Main Content
San Francisco 2003
Understanding Customer Requirements
It’s not about technology - it’s about what customers want to achieve!
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Foster City, CA, USA
3-6 March 2003
Attendees at the LISA Global Strategies Summit focused on understanding customers requirements, with input from both the public and private sectors. With a majority of participants from client companies (more than 60%), participants shared different methods used to meet the same challenges. A total of more than thirty-five plenary sessions, panels and workgroup discussions provided more than 200 participants the opportunity to discuss how they are building global solutions for their customers, as well as how to “do more with less” in today’s economy.
Globalization: Resistance is Futile
Mark Davis - President of Unicode, Chief Globalization Architect, IBM
Using history, pop culture, and current media views, Mark Davis will explore whether cultures are coerced/compelled into globalization. By using concrete examples of successful global businesses, Mr. Davis will discuss the progress made in software over the past 20 years, as well as IBM’s software globalization strategy. Is it the customers who must change? Or do the companies need to adapt to them?
PANEL SESSION: Homeland Security and Language Technologies
Moderator: Lyra Spratt-Manning - Chief Executive Officer, RWS Group
Glenn H. Nordin - Assistant Director (Language), US Department of Defense
Joel Ross - VP Defense & Intelligence Services, Basis Technology
Richard Brecht - Director, National Foreign Language Center (NFLC)
Joseph Christoff - Director, International Affairs and Trade, US General Accounting Office (GAO)
Margaret R. Gulotta - Section Chief, Language Services Section, FBI
Dr. Ray Clifford - Chancellor and Provost, Defense Language Institute
This panel was organized with the help of Christophe Réthoré, the ATA Representative to the Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL), Director of Translation Studies Center for Translation and Interpretation at James Madison University.
Panelists will give their views on homeland security and international development as well as sharing their agency’s goals and activities addressing the development of language education. Other topics include key languages and countries, open standards and multilingual information management, language processing tools and workflow processes, and panelists’ expectations and ideas how to engage the language technology/GILT industry.
Doing More With Less: Localization and Internationalization Today
Suzanne Hamlin - Manager, Translation & L10N Services, Cisco Systems
Melissa Biggs - Sr. Globalization Business Manager, Sun Microsystems
This presentation will illustrate the decision to centralize Localization and Internationalization resources to more effectively support an entire organization as opposed to an individual product group or business unit. The focus will be on the effort to centralize after many years of decentralization as well as the decision to drive for centralization from the outset. The speakers will discuss the benefits and challenges to proposing such a structure as well as some timelines and best practices that were used to make the alignment a reality. The examples will provide insight into how to best approach the following topics: Prioritization of Tasks, Low Hanging Fruit, Vendor contracts, Resource leveraging during downtime, and Executive Support.
Stretching Sim Ship Boundaries - Oracle’s Simultaneous Development and Internationalization Model
Tony Gray - Senior Director, Oracle Corporation
Oracle E-Business Suite is a complete set of business applications, which enables companies to efficiently manage customer processes, manufacture products, execute marketing campaigns, ship orders, collect payments, and more. The suite is released in 30 languages and consists of millions of words of software and documentation.
In response to growing demand for internationalized products from their customers, Oracle has completely re-engineered the internationalization process for the E-Business Suite. Translations for all 30 languages are now completed simultaneously with the development process. At any time, the latest development code level of the suite can be built in any of the 30 languages. Product testing in any language has been enabled upstream within the development cycle. The suite releases simultaneously in all languages. This is achieved at a lowered overall cost to Oracle.
Challenging the Conventional Model to Address the Real Issues Affecting the Simultaneous Release of Multilingual Products!
Eugene McGinty - Managing Director, Connect Global Solutions
As a result of the current challenges facing the IT industry, companies have been forced to find innovative ways to reduce costs. This is particularly applicable to those companies who are required to simultaneously introduce multiple language products across several geographic markets. In order to effectively accommodate the increased volumes of work associated with such projects, the localization industry requires a new paradigm; a way to significantly reduce costs, enhance quality, and improve time to market. To date, we have heard a lot of talk around this subject but little has been delivered to address these key variables or to reduce the overall complexity of the whole process.
For the first time, it is possible to take the pain out of the ‘sim ship’ process. With the availability of enterprise computing technologies such as J2EE and Web Services we can now build the localization architectures to streamline many of the error prone, labor-intensive repetitive tasks. Technology is only one component however. To deliver a value added solution that radically reduces localization costs involves a lot more than technology. It also entails looking at the workflow and business processes of the client, being able to advise on how these processes can be improved to deliver significant cost savings and adapting the technology piece to support clients’ requirements.
