Dear LISA Members and Industry Professionals,

Driving the success of these alliances is the newly designed LISA website, and the response has been significant. As a GIL association in a vertical market niche, our site has shown tremendous activity with over 200,000 hits in the last month alone. This success can be attributed to the fact that LISA members themselves now have a more active role in contributing to the content of the site by directly posting their news articles, press releases, job openings, and CVs, as well as their events. LISA is now actively involved in bringing important and up-to-date industry articles to our site from The Wall Street Journal, Language International, and eCFO Magazine, to name a few. As our database of information grows, more programs are in development to allow interested buyers and sellers to search our database for the companies, services, and skills they need.

Another recent program has been the LISA Localization Supplement in e-Strategy International magazine. LISA members including Uniscape, Trados, Alpnet, STAR, and Lionbridge, took part by advertising in the supplement which was distributed last month to a readership of 52,000 decision-makers who have the authority and budgets to implement purchasing decisions. The newest supplement opportunity is a direct result of our strategic partnership with AIIM International and the success of our AIIM/LISA Globalization Survey. The September-October edition of e-doc magazine offers a limited number of advertising positions offered at specially discounted rates to LISA members, so act now!

As you know, LISA sets the standards and best practices in the industry, and we couldn’t do this successfully without industry surveys. Members have shown a rapid response in the LISA/Geomarkets Industry Survey sponsorship opportunity. In just two weeks sponsorships spaces for the US survey have been filled. We are now filling sponsorship opportunities available for the European survey. This survey will be available at a reduced rate to LISA members when it is released in September. A preliminary set of findings will be presented at the Chicago Forum on the Analyst Panel.

LISA has also been involved in helping members secure European Commission (EC) funding for initiatives that will promote and grow the industry. LISA members have created two consortia to answer calls for projects under the recently launched eContent Programme, and two proposals have been initiated. The objective of the European eContent Localisation Industry Portal (EELIP) is to develop the LISA website as an industry-owned portal, which will be available in the public domain and give enterprises access to eContent across global networks. The second program is the Excellence in European eContent Localization Services (EELS), which will document Best Practice through 15 to 20 in-depth Case Studies. Based on that research, EELS will develop Best Practice Models, available to companies for self-evaluation and for use by consultants and service suppliers to help eContent publishers with strategic and tactical planning. We will know if we received this funding by the end of July.

LISA’s content partnership collaboration with DCI, the organizers of eB2B World, and America’s largest high tech conference organizer, has resulted in a single day seminar which attracted about 1200 attendees—senior high tech executives and technical professionals—sponsored by LISA members GlobalSight, Idiom, and SDL International. Another LISA Member, XTRA Translation Services, is hosting the Corporate Localization Strategy Seminar on August 30, 2001 at the Airport Conference Center in Frankfurt/Main. This seminar will bring together executives to discuss the issues involved with delivering information technology products to a multilingual audience. LISA members willing to talk about their corporate localization strategy and exchange ideas with other industry leaders are encouraged to take part as speakers at this event.

In recognition of the state of the industry as a result of the dot.com crash, LISA has been driving more strategic partnerships and alliances to give members the opportunity for greater exposure. Keep checking the LISA homepage for new opportunities through members’ special programs, and also continue your contributions to the site through the member’s domain postings.

Sincerely,

Mike Anobile
LISA Managing Director