Our Analysts' Insights

It’s almost impossible to open one’s email or social media feed without skimming one or more messages entreating the reader to “follow the path to digital transformation” or to “recognize how artificial intelligence (AI) is changing digital transformation.” But how much attention should LSPs pay to what’s going on in this area? CSA Research recently launched an initiative to find out. In the meantime, here’s what our preliminary results show.

Moving content from one support knowledge base (KB) to another is hard enough in one language, let alone in two or more. In our recent interviews with 36 global firms about how they create and manage multilingual support content, KB migration elicited the most spirited discussions. Here are five pieces of advice from our research to improve the chances that your next migration initiative will go as smoothly as possible in one language or many.

Speech-enabled search allows people to access information much faster than they can through typing– particularly in languages such as Chinese, Hindi, and Japanese – and especially when fingers and eyes are occupied with driving or making equipment repairs.Customer expectations are already shifting as people take for granted the ability to give voice instructions to Alexa, Cortana, Siri, and their local equivalents Why shouldn’t they be able to do the same as they place product orders through ...

Multilingual knowledge bases (MLKBs) are an essential component for many organizations in today’s global economy. Many companies still try to adapt their legacy word-based repository into searchable documents online. However, this is not enough to meet the agile-ized, mobile-ized, and personalized requirements of their customers and prospects. These forces, along with current strides in AI, are blowing up traditional monolingual models for digital product content delivery, which will in turn af...

Winter sports enthusiasts – and the companies that sponsor them – are focused on the Olympics in, South Korea this month. This global sports event may prompt your organization to review jumping into South Korea for the first time. Or it may offer the chance to review your current investment level to prepare for the future. In either case, here are four actions you can take to support the executive decision-making process and, at the same time, gain more visibility for your team at the strategi...

As companies come to terms with the central role that content plays in the customer journey – from building awareness through purchase and onto customer care – their digital marketing teams and localization groups are tasked with content creation, adaptation, and rollout at the global level.

What return on investment should you expect from engaging with customers in their own language? Ever since our first report in 2002 on the benefits of localizing the user experience, CSA Research has found that demonstrating the ROI for localization is a challenging exercise. Localization managers spend an inordinate amount of their time working with colleagues in other departments to make the business case for international and domestic multicultural marketing, sales, and support activities. I...

The Indian e-commerce market continues to grow as the government there encourages its expansion and works to ensure that the country’s local languages are integrated into its Digital India and Make in India programs. Unlike its neighbor to the east – China – the Indian playing field is open to international companies, as the ongoing competition between Amazon and Flipkart and Uber and Ola Cabs demonstrates. Apple, Amazon, and Google have announced billions of dollars in additional investment ...

It has taken social and mobile – plus the empowerment of consumers to influence the message – for content to finally grab the undistracted attention of executives. But they’re not only wrestling with content in its simplest forms controlled by employees. They must also take into account material created “in the wild” – outside of their organizations – where it morphs into assorted flavors through local languages, dialects, and cultures.

Increasingly, B2B and B2C companies alike provide an app-like experience for their brand websites. Today, more than 50% of searches, globally, take place on mobile devices. Sure, people that carry handhelds still download apps for handling frequently repeated tasks, like checking the weather, but otherwise expect to perform app functions via their mobile web browser. How did we get to this point?