There is no doubt that the market is demanding more cost-effective solutions. In a climate of economic uncertainty, successful vendors will be those who can meet the demands of our changing industry. It’s time to defy traditional business models and embrace the opportunity to deliver cost-effective, automated localization services that are in-line with our clients’ outsourcing strategies.
Global Product SIG Discussion Group
LISA is launching a Global Products Special Interest Group and invites LISA members and Summit Participants to join in a discussion to initiate the criteria for a collaborative framework addressing global product issues, and the promotion of international GILT standards and language compliance worldwide. The session will also give an overview of the immediate objectives of the SIG: to develop and implement a global product directory featuring global software products, listed by languages implemented, in harmony with international and regional software standards. LISA is seeking industry leaders, software developers and internationalization specialists to form the SIG and to help develop a feature and benefit criteria in line with the language compliance standards and procedures, which the SIG will define. Following this session LISA will make provisions for the group to remain in contact and facilitate a program for its ongoing development and establishment as a SIG under the LISA statute guidelines.
PANEL DISCUSSION: Customer Requirements - Why Build Global Solutions?
Moderator: Helena Chapman - Senior Development Manager, IBM Globalization Center of Competency
David Irwin - Senior Manager, Globalization Engineering, VERITAS
Thomas Tierney - Director, UCS Globalization and Network Solutions, Avaya
Eric Nicod - Software Localization Manager, Logitech Europe SA
This is a panel discussion about the goals and reasons of companies globalizing their products. The panel will also look at what resources are available to help companies who are not familiar with the current globalization technologies, along with the pros and cons of various approaches. The panel will share customer viewpoints defining global product and the reasoning to build them. Regional as well as company specific goals will be explored. Globalization myths, challenges and outlook will also be addressed.
Using XML to Reduce Localization Costs
Dan Dube - Director of Business Development, ISOGEN International
This presentation focuses on real-world case studies, showing how Fortune 500 companies have dramatically reduced localization and desktop publishing (DTP) costs with the implementation of XML-based technology. The solutions identified were designed to address the following problem areas related to localization:
- inability to determine changes to content between localization cycles
- requirement to publish localized content to multiple media types (e.g. paper, web)
- reliance on Translation Memory tools to keep track of previously localized content
- excessively high DTP and labor cost for publishing “difficult” languages (e.g., Asian languages, right-to-left languages, etc.)
In addition to architectural and business case slides, a technology demonstration will be provided to clearly illustrate these concepts with live XML content.
Cisco Operations Review: Cost Effective I18n and L10n Support. How Do We Get There?
Chris Nordstrum - Program Manager, Cisco Systems
Creating an enterprise-wide localization process at Cisco Systems has been very much like turning a very large ship around. Whereas the company once dealt primarily with product lines that required very little in the way of I18N/L10N, through a wider range of product offerings and increasing worldwide demand the need to localize has increased quickly and dramatically. This session will explore how this product shift has impacted the internal localization services group and how, with limited resources and budgets, they are making the most out of this tremendous business opportunity.
Putting Standards to Work: Realizing the Vision of Standards in Localization
Dan Dube - Director of Business Development, ISOGEN International
The localization industry has seen an increased momentum in the creation and adoption of standards. What will emerging standards such as XML, XLIFF, XSL, and others mean to the industry - and what will the impacts be?
This session will provide a glimpse into the practical application of standards within the business environments of two key LISA membership profiles: 1) the end user community, and 2) localization service providers. The presentation and conceptual demonstration will illustrate how the implementation of standards-based environments can help streamline the localization process from both of these perspectives.
Web Globalization: It’s Not About the Technology. It’s About the Business!
Tiffany Taylor - International Web Program Manager, Mercury Interactive
Successfully managing a global Web presence requires not just an investment in technology, but buy-in and commitment across the organization. Mercury Interactive has deployed websites in over 20 countries through an integrated content management/globalization management system. This presentation will address the business needs and rationale behind their program, lessons learned along the way, and the metrics used to evaluate ROI since rollout. Ms. Taylor will also discuss why the human factor is key to creating and maintaining global websites!
