Our Analysts' Insights

When people think of changing their lives, they might put up a map of their country or the world and throw darts at it, trusting that chance – or their favorite deity – will guide them to a better life. Unfortunately, they usually discover that this approach plants their new home firmly in the middle of the ocean or an undeveloped forest rather than a desirable neighborhood or vacation destination. However, when it comes to selecting the next language to add to a website, many enterprises do e...

Soliciting referrals and recommendations is an important sales technique that LSPs should pursue – whether or not they have a dedicated sales force. Yet even proactive referral requests aren’t enough to grow your business sustainably. Every provider needs a healthy supply of pre-qualified prospects to increase its chances of securing new sales. How LSPs find qualified leads varies from one company to another. What works? What doesn’t? Based on 497 responses in a recently published report, CSA...

Buying a translation management system (TMS) is like finding a new home. Seriously, both are big investments and exceptionally large commitments. You want to get it right.

CEOs in every kind of company often observe that they have the loneliest job. Shared experiences with people who work for them are limited because of internal politics and because they must deal with issues that no one else in their organizations face. CEOs periodically meet with their boards of directors or management, but those sessions often reinforce the singular position that the CEO occupies. In esoteric sectors like language services, CEOs must manage an array of process, technology, and ...

The Holy Grail of the language industry has been to standardize the transfer of jobs between the various tools and content management systems – and thus improve the outcomes. Linport, the latest initiative in this area, was born as the Container Project in 2011 at the final meeting of the Localization Industry Standards Initiative (LISA). Despite early promise, Linport has yet to make major inroads into the language industry. Other prospective standards, such as Translation Web Services from OA...

Artificial intelligence has become the new buzzword in the language services industry, with countless technology vendors and LSPs proclaiming that their AI efforts will revolutionize the field. Providers are scrambling to keep up with the fast pace of development to understand how it will affect their business and how to remain relevant in a world full of automation. Buyers are trying to figure out what it means for both their own processes and when they purchase services from vendors. Humans at...

When you clicked on the link that brought you here, you might have thought that someone spoofed Common Sense Advisory’s newsletter and hijacked you away from our blog. No worries. You are indeed at CSA Research, the company formerly known as Common Sense Advisory. This is part of our total redevelopment of our advanced research platform, brand identity, and corporate website.

The start of the new year is synonymous with a review and update of business plans. Successful companies conduct a yearly strategic planning session. Strategic planning is a process for defining a business strategy to shape and guide your operation. It focuses on a vision of the future and what you must do to achieve it. Executives use the technique to make decisions on what the company does, where it is going, which actions are required to make progress, what level budgets and which resources a...

With M&A a more frequent occurrence in the language sector, the type of ownership is changing. Traditionally four types have dominated the language services market: 1) privately-held agencies, many of them owner-operator; 2) firms owned by private equity groups (PEG); 3) publicly-traded LSPs; and 4) divisions of larger corporations, all of them with the majority of their revenue originating outside the language sector. With acquisitions in the language sector a regular occurrence, we can expect ...

Language service providers frequently go out of their way to avoid involving procurement teams at client companies or prospects. They fear that working through such groups will be fraught with delays and challenges, especially if their staff knows nothing about language services or forces providers to lower rates beyond their comfort level.