Our Analysts' Insights

Done right, website localization involves extending brand voice and all its attributes to leverage common content and shared assets such as style guides, glossaries, formal terminology management, and, of course, smart software to automate processes that keep global sites correct, current, and consistent. But what about extending that to a local experience across multiple written, spoken, and visual channels as required by each country and level – informational, localized, or hyperlocal?

All companies have many regulations and business requirements to comply with today – plus additional scrutiny from enforcers and public commentary alike. It may seem like a never-ending list: doing what’s right for the business, humanity, and the planet. Corporate websites have sections for accessibility; commitment to employees; measures for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); global corporate responsibility; ecological sustainability; and more. Many are striving to find ways to use inclu...

It’s planning time once again, but this task is especially fraught this year as companies are facing another year of turmoil just as large-scale pandemic woes seemed to end. But now, looking at hyperinflation levels not seen in the US and western Europe since the 1970s, companies are naturally cautious. Localization groups – usually treated as a necessary evil in the best of times – may find themselves the target of bean counters eager to save money. So what are you to do when executives and ...

With no standard budgeting model for language teams, budget managers and directors continue to consult CSA Research on how to win more funding and, conversely, how to avoid budget cuts. Many continue to scramble to stretch flat budgets to cover an expanding number of markets, products, and publishing platforms each year. Here are 11 guidelines for budgetmeisters this planning season – and throughout the year.

When competing with large language service providers, small and mid-sized LSPs can feel at a disadvantage when it comes to securing or safeguarding revenue. However, it does not have to be that way. It is not always about size when presenting your company as a successful match for buyers’ needs.

As part of an ongoing investigation into multimedia localization tools and practices, CSA Research is examining enterprises’ global use of video. A combination of professional interest while researching marketing content and personal interest because I’ve just moved, led me to view several TV ads and online videos by international energy providers, including EDF and E.ON. These marketing videos took me down the proverbial rabbit hole, trying to figure out the source and target languages. Which...

2020 disrupted nearly every human activity on the planet. The pandemic, lockdowns, and economic consequences blocked the expected growth in language services that we forecast for that year (“The Language Services Market (2021)”). In stark contrast, 2021 was a year of recovery for most of the language services and technology companies that responded to the survey for the 18th CSA Research Global Market Study. They got back on track from the pandemic body slam, optimized and rethought their busi...

Technology developments tend to follow a typical pattern of improvement over time, known as an S-curve. Although it is a familiar pattern, it is worth unpacking its five phases and considering how they apply to language technology and forecasts about it. Examining how they have played out with successive generations of machine translation points to a future in which other advanced natural language processing technologies have tremendous potential to deliver useful and innovative capabilities.

Organizations often fail to leverage their RFPs as an opportunity to advance their language strategies. Instead, they focus on cost, delivery dates, and punitive measures to be taken if benchmarks aren’t met and thus end up replicating the status quo. But it doesn’t have to be this way year after year. By recognizing underlying goals for launching RFPs and defining specific goals that are tied to corporate-wide initiatives, localization teams can leverage RFPs to advance their strategic object...

“Mind the gap!” A phrase often heard at railway stations or on the subway: voiced during announcements or indicated by signs, it encourages people to avoid falling between the train and the platform. It refers to a physical distance and a dangerous hole that suitcases, legs, and small children might disappear into. It is the moment of moving between one customer experience and the next: the starting point and solution, the vehicle and the destination, the expectation and the reality. But are t...