Web Services: How to Maximize TM Assets
Lionel Mellet - Managing Director,Telelingua USA
Philippe Mercier - Managing Director, Telelingua Software SA
In this session, Telelingua will show how its possible to have translators around the world, with translations on several incompatible systems and use translation memory systems via web services and still save money!
Localization Quality in the Japanese Market - What is so Special About Japan?
Terakazu Konishi - Sales Director, Human Science Co. Ltd.
In this session Mr. Konishi will give an overview of localization in the Japanese Market: How is Japanese localization prepared for the Japanese Market? What is different from other languages? How are the user’s requirements defined? How can solution providers meet the market’s requirements? How can we collaborate with our clients to provide good quality?
Localizing Products for the Japanese Market: A Culturally Oriented Sales Demand
Tamami Tokutake, Localization Project Manager, Discreet Division - Autodesk
Localizing products for the Japanese market is challenging, especially when the product company’s main goal is to be responsive to customer demands. Oftentimes this leads to a divergence from accepted USA localized product support policy.
Ms Tokutake presents Discreet’s sales support strategy for localized products in Japan, and how this complements their customer support requirements. She will address the following points with respect to Discreet’s customer and sales requirements; localization workflow, tools and quality expectations: Market Demand for Discreet Products, Quality Assurance Levels, Localization Tools Assessment, and How Discreet Manages Vendors.
Better-Faster-Cheaper Localization - To Be or Not To Be a Commodity!
Donald Barabe - Business Development Director, Canadian Government Translation Bureau
Localization today is facing daunting challenges: increasing demand, reduced turnaround time, higher quality expectations, mandatory return on investment for customers. This can be summarized in one phrase: better, faster, cheaper. In that context, should localization be or not be a commodity? Should it look after models developed by the manufacturing industry or get away from them? This presentation will answer these questions and others related.
Switching to XML: Impact on Current Workflow
Heike Caldwell - Project Leader, Rockwell Automation
Sharing the experience: Rockwell Automation has been implementing a CMS. Several XML files have been tested for translations. The first “official” project is scheduled to run through the new workflow. How did or does the transition to XML influence the current workflow(s), what changes have been made or still need to be made etc.? First results, first reactions will be presented.
CASE STUDY: Global Yet Local! HP Presents their International Online Content Management Approach
Alison Toon - Translation and Localization Manager, Content Management Services, HP
If you attend this session, you will have the opportunity to share and discuss experiences in the exciting world of multilingual “content” at a time when budgets are being cut and delivery times shortened. Ms. Toon will present a case study based on Hewlett-Packard’s implementation of a central content management system for use by web and hard-copy publishers worldwide. The system is designed to provide multilingual, structured product information, and includes both technical specifications and marketing content. It not only centralizes many legacy content management systems from both HP and Compaq, but will also help streamline the publishing of this information.
She’ll share with the audience: why HP launched this project, what HP aims to save, the challenges and struggles, the technology and its implementation--we’ll show you how it works, the effect of the economy: how they survived budget cuts, and what they learned in the process.
During and after the case study, attendees will be encouraged to compare and share their own experiences in similar (or very different) situations. Please bring along your own experiences that you would like to share with other attendees. All best practices and recommendations generated by this session will be distributed after the Summit.
PANEL SESSION: Investing In Today’s Language Technology Business: The ROI of Globalization
Moderator: Stuart Chapman - Director, 3i
Jacob Hsu - Executive Director, Symbio Group
Andres Wydler - Managing Partner, Constellation Partners
Linus Lundberg - Principal, Vision Capital
“Venture capitalists are still looking for new entrepreneurs and new ideas today,” stated Jean-Louis Gassee. “However, the parameters of engagement have changed since the dot com bubble burst. The timeframe to get return on investment and profitability from funding startups today is considerably longer than that of recent years. Criteria, this time around, will be without the rose-colored glasses that plagued dot coms.”
Participants will have the opportunity to hear the panels’ perception of the global investment climate today. Each panelist has either made an investment in a GILT sector related company or invested in European or Asian tech firms bringing products to the US. Strategic globalization issues and language technology’s role will be discussed as appropriate to their investments and business dealings. What role does language play in the development of successful new ventures? With the investment sector in a conservative mode today, is there money to be invested/made in taking a product or service global, to foster growth, and by whom? Panelists will also share their future outlook for both the investment sector and GILT industries. Is the homeland security focus on language a wake-up call for Americans that will drive the localization business? Will America start funding its international business development? Should companies be looking toward Asia as the place to be and investing accordingly or is Europe the best bet? What about Asian and European firms coming to the US? These questions and more will be raised during this highly interactive panel session.
