Professional Documents
Culture Documents
At a Glance
Projecting a globally viable, coherent brand on the Web is not
a trivial proposition and requires much coordination, planning,
structure, and resources.
Executive Summary
Website globalization eliminates misunderstandings by adapting information to meet a target
locale's cultural, linguistic, and business requirements. By translating your website, you enable
users to access information about your company quickly and easily. By allowing your customers,
partners, and employees to communicate effectively with you in international markets, the cost of
doing business decreases while business results increase. But, creating a global presence for your
website often requires extraordinary efforts to keep your brand strong.
Four components work together to form the foundation of the worldwide web — Strategy, User
Experience, Content, and Technology. While this framework is well established within the
United States, globally it is still in its adolescence. Most companies with global markets have
developed solutions that serve those markets, but the level of support varies greatly. After a Web
site launch from headquarters, for example, there are often significant reverberations within the
local country offices as users struggle with things like inconsistent branding, fragmented
localization, and inappropriate content.
This white paper presents the Lionbridge view on Web globalization and describes what we
believe to be an effective approach to mastering it. We believe that to create and sustain a strong
global Web solution, an organization must address each of the four “Web pillars.”
Strategy
Fragmentation — Same Company, Many Faces
Seen and unseen “demarcation lines” between the spheres of influence within a company impact
the globalization effort. Geography plays a key role in these spheres of influence, and the
distribution of responsibility and resources across global markets can be extremely uneven. The
corporate office typically drives the Web initiative, but may lack the budget and the reach to
effectively position the company on the Web across all markets. Consequently the in-country
offices that are close to the customer and own the revenue in the markets often need to create a
local online presence — typically by adapting the corporate content, look-and-feel, and
functionality. It also sends the overall message to the prospect and customer base that they are
dealing with multiple companies online as opposed to one global company.
• Corporate site, translated — just a pure translation done with little input from the local
offices. The message is unfocused, and not specific to the country, with no means for the
local office to address the site unless they build something of their own.
• Runaway brand — which results when local offices solve the need of supporting their
prospect and customer base by creating their own versions of the site. In extreme cases,
the local site shares only a logo with the corporate site and presents the company
completely differently than the main Web site.
Projecting a globally viable, coherent brand on the Web is not a trivial proposition and requires
much coordination, planning, structure, and resources.
The following table illustrates the meanings attached to something as simple as color in different
countries.
No color is inherently “safe” or “good” and therefore a design needs to consider the color scheme
in context.
The same must be said about imagery. Companies must pay attention to cultural sensitivities —
for example using people of the right ethnicity. People’s gender, dress and gestures — none must
offend the cultural norms. Iconography is a subset of imagery and, since it typically aids the
navigation, it needs to be global-friendly.
One problem is hidden country and language selectors due to poor placement on the page. It is
absolutely paramount for a foreign user to find this feature, yet so many sites provide language
selectors that are half-hidden, or below the “fold” of the page.
Another issue is lack of language consistency. Once a user selects a language, he or she expects the
entire experience to be in that language. But often the user is presented with a mix of local and
U.S. content, which leads to a fragmented experience. Not all functionality (or content) is
available in all target languages.
The switch between the local and the corporation’s national language is not something to be taken
lightly and must be analyzed for impact on the user. Does the user speak the corporate language?
Will he or she feel comfortable finishing the transaction in the nonnative language? Does the Web
site support the local currency?
That can directly and negatively impact the user interface, if care is not taken to allow for “elastic”
scaling of the menu items containing text, icon names and the like. This issue plagues a lot of
companies’ Web sites, but can be avoided by defining the global requirements and standards early
on with the user experience team.
Content
Is Your Content Good for a Global Audience?
When reviewing companies’ content, we find that it often is written with one audience in mind —
a corporate single-market one. It suffers from not being written for a global audience:
Global, Regional and Local Content are Mixed and Need to be Un-Entangled
Companies do not formally separate different levels of content scope. We define content scope as
an area (geographical or business) to which this particular content applies. The typical areas of
scope are:
By formally identifying the scope, a company can begin to develop a global content model. The
content scope will govern the processes around global content creation and management — for
authoring, reviewing, approvals, as well as costs and scope for localization.
We have observed that companies have a hard time keeping content in sync across their global
markets. Synchronization refers to the requirement of having global content updated at the same
time (or nearly the same time). Typically, a relationship between source content and localized
content should be identified to ensure synchronization requirements.
In the global scenario, with content modeling being done at a finer (corporate, regional, local)
level of granularity, the steps of Create->Review->Approve may need to become more tailored to
the specifics of the content update, with processes becoming “chained” — where a change in one
area may trigger other changes (as in the case of translated content). Ultimately, it means that
from the content production and update perspective, each of the team members on the extended
“content team” — whether it’s marketing or technology — needs to be aware of the impact of
global content on their area.
