Our Analysts' Insights

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 the ability to swipe to make faster selections.

 But how is all of this increased digital innovation activity playing out at the local market level as organizations ramp up to try to catch up? CSA Research surveyed content marketing and localization managers and directors in September 2018 to find out. Based on 53 responses from 10 countries, we share some preliminary results.

• The goals. The focus for the majority of global digital transformation initiatives among this group is on improving its global customer experience (49%) or staving off the competition through upgