LISA Forum Cairo Participants

Editor’s Note: These results are not in any sort of prioritized order.

1. Carrying your own “cultural and business practices baggage" that prevents you from adapting quickly to the specific requirements and opportunities of the local markets, and their way of conducting business.

Some companies land in the Middle East with one goal: to change it! Of course, there is no problem with bringing added value and modern technology and style to the Middle East, but it needs to be done in a diplomatic way and by following a defined step-by-step model.

2. Some companies or company representatives enter Middle Eastern markets without knowing much about them.

It is essential that executives coming to the Middle East be briefed and well-informed about what to expect. The image of the “old” Middle East is still stuck in some business people’s minds, causing them to completely ignore the fact that this area of the world has also developed and prospered.

The expectations of some companies opening new operations in the Middle East are contradictory and display a lot of confusion as to what conducting business here is like and what the people of the Middle East are like. More interactive relations with the local community are essential to keeping executive and managers up-to-date on the reality of each market.

Would you appoint a Japanese executive to head your new Chinese operation?

The Middle East is quite a “sensitive” area, where a lot of conflicts are still found, be it among countries themselves or among "eastern" and "western" wings. Companies and corporations must take this – in addition to the historic background of the area – into consideration when appointing top-level executives. It is no different than appointing a Japanese Area Manager in China to look after the Chinese interests of a foreign company!

3. Large corporations often drop the quality and standards of their original products when it comes to their “localized” versions for the Middle East!

This still happens far too often.

4. Not doing enough research to pinpoint the appropriate target market for your product/service beforehand.

5. No adapting (or improper adapting) of marketing efforts/materials to take into account the local tastes with regards to language style, images, icons, etc.

We will refrain from citing the usual examples, but here is one that may not be so obvious to many people who are new to the region (our thanks to Abdullah Hassaan of STAR Middle East).

The marketing brochure from a Swiss watch manufacturer described the company’s new watch as a “miracle.” When the word was translated directly into Arabic in Egypt, the proofreader in Dubai pointed out that the translation would cause problems in Saudi Arabia because the Arabic translation chosen was only used to describe a supernatural event or action that occurs as a result of Allah’s direct action or through his support. The translation was changed.

DTP continues to pose challenges.

6. Not discussing specific requirements or running small tests up-front.

This almost always leads to inadequate time being scheduled for the localization process. This, in turn, creates additional pressure on the localization service provider and often causes a decrease in performance.

The DTP area is one where much extra time/effort/cost may be avoided by discussing the exact requirements up-front. Here are several examples where customers continue to make the same mistakes:

Example 1

The customer who requested translation into Arabic from SGML files without informing the service provider that he planned to generate Word files in order to save on layout costs. When the SGML files were exported as Word, the customer’s software was unable to generate the code page needed for Arabic. Therefore, the Word files were useless, and the customer had to pay the service provider to produce the files in the proper format.

Example 2

Using DTP applications, e.g., FrameMaker (which is still quite common) that do not support right-to-left languages. This means that the source files are useless for the target layout. Your service provider must then create workarounds and numerous file conversions to either create the layout from scratch with a different application that does provide right-to-left support or use custom programming to complete the job.

Example 3

The entire product is not localized, e.g., the display texts of printer operation panels or car navigation systems. In these cases, the source text is included in the localized documentation, along with the Arabic translations. This often means that more target text must be adapted to fit on the same source page.

Example 4

Mirrored graphics may be required to suit the text and layout direction.

7. Not performing a software internationalization audit up-front to determine if all third-party components provide proper right-to-left support and not developing a fallback plan if they don’t.

For example, Crystal Reports, which is used by many products, does not support Arabic. (Expensive) custom software engineering is usually required to make it work.

8. Having localization done for the lowest price possible, which obviously affects quality.

9. Establishing their own translation departments, instead of outsourcing the process. This can cause a company to lose focus.

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Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Rosalind Smith (eLocalize), Sherif Omar (Future Group), SDL Dubai, Abdullah Hassaan (STAR Middle East), who contributed to this article. All opinions expressed are those of the individuals and not of their respective companies.