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Taking your business global can seem overwhelming and complicated, but our Ultimate Guide to Localization will guide you through all the essential elements and practices that make a successful Localization Program. It’s an essential read for any localization manager or professional.
Table of Contents
Whether you’re just starting with a localization program or planning to unify stakeholders and teams dispersed all over the world, you’ll benefit from how much faster and more efficiently you will be able to expand internationally with a centralized localization program.
In this guide, learn more about the benefits of a centralized localization program and how to incorporate it with business objectives.
The program team deals with internal clients, such as marketing teams that require translation or localization for content or campaigns. They report to stakeholders, such as C-suite executives, on their performance and requirements. Headed by your localization director or manager, this team oversees project management and supervises your in-house linguists and translators.
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The program team deals with internal clients, such as marketing teams that require translation or localization for content or campaigns. They report to stakeholders, such as C-suite executives, on their performance and requirements. Headed by your localization director or manager, this team oversees project management and supervises your in-house linguists and translators.
Your tech stack is crucial to your localization program.
Investing in the right software and tools helps automate your workflows, makes your processes efficient, centralizes your resources, and keeps your team productive.
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Your translators and linguists are the most important people in your localization program. They do all the work of
translating, localizing, and reviewing content. They ensure translations are accurate, appropriate, and consistent with your brand voice.
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When it comes to the localization process, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
There is a global standard for translation service requirements with ISO 17100:2015. This applies not only to LSPs, but also to clients. This covers processes, translator qualifications, and technical resources. It specifies the steps you need to consistently deliver high-quality translation work.
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Language quality is one of the most critical metrics for localization projects. As such, you need a comprehensive quality framework to monitor, measure, and control translation quality.
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You need to manage, measure, and report your performance.
If you work with an LSP, you should have an agreed-upon set of KPIs, reporting requirements, information sharing, a business intelligence platform, and a communication model.
In addition, you need to establish a service level agreement (SLA) with your language service provider and localization partner.
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Resources like brand guidelines and style guides are shared by global teams. In this way, the tone, style, and personality of the brand are maintained consistently.
When every market has the same localization process and different teams follow the same process, you will end up with consistent quality.
Leveraging language technology platforms and sharing translation memory, translation memories, and glossaries can help you improve your productivity.
In addition to being easier to use, following the same procedures makes expanding into new markets, adding new languages, or handling more content types faster.
As multiple teams share more resources, it makes procurement easier, and you can cut costs to avoid duplication.
It’s easier to compare performance across teams or markets using the same metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs).
There’s a greater sense of being part of one team with common goals and a centralized localization program.
“Know your value and know what value you’re adding to the company, so don’t get too caught up in operations. You need to deliver and know that what you’re doing is actually incrementing the revenue of your company. If your team is not there, then you’re not going to be present in all of these markets.”
At the planning stage, develop a global content strategy with your team or language services provider (LSP) that incorporates translation and localization early in the process. Ensure your content is written with a focus on localization and avoid colloquial language.
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You need full and constant visibility when managing multiple, smaller chunks of content creation and approval. The value of a good CMS lies in this fact. Using a CMS, your project will have a structured and transparent workflow, where each chunk has its own lifecycle, which allows you to track each chunk individually and the entire project together.
It is essential to develop an intelligent content strategy before implementing agile localization. Having an early plan will help you run your content factory smoothly: