Our Analysts' Insights

Your language service providers might ask you to think again. Localization teams frequently jump – or are pushed – headfirst into implementing or optimizing their continuous localization models. They are often in such a hurry that they don’t realize that their language service and technology providers are a rich source of guidance. That’s because these partners work with clients that run the gamut from “Frankenstein-esque” frameworks based on half-manual/half-automated processes to fully a...

Looking for some research-based guidelines on how to achieve deeper integration of code and content so that you can keep up with software and content developers? The 53 companies that we recently interviewed for our continuous localization research stream had plenty. We share six of their guidelines below.

Our current research into continuous localization shows that the lines have begun to blur between what it means for localization teams to support a traditional Agile model versus one that is more continuous. However, the 53 people who granted in-depth interviews generally agree that the end result remains similar. Organizations must automate as much of the localization process as they can in order to deliver services for mushrooming volumes of content and code that come to them in ever smaller p...

Our current research into continuous localization has revealed more companies adopting the “Spotify Model” to organize their development teams – and in some cases all business functions. Since Spotify has been in the news quite a bit over the last few weeks, we thought localization teams should be on the lookout for the model to be coming their way.

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.

If your organization creates or implements software – and whose doesn’t these days in some form or another – you have to figure out ways to test it to ensure that it will meet international user needs. Our survey and interviews with 21 global enterprises that depend on automated testing in February and March 2020 demonstrates that software testing only finds what’s wrong after the fact and within the constraints of the original design. More staff performing more automated tests will not disc...

Many firms continue to ramp up for webinars, virtual presentations, and multilingual online events. If you’re on a mission to scale from two to five or even more languages for video content, managing your budget will be critical for success. Here are five actions you can take to gain potential cost savings.

With no country’s economy able to predict accurately whether it’s entering a recession or cautiously rebounding, you might expect companies to be cutting back their translation and localization budgets. However, that doesn’t match our analysis based on virtual group meetings with Leadership Councils, interviews, and the results of a survey of 63 global enterprises in 19 countries that CSA Research conducted in mid-April 2020.

No one can predict when the ripple effects of COVID-19 will end. However, the results of our survey of 63 global enterprises in 19 countries indicate strongly that now is the time for organizations to plan for the scenarios that they will have to handle, whether under conditions of a prolonged recession or a cautious rebound. The effects on regional and local economies are already playing out in different ways at different speeds. Teams should prepare for the competitive landscape to look substa...