Our Analysts' Insights

CSA Research is well-known for its Localization Maturity Model™ (LMM) and Localization Maturity Assessments, based on 15 years of longitudinal data collection and analysis from observing organizational behavior around the translation and localization functions within global organizations. The LMM has enjoyed widespread usage and validation ever since its release as evidenced by its many references and adaptations throughout the localization industry. We have enhanced the original model based on...

You’ve taken some deep collective breaths as an organization, and now you’re partway through pivoting and starting to gear up for a post-vaccine world. Along the way, international markets have moved much more firmly into the limelight. As you plan for this year, make building a globally integrated organization one of your goals. You’ve worked hard to gain customers in various markets worldwide, so now is not the time to cede market share to savvy competitors that are more adept at executing ...

Globalization managers and directors work hard to raise the visibility of their teams. However, this responsibility extends beyond expanding awareness of what these teams accomplish to communicating successfully the value of what they deliver for their organizations. There are many roadblocks along the way, but the good news is there are ways to avoid and bypass them.

Many executives and their functional managers view international business issues as “special” and outside the parameters of the processes for which they are directly responsible. They assume that translation alone takes care of everything international. On the other hand, mid-level managers reporting to those executives often understand intuitively that global success comes from delivering a relevant digital experience that involves so much more than translation. They want to do it right, but ...

Do you ever get the sense that your progress toward best practices in localization takes a step forward, only to be followed by two steps back? You’re not alone in this shuffle. One problem that we see in our localization maturity assessments is that some companies abandon their hard-won best practices and return to an earlier, less evolved level of expertise and technology. Some companies even reverse direction, going from wise old localization sage to naïve infant as did Brad Pitt in the titl...

Regardless of its size, vertical, or headquarters location, your organization can benefit from implementing a framework for globalizing business processes to guide your global strategy. The clarity it provides will enable teams responsible for mainstream functions and operations to align their work in home markets with the company’s international goals.

What’s pushing even slower-moving companies to jump on the digital transformation bandwagon? There are several reasons, but one of the biggest is that their competition at the level of digital customer experience now includes competitors outside of their own industries in the form of Amazon, Facebook, their local equivalents, and similar companies. Prospects and customers perceive firms to be lagging behind if they don’t measure up in terms of one-click payment, voice-activation, chatbots, and...

Apple recently made headlines as it became the first U.S. firm to achieve a market value of a trillion dollars. Why didn’t companies such as Microsoft – once Apple’s fiercest competitor – beat it to the punch? Apple’s resounding success is in part due to its long-standing commitment to excellent internationalization that has allowed it to meet local market expectations since the early 1980’s.

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.

Successful globalization requires commitment across the enterprise. Even high-performing localization teams must lobby other corporate functions to support international markets. They don't have the power to mandate fully localized e-commerce infrastructure, local data security compliance, or appropriate in-country hiring practices without buy-in from marketing, IT, and human resources. Yet, without these functions in place at the right time, your local audiences will do business with your c...