• Ensure that the product (solution, site, etc.) is functional and accepted in international
markets
• Ensure that the product (solution, site, etc.) is localizable
If the necessary steps to get your infrastructure internationalized are not taken, the Web solution
can be subject to delays, rework, and painful extra-work to localize the solution at the proverbial
“eleventh hour” of the project.
To ensure this requires implementing global functionality in accordance with general and
framework-specific best practices, coupled with a clear, logical global strategy that addresses a
specific international business case.
Content management is a key process in maintaining and evolving the site. A CMS is a foundation
for a site where global content is created, managed, and delivered. If you have issues with the
current content management process today, they will grow exponentially in the global scenario,
due to a greater number of content modules, with more relationships between them, managed by
more people in more languages, more often.
• Translation within a CMS: This method is best for environments with third-party
content management systems, where translation is done in house, with no reliance on
best practices such as translation memory or terminology management.
• Use of Globalization Management System: There are third party systems that allow
companies to manage the full localization life-cycle. These are very costly systems that are
best for companies that want to make translation management their core competency.
When selecting the appropriate approach, a number of factors come into play, like the type of
CMS involved, rate of change of content, budget, workflow desired, and overall localization
strategy.
Strategy
Creating International Market Business Case
Create a Market Entry Checklist and Kit — Once a market has been identified, create a checklist
and market “kit” for how that market will be handled from an online perspective. This kit would
include:
• Required content
• Online standards
• Rules of engagement
Define Support and Resource Plan — Critical to market entry is identifying the resource plan to
handle the various tasks associated with entering a market. These tasks may include:
User Experience
Define Global User Experience Strategy
Companies must define their global online strategy as an extension of their overall marketing and
sales strategy. It is important to methodically define and control the key elements such as brand,
content, look-and-feel, and control.
Define unified user experience components for online sites — Defining a unified experience may
incorporate things related to content, navigation, look-and-feel, or functionality. Standards
should be defined for each of these areas. A single standard does not have to exist, but
maintenance of some standards will drive consistency and brand.
Publish a brand and style guide — Companies should consider the creation and implementation
of an online style guide that will define areas such as imagery, logos, tone, content, and colors
with regards to its online assets. While potentially a large undertaking, the importance of this is
heightened, especially if multiple web teams (inside the company and partners) are involved.
If the outside partners (such as distributors) are involved, Lionbridge recommends bringing them
into this process as well. Having them provide in-country information and perspective can be very
useful and provide cost savings in this process.
While there are a number of adequate ways to address language selection, the following are often
considered best practice guidelines when establishing language selection:
Content
Define Content Publishing Plan for Markets
Once the key markets have been selected and tiered, companies must create a content publishing
plan for each. This publishing plan will dictate what content gets published, where and how. The
content localization plan should be based on market requirements and expectations. Ideally each
target locale should be assessed to validate market needs and constraints. Additionally,
competitive position should be taken into consideration, i.e., if your competitor is providing a
fully localized Web site, then it may be in your interest to provide this as well.
An effective content publishing plan should have the following two items accounted for:
• Determine what will be published and where. This is a function of business goals and
local marketing plans and strategies; e.g., what products/services are offered in specific
markets.
• Determine what will be localized. This is a function of the estimation of the value of
translation and/or adaptation of the content for those specific markets.
Essentially, once you have identified and classified the “what,” you need to identify the “who,”
“how,” and “by when/how often” issues. Creation of both the content taxonomy and production
process are the precursors to the implementation and deployment of a content management
system.
Technology
Internationalize Key Components and Architecture
The following is a list of typical Web internationalization best practices — the specifics will vary
depending on the technology set in use (i.e., .NET, Java, ASP, etc.)
Use appropriate data types for content fields that can contain foreign language in the database
— There are two primary types of content that can contain foreign (extended) characters: foreign
content and translatable content. Foreign content is content that can contain extended characters
but is not typically translated; for example, a Japanese user’s name. Translatable content is
content that can be translated and will have separate entries for each supported language. This
differentiation is important because there are typically different storage requirements in terms of
database architecture, but also because the need to support Unicode-encoded foreign content is
sometimes overlooked, whereas translatable content is not.
Use locale-specific stylesheets for styles that include font definitions — Font definitions,
including size, family/face, and format (bold/italic/oblique), are locale-sensitive.
For example, smaller font sizes can be harder to read for Asian languages, and some Asian
languages use formatting such as bold and italic very sparingly or not at all. Therefore, it is
considered a best practice to define styles on a per-locale basis, which makes it possible to have
different font sizes and turn bold or italic on or off depending on the locale. The style sheet
determination mechanism could also fall back to a default style sheet in cases where a style sheet
for a specific locale does not exist.
