Chuck Wrobel of Avaya Inc. describes how his company set out on a journey to increase international sales and customer satisfaction through implementing Unicode support. There was just one slight catch: the product in question enjoyed a significant market share and user base and had proven itself over twenty years. Not an easy task, and one that required lots of teamwork.

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PayPal is now available in 103 markets worldwide, with a local presence in 13 countries outside of the U.S. However, this has not always been the case. PayPal’s experience shows that even a company with a large codebase, large quantities of data and a high transaction volume can successfully migrate to Unicode. In this very candid article, Scott Atwood (Development Technical Lead for PayPal’s Global Foundations Engineering) explains how his team overcame several obstacles to enable the company’s global reach.

Editor’s Note: If you find yourself in the same position as the PayPal team with a project that is beginning to run way over time and budget, then contact LISA at lisa@lisa.org, so that we can help extricate you! Several of our Members have already been through this scenario and can help you get your project back on-track. Or, consider joining LISA, so that you can network directly yourself. Visit http://www.lisa.org/info/membership.html.