Is localization the global business imperative for the 21st century?

Yes—if you, your management and your clients make it so.

Do savvy investors like BancBoston Venture Capital (LMI), Equity Management Group (International Communications), Bowne and Company (Bowne Global Solutions) and a plethora of others believe in the future of this industry?

Obviously—or the international investment community wouldn't have invested almost $1 billion dollars (that we have been able to estimate) in infrastructure, services, tools and people during the past few years. This industry can offer a high rate of return, but not immediately. This is not a "buyer beware" marketplace, but investors must be ready to wait as the market develops and be strategic in their longer-term focus.

With over 100 companies replying, the just-completed LISA 1998 Survey shows that there is an increase in the number of countries where both service providers and IT providers maintain operations, and that the gap is narrowing between the higher number of IT provider and lower number of service provider locations reported over the past two surveys. This increase in geographical coverage illustrates the growth on both sides of the industry!

Is the Press aware of the impact that this Industry is having on world economic growth?

At the last LISA Forum in Madrid, during the Work Group Panel on "Investing in the Localization Business", Alex Pressman of Uniscape quoted the San Jose Mercury News as stating "The Software Globalization industry is enjoying unprecedented growth and importance to the US economy."

More recently, Caspar Weinberger, host of the internationally acclaimed World Business Review TV show, which views itself as "an exciting outlet for examining new technologies, the companies behind them and the impact they are having on the marketplace", interviewed Thomas Lueck of Logos and talked about the proliferation of tools to meet the growing needs of the translation services business. Mr. Weinberger came to realize that "if you don't speak the language, maybe your software should!"

In Die Welt, on February 4 of this year, a reporter covering the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, wrote an article about the Lernout and Hauspie (L&H) announcement of an automatic, Internet-based translation service available from March onward. The service offers free machine translation and the opportunity to access a bank of professional translators for a reasonable fee.

So, what should we glean from all of this? That the world's business community is now educated to the requirements for globalized products and that the investment community is standing by ready to promote growing young firms with products and services to sell?  

Not yet—but we are getting closer.

What can you and your company do to move towards the goal of the annual $20 billion dollar market opportunity projected for the worldwide globalization market by the year 2005?

The answer is marketing—strategic marketing, geared towards educating the business community, senior management and potential investors worldwide to the positive bottom line impact of localized products.

This is LISA's focus as we aggressively promote localization as the "global business imperative for the 21st century." Member involvement is what will make it happen!

LISA 1999 promotional plans include:

Media

We have received tremendous interest and support from long-term LISA members to appear in a series of segments on the World Business Review show. These will be aired on CNBC and on in-flight news briefs with international carriers, taking the message of localization to an even greater audience. 

LISA will continue to invest in media events at forums, inviting the participation of hosts, members and companies representing all segments of the business. Forum sponsorship fees permit us to educate the local press to the benefits of globalization.

Already, we have begun a promotion program for Asia, in conjunction with the upcoming LISA forum in Shanghai. We have taped interviews with the local television and are beginning a series of articles to attract the local Shanghai business community to the conference. We will do the same in Monterey and Budapest.

LISA will forge links with selected industry and business publications in order to broadcast the same message. You can help by encouraging your senior management to be available for LISA executive interviews, which will be used to spread the word from the individual company perspective.

Internet

We are redesigning the LISA Website to make it the information resource for the globalization industry", thereby providing you with access to a greater range of industry information. 

We are accessing international news as it relates to this industry, and will republish articles pertinent to LISA members.

What can you do to stay on top of industry developments and take advantage of the information available on the LISA Member Domain?

Ensure that your General Assembly Representative has registered the allocated 20 people in your firm to receive access codes. Also, make sure that e-mail addresses are current and updated as required to permit ongoing timely access.

Confirm that your site is linked to the LISA homepage and that we have built the correct link to your site.

Include LISA Administration on your media distribution list to redistribute any important news from your organization.

Education

We will continue to promote LEIT (the LISA Educational Initiative Taskforce) and ensure that students and universities are aware of job opportunities in localization.

LISA will work with the ATA (American Translation Association), LETRAC (Language Engineering for Translation Curricula—a project sponsored by the EU's DGXIII), the ETA (European Translation Association) and other international bodies, in order to broaden the visibility of localization and globalization educational programs in Europe and the US. 

How can you get involved? How can your company contribute or benefit from these programs?

LISA forum hosts contribute financially to sponsor and support forums. Sponsorship can be a cash contribution, event sponsorship (such as a cocktail or GA dinner), or a service contribution such as publicity or facilities, etc. Hosts and sponsors benefit through the resulting advertising and public relations related to the forum. Their names and logos appear on all forum-related materials as well as on banner ads and magazine ads and they are involved in all Press events.

LISA members can financially support publicity and educational programs by investing in the LISA 2000 Initiative, which was launched last year. Investors will have their logos displayed in advertisements and on the LISA Website and/or the LEIT site as appropriate to their chosen focus. Due to LISA's not-for-profit status, it can benefit from advertising cost reductions. This means that it can work with members to collectively place ads in major periodicals whose fee structure would normally be prohibitive. The LISA 2000 Initiative is being revamped to reflect these new advertising opportunities.

Members can further support the association and these highly visible programs by becoming Contributory or Sponsorship members, which includes allocation of fees to publicity and education. 

It is in the interests of all members to unite within the association to promote the industry. Nowhere else can a limited investment of marketing funds provide the same level of exposure. The returns are multiple, both from the industry perspective and for individual companies.

Collectively, we can make this industry the Global Business Imperative for the 21st Century, but LISA cannot do it without your support!

For more information on investing in LISA or becoming a Forum host or sponsor, please contact Alison Rowles or view the Forum host kit, or membership and sponsor opportunities on the LISA Website.