunified markets and removing trade barri-ers between jurisdictions, the reality still isthat as a company you have to addressyour customers with a customizedmessage and you cannot expect that onesolution will fit all. Customers will feelmore comfortable when content, servicesand processes are tailored to their personalneeds, their market and their culturalenvironment.

Companies can now easily reach newmarkets thanks to the omnipresence of theInternet. A company’s ability to address itstarget markets in a customized fashionbecomes a competitive advantage.

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Furthermore, taking into account thatonline customers are three times morelikely to complete a purchase whenaddressed in their own language, localiza-tion of websites becomes indispensable.

Certain cultures and societies may his-torically be more in tune with cross borderbusiness and multilingual trade (typicallysmaller countries that are not self-suffi-cient, such as Switzerland, have been goodat this). An imperialistic approach todoing business may often rub foreignprospects the wrong way. Internet strate-gies nowadays should therefore always bedesigned with all target markets in mind.The earlier a global web strategy isadopted, the easier it will be to create localsites that will facilitate the entry into newmarkets. The complexity of multilingualpublishing may be a daunting enterprisefor many small and medium sized enter-prises who are used to dealing in only onelanguage and the cost may be a prohibitiveentry barrier. However, with the sensibleuse of the available technologies as well asthe introduction of certain publishingprocesses, creating and maintaining highquality multilingual sites may be easierthan expected.

Business benefitsEven though we claim that the risks offoregoing web globalization are tooimportant to ignore, a company needs tounderstand on a practical level how such anew endeavour will benefit its bottom linebefore it makes the commitment to glob-alize its websites. The following is anumber of measurable benefits that maymake the case for your globalizationinitiative.

Through the centralized managementof all online activities an organizationgains control over its worldwide brand.Design guidelines and corporate ID canbe enforced more effectively and willensure that the organization’s image is pre-sented consistently everywhere. Of course,it is important to have design guidelinesthat are flexible enough to allow for localdetails and idiosyncrasies.

A well-managed Internet presence thatis in sync with the markets that a companyserves will help increase global marketshare. Personalized (i.e. localized) webexperiences will help serve up more accu-rately what web users may be looking foron a company’s site and greatly enhanceloyalty to the brand. Not only can thewebsite serve as an e-commerce outlet butit can also be utilized for such tasks as cus-tomer service or even as an internal(intranet) tool for the company’s world-wide employees.

In terms of immediate windfall thereare reduced translation costs that are a

result of the corporate translationmemory. Given the fact that much corpo-rate literature is repetitive, it is sensible tocreate a terminology database for an orga-nization that can then be used by anytranslator. Translators can download thecorporate vocabulary and then matchsource text against target language, whichwill both reduce the number of words thatneed to be translated and accelerate theactual process. The quicker translationcumulates in faster time-to-market andincreased market opportunity by simulta-neously reducing entry costs.

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It is important to keep in mind thatwebsite localization may be more than justadapting online content. To truly supporta globalized web presence it will not besufficient to merely install the proper tech-nology tools but there may be other ele-ments such as marketing collateral andresources for customer support that willalso need to be addressed.

TechnologyThe two main technology elements in aglobalization solution are a content man-agement system (CMS) and a translator’sworkbench with translation memory.

The CMS tool allows organizations topublish online content more quickly andin higher quality while establishing ormaintaining the publishing workflow thatis necessary to ensure the accuracy of thecontent. One of the main reasons foraccelerated publication is the fact thattechnical resources are no longer necessaryto publish online.

A translator’s workbench is softwarethat translators use to support their trans-lation projects. The tool matches anycontent from a new source text against thetranslation memory and can thus some-times pre-translate a large percentage ofthe new text. The translator still has totranslate and clean up the text but his/hertask is greatly assisted and accelerated bythe tool.

Many readers may be aware of theautomatic translation engines that areavailable on the Internet. While the textoutput of these tools may be good enoughto get the gist of a foreign language textthey could never be used in a professionalcontext. We therefore recommend younot use them on any of your websites.

Processes and commitmentOne of the most important things toremember with a multilingual web pres-ence is the commitment to keep allcontent across all languages as up-to-dateand accurate as possible over time sothat communications with all users is consistent.

For a company that is only starting topublish in multiple languages it will beimportant to approach the project with aphased methodology, i.e. it will probablymake more sense to start with one or twoforeign languages before committing tocovering all languages. This will give theorganization time to understand the intri-cacies of launching and maintainingforeign language content.

However, globalization is not merely aquestion of translation, as some contentfrom a parent site may not be appropriatefor sites in foreign markets and cultures.Good localization will also include origi-nal copy for the regions that you areserving. This will also include website ele-ments such as colors and iconography,which may be interpreted distinctly inyour foreign markets.

Mesh InnovationsMesh Innovations is a small Internet con-sulting firm; the localization and global-ization of web applications is one of ourkey areas of expertise. This means both thelocalization of the front end as well as theinternationalization of the back end inorder to support online publication inmultiple languages and for multiplemarkets.

Philipp Gysling can be reached atphilipp.gysling@meshinnovations.com or+1.416.871.8159. Feel free to get in touchwith us to discuss any of your onlineinitiatives. ■

Web GlobalizationWhy you should consider a multilingual web presence