Where international business was once the exception rather than the rule, more and more companies of every sort are involved in international sales and distribution or are contemplating moving to international business models. Going global, however, is more than just putting a mailing label with an overseas address on a product and sending it off. International business requires localization: the adaptation of products and services to meet the requirements of specific markets.

This workshop focuses on the basics of localization: the processes, tools, and business models for taking products to international markets. Participants will learn how products go from design to world-wide distribution, what sorts of problems can occur and how to prevent them, and how to talk to the individuals involved with projects at every step of the way. In this workshop, participants will trace a fictional product from design and product concept through development and testing, internationalization (preparation for localization), translation of content, release and marketing, and updated versions. At each stage the processes and tools used to achieve a quality result will be discussed and explained.

The workshop does not assume any prior experience with localization or translation, and is intended for anyone who needs to understand the process through which products are prepared for and distributed in international markets. The focus will be on general product localization, with discussion of the specific needs for physical products, software, and documentation.

Managing multi-channel content across today's organizations has become one of the major goals companies are just beginning to face; add multilingual needs on top of this, and you have a large potential hurdle to taking content solutions forward. Some companies, however, have already begun the transformation of their business models and processes to take advantage of the huge cost and savings (and consequent business opportunities) global content management can offer.

Are you responsible as a Sponsor, Project Manager or other stakeholder for delivering localized product? The combination of fast pace, budget pressure, tight deadlines and new technologies makes the management of localization projects a real challenge. This workshop will help you face that challenge by focusing on six of the most critical success factors for your localization projects:

1. Agreement amongst stakeholders regarding project objectives.
2. Develop a project plan that can serve as a roadmap and description of stakeholder's responsibilities
3. Managing stakeholders' expectations through ongoing communication
4. Manage risks through containment strategies
5. Controlling the scope of your project
6. Obtaining management support by aligning product localization with corporate objectives

Additionally participants will get hands-on experience with the creation of concise, clear Statements Of work and real life examples of risk management in the localization context.

Do you want to create a multilingual testing capacity in your organization? Do you want to offer multilingual testing services to your customers? Do you want to globalise your existing monolingual test organization?

This workshop teaches the fundamentals of internationalization and localization testing. Both management and technical aspects are covered in a practical, pragmatic manner. Numerous examples and actual samples of test plans, test cases and test strategies are provided.

Have you ever had to take a product and adapt it to the world market? Have you ever had to gather multilingual software requirements? How can you describe requirements which vary for different locales? Have you ever had a tight budget forcing you to choose which features to implement and which features to defer? Did you face this problem on a global scale?

Requirements are a critical part of any software project and become extremely complex when simultaneously facing the needs of different locales. This workshop shows you how to systematically approach requirement management for software projects independent of your development process.

The workshop walks you through all phases of a requirement life cycle including elicitation, elaboration, workflow, prioritization, development, testing, deployment and support. Several real life examples from successful globalization projects are covered. You will take home tools, templates and techniques that you can use right away!

Designing documents with localization in mind requires planning and awareness of issues raised by localization. Options for localization range from distribution of printed single-language manuals for each market to truly multilingual books that present two or more languages in a single volume, as well as a number of other types. Designing documents requires authors to understand the various production options available, as well as how these options impact document layout and the choice of software and production tools. Additional awareness of how documents are physically produced is also an important factor.

Because so many options are available, document designers need to understand the practical implications of their decisions, and how to choose which options will work best for their needs. They also need to be aware of how the localization process takes a single-language source document and produces localized documents. Preparing documents for effective localization involves taking factors like text expansion and font/encoding issues into account, and affects even the most basic aspects of document design, like layout. This workshop covers how to design documents for easier localization and the various design options available and their strengths and weaknesses.

Technology is another important factor influencing document design decisions. Not all DTP/authoring applications support all languages equally well (or even at all), and not all translation tools support all all DTP/authoring applications. A solution that might work very well for an English to German workflow might introduce problems when extended to include Japanese or Arabic. This workshop reviews all the major DTP/authoring applications and localization tools to show what considerations may apply for specific situations and to help you select the best tool for specific projects.

The workshop concludes with a discussion of language specific issues such as adapting layouts and graphics for right-to-left or bi-directional languages, and then discusses common problems and how to avoid them. It also introduces an incremental approach to improving the state of existing documentation to facilitate future projects using legacy material.

Do you want to sell your software applications worldwide? Do you want your eBusiness Web site to be useable and effective globally? Internationalization will get you there faster and cheaper. Why? Because if you want to offer your product in 8,12 or 20 languages, internationalization is about doing things once rather than 8, 12 or 20 times.

Internationalization is the first step of a two-step process. It consists in generalizing your product to be as language-independent as required. The second step - localization - consists in adapting the product to meet the needs of different languages and cultures. Internationalization reduces cost and time-to-market by making localization easier and avoiding work duplication.

This workshop will prepare you for all aspects of an internationalization project. You will know the issues, you will know the pitfalls and you will know the solutions. The workshop will provide you with a clear understanding of industry best practices, how to apply them and what their benefits are.