Beyond the Web - Enterprise Global Content Management
Jessica Roland - Senior Product Manager, International Products Operations, Documentum Inc.
The need and desire for easy access to content in one’s own language is extending beyond just Web content. Today, consumers are also looking for enterprise-wide content to be available in several languages. This can be anything from customer-facing content, such as product documentation to internal content, such as company policies and standard operating procedures. As a result, enterprise content management (ECM) systems have been enhanced to enable organizations to successfully create, manage and publish content to many different constituencies and languages that are most familiar to them.
This workshop will address how global customers can use ECM systems to: streamline the process of creating and translating enterprise-critical content for rapid availability; ensure that translated content is “trusted” content (i.e., is it the most recent approved translation, what original language content version does it correspond to, etc.); ensure that translated content can be found when it is needed; optimize return on investment for translated content through re-use; manage the business process lifecycle associated with creating and translating content used globally; and identify and preserve relationships between original and translated content and structure it in reusable chunks using XML.
Globalization Consultancy - The Market Need, Requirements and Value To Clients
Luc Valette - Hewlett Packard, France
Ri-Shea Schlitter - Learning Products Manager, Agilent Technologies Inc.
This session will provide a case study on the localization by HP of Agilent Cerity for Pharmaceutical QA-QC in Japanese and European languages, the localization business needs for the customer, and consultancy requirements. The customer will explain their global business needs, their localization approach and how they required the consultants to provide expertise and services in their localization projects. The consultant will then describe how the services delivered have spread across the whole panel of localization services during the entire localization project life cycle, and what was the actual value for the customer. This will be illustrated with examples from the project. Mr. Valette and Ms. Schlitter will conclude by presenting their learnings on how the customer can make the best use of the panel of Localization consultancy services in order to optimize the project objectives like cost, quality and time to market.
What the Service Vendors Hide from their Clients!
Michael Cardenas - President, Multilingual Translations
Theodora Landgren - Director, A2Z Global Language Network
Petra Nelson - Localization Manager, Autodesk/Discreet
What do vendors fail to disclose to their potential clients, and what do clients forget to tell their vendors? This presentation will aim at uncovering issues which no one has the guts to discuss, but which are essential in a healthy relationship. Just to wet your appetite, some of the topics that will be discussed are: pricing (comparing apples to apples), resource management, and testing. Hard hats a must for this presentation.
Lessons Learned in Web Globalization
Tiffany Taylor - International Web Program Manager, Mercury Interactive
Mercury Interactive has built and maintained a Web presence in over 17 countries through the use of a content management system (TeamSite) and integrated globalization management system (GlobalSight) the past 3 years. This presentation will address: Why you need BOTH a CMS and GMS for a successful global Web program; How to plan effectively and gain buy-in globally for building a solid architecture and automated processes for localization; Real-life mistakes made and lessons learned along the way; How to realistically align resources with globalization objectives; and examples of how Mercury has utilized TeamSite to decrease turn-around time on international site development (and gained ROI along the way!)
PANEL DISCUSSION: “Does Size Really Matter?”
Moderator: Mark Homnack - Founder and CEO, SimulTrans
Christopher Pyne - Global Partner Manager, SAP Language Services
Harald Griessler - Localization Developer, Avaya
Peter Baron - Manager, Commercial Services, Rockwell Automation
Eric Nicod - Software Localization Manager, Logitech Europe SA
This question of size is more relevant than ever and in this session panelists will provide their insights, which will prove to be a wide spectrum of perspectives from companies- large and small, US and non-US, IT and non-IT. Each panelist will share with the audience the nature of their company, Localization model(s) used (MLV or SLV, in-house or vendor, etc.) and a summary of their view on the topic.
Switzerland - A Great Base for European Localization Projects
Jim Heim - Executive Director, U.S.A., Greater Zurich Area
As a small country that is home to four different languages and a wide variety of customer attitudes, Switzerland reflects the heterogeneity of Europe superbly. Additionally a multicultural approach and the foreign language capabilities of a large proportion of the Swiss population means that human resources in the Swiss labor pool are highly skilled. These traits make Switzerland a great base for European localization projects and according to the US Department of Trade “an excellent test market for businesses hoping to introduce new products to Europe.”
LTRAC: Language Translation Resource Automation Console
Brian Fleming - VP Development, Sandhills Software
Most translation and localization organizations have accepted the inevitability of using the net to do business (email, file transfer), but few have achieved the productivity derived from pushing this trend to its conclusion, making their processes and systems fully webbed. The fully web oriented organization is more productive, more efficient, more tightly managed, easier to work in, and better integrated into the 24/7, worldwide business environment.
How to Do “Global” Direct Marketing Campaigns?
Mark Bautil - CEO, iLanguage
Guidestar Communications is a cutting-edge, full service survey research firm based in Manhattan NY, with special expertise in designing and conducting eSurveys. GuideStar and iLanguage have teamed up since 1999 to conduct several direct marketing surveys for customer and employee satisfaction in 6 languages in LatAm and Europe on behalf of a US multibillion $ software company. Their mission is to gather information on each of them in all languages, coding and reporting accurately in English to the top management of the client. A team of 20 in-house iLanguage translators, consultants and project managers is assembled to work for up to 3 months in close interaction with Guidestar on each project. Full confidentiality is guaranteed.
The Solution: iLanguage Global CRM. iLanguage scope of work is to provide: translation services for the client/employee satisfaction HTML surveys in 6 languages for the European and Latin American market; email support help line staff of translators to assist participants from all over the world 24/7; and code answers in all languages and provide a detailed report to Guidestar in english to be presented to the client’s top management.
An Online Dialogue - Based Tutoring System for Writing and Translation Competency: AZALEA
Naoyuki Tokuda - Director, Research and Development, SunFlare Company
Akira Nagai - Associate Professor, Utsunomiya University
This session will over the Azalea - an NLP-based online language tutoring system assisting L2 learners to acquire English Writing and Translation competency. The system simulates a human teacher by automatically diagnosing free-format input sentences from the learner, and returning error contingent feedback with corrected sentences. The system makes use of FSA (finite state automaton)-based template system as a knowledge base, a robust and global HCS (heaviest common sequence) matching algorithm as a diagnostic engine, and the VTAT (visual template authoring tool) as an easy-to-use authoring tool. Exploiting a hierarchical buggy model of learners’ variety of errors, the new VTAT simplifies and facilitate the construction of labor-intensive, complex template patterns, allowing an efficient error diagnosis of learners’ errors.
The NPL-based written language dialogue system developed for the system is common to many important language dialogue systems and opens a wide door for a new NLP-based written and spoken dialogue system of future man-machine interactive systems, including voice-enabling call centre or voice portal systems or in fact any systems focusing on enhanced as well as advanced human computer interfaces, implementing more natural human computer interactions between the system and humans.
Connect Global Solutions
Eugene McGinty - CEO, Connect Global Solutions
Connect delivers total solutions in the areas of Globalization and Enterprise Information Management, including automated localization solutions as well as support for the engineering and testing activities of globalization clients delivering EAI services, business portal infrastructure and associated applications to support enterprise information management.
TRADOS Solution Overview
Howard Schwartz - VP Professional Services, TRADOS Corporation
A discussion of how corporate customers are linking TRADOS language technology into their overall global content management strategies and processes. Reviews some of the key challenges and drivers facing global organizations and the ways in which language technology is utilized to address those challenges. Discussion will include the ways companies are automating the handoff between content management processes and translation and localization. Also includes an update on new TRADOS products including newly released TM Server and GXT 6.0.
Automation and Translation Supply Chain Management
Paul Quigley - Director Technology Solutions Europe, STAR Group
Automated localization improves throughput and produces consistent quality. Supply chain management eliminates the transaction overhead in a translation process leaving just the cost of performing the translation. This software has been in production for two years producing dramatic cost savings for customers such as Heidelberg Printing and Press and Daimler Chrysler.
Success By Design: CMS Principles for Localization and Globalization
Colin Kingsbury - CTO, empolis NA, Inc.
The high costs and lengthy turnaround times required for traditional l10n processes are becoming unacceptable. XML, translation memory tools, and content management systems all promise transformative gains in efficiency- if you implement them correctly. The speaker, a lead architect of CMS solutions for technical publishers, will take you through a case study of a project in a documentation department of a Fortune 100 company. Through proper application of industry-standard practices and technology, this group proved that a CMS platform can not only increase efficiency but deliver substantial ROI of over 100% in its first year. By examining this and other projects in detail, attendees will gain an understanding of who is a good candidate for CMS, how to select the right tools for their requirements, and deploy them successfully within their organization.