Determine browser support requirement — Microsoft Internet Explorer is often considered “the”
browser to support, which reflects the fact that a majority of users use this browser by default.
However, some support for other browsers should be considered. The Mozilla browser family,
particularly Firefox, has gained in popularity, and the Opera browser has a larger user base in
Europe than in the U.S.
• Workflow: Setting up customized workflows, and keeping track of where the documents
are is critical to ensuring that the right content will get published in the right place at the
right time. From a globalization point of view, having a formal way of determining
document readiness for translation into another language as well as Export/Import
capabilities are very important to minimize overhead in managing of translations, and to
improve the time it takes for global content to be created.
• Content Granularity and Templating: Allowing for modeling your site in terms of
content modules, rather than pages, is going to be an important capability to maintain
and “institutionalize” through technology. Also, using content templates will allow
content contributors to manage their content in a more user-friendly, controlled way.
• Content Reuse: Similar to the previous item, by “chunking” content, you can create
powerful reuse models, with components needing to be created once, and used in
multiple ways. This can help streamline content creation and the localization process.
Which content to send through automated link for translation — All content can be sent through
the automated link, but certain content modules lend themselves more naturally to that process
than others. For example, the logo, icons, and imagery are not likely to change too often, and can
be sent for localization in a manual mode (using FTP, or a portal) as part of bulk localization. On
the other hand, product descriptions, services descriptions, e-learning materials, and marketing
campaigns change more often, and may require a quick turnaround. These are natural candidates
to be put on a “fast track” through an automated link.
Lionbridge Translation Web Service — Lionbridge is proud to be the first vendor in the
localization industry who implemented a full Web Services server to allow third parties to
integrate translation into their content repositories automatically.
Lionbridge Best Practice: A strong Content Management System is a foundation of your global
web site. It will ultimately determine the ease, and in some cases, the very possibility of creating
The basis of the Lionbridge Translation Web Services is a SOAP server that interprets and
services requests to the set of functions described in the WSDL file. This is done using SOAP calls
over HTTP. The functionality exposed by Web Services allows for a full lifecycle of submission,
monitoring and retrieving of translation jobs and quotes, along with house-keeping calls of
getting a list of languages, users, etc. The functions of translation Web Services include:
With this set of functions, translation services can be seamlessly integrated with any repository,
workflow, application, or process. This set can be scaled to whatever solution is required to meet
project needs.
Lionbridge Translation Web Services supports the XLIFF format that has gained wide acceptance
in the industry. XLIFF stands for XML Localization Interchange File Format and is developed
under the auspices of OASIS. XLIFF usage allows for a safer and potentially more efficient
translation process. The independence of tools is another invaluable advantage of using XLIFF.
Any type of content can be embedded into it. XLIFF data is embedded in a SOAP envelope that is
exchanged between the repository and the Web Services.
Conclusion
Ultimately, a successful Web globalization project is built on a comprehensive strategy that fuses
globalization best practices with your specific branding and technology needs. The “governance”
element is also critical, as the issues of ownership and control (of budgets, content, and
technology) can manifest into a tug-of-war between corporate and in-country influences, and will
come back to haunt you if not dealt with early in the process.
Creating an inclusive, open process, and bringing the right parties — marketing, business,
technology and in-country representatives — to the table is paramount to the success of your Web
globalization effort. Getting buy-in from the stakeholders early will pave the way to success.
Lionbridge Best Practice: Implement an automated link between content management and
content localization. Establish a “frictionless content exchange” process, where content update
and content localization are seamlessly integrated, and no unnecessary cycles are wasted on
manual processes.
Lionbridge would welcome the opportunity to explore the value our enterprise-class solutions can
bring to your organization and would invite you to contact us for an initial discussion about your
global objectives and how we might be able to help you achieve them. Visit us at
www.lionbridge.com
About Lionbridge
Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:
LIOX) is a leading provider of globalization
and testing services. Lionbridge combines
global resources with proven program
management methodologies to serve as an
outsource partner throughout a client's
product and content lifecycle — from
development to globalization, testing and
maintenance. Global organizations in all
industries rely on Lionbridge services to
increase international market share, speed
adoption of global products and content,
and enhance their return on enterprise
applications and IT system investments.
Based in Waltham, Mass., Lionbridge now
maintains more than 50 solution centers in
25 countries and provides services under the
Lionbridge® and VeriTest® brands
Corporate Headquarters
Lionbridge
1050 Winter Street
Waltham, MA 02451
USA
www.lionbridge.com