Our Analysts' Insights

How many times have you heard that "localization is special" or "globalization only affects a few departments?" Probably more than you can count. Why are these attitudes still held by otherwise informed middle managers and executives? Because localization or globalization doesn't register as a business process for them.

How can you gain their attention, respect, and support? By applying the new Localization Maturity ModelTM (LMM) Release 3.0 from CSA Research. Use it as the framework to guide and measure your globalization progress at both the team and enterprise levels. 

Advance Faster Or Watch Competitors Grab Your Share in Local Markets
Disruptive change has upended the global business landscape. The digital transformation has been so great that it has shifted expectations and raised the bar for achieving localization maturity earlier. Sophisticated practices and behaviors that previously characterized a more advanced level of performance have become basic requirements for earlier stages.

Progression along the Localization Maturity Timeline Is Rarely Linear
Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

The new LMM 3.0 is based on an extensive data collection initiative with 90 global firms in 15 countries –  including 6,657 correlations – to identify how maturity is evolving in five areas: governance, strategy, process, organization, and automation. This new data shows that organizations must move more quickly through each phase of maturity to remain competitive in local markets. Our findings are significant whether your company is just starting to focus on international and domestic multicultural opportunities, or if it's an old hand at the global game.

Drives such as digital transformation, empowered customers in emerging economies, big data, and a growing intimacy with devices are pushing companies to expand beyond their borders much earlier than their predecessors. On the plus side, firms have greater access to market research, business models, expertise, supply networks, and technology to allow them to go global faster than even five years ago.

Create a Sense of Urgency through Benchmarking
This shifting landscape requires your organization to deal with the bigger picture of how mobility, augmented and virtual reality, speech enablement, and the Internet of Things (IoT) will affect the design, delivery, and support of products and services worldwide. But how can you attract enough attention and resources to get your colleagues and executives to respond to this disruptive combination of localization drivers and enablers – especially when your global and local competitors are already doing so?

One approach is to benchmark your globalization status. Include all functional areas and make your case for obtaining the resources you need. Once you identify the gaps and their root causes, you can prioritize and move more quickly to address them, rather than falling short by making your best guess. After all, the best local language tweets directing customers to your support center are for naught if the person who picks up the phone or answers the e-mail can't respond in the correct language or store interaction details in your customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Remain Vigilant
Regardless of how much your team and the rest of your organization have achieved in terms of localization maturity, don't become complacent. As you concentrate on continuous improvement, watch for new trends, possibilities, and requirements. Pay special attention to changing content types, technology, methodologies, local business and regulatory environments, and language and dialect adoption. Today, your team must improve at handling mobility, augmented and virtual reality, speech, and IoT. Tomorrow, other disruptions will appear, so stay alert while dealing with today's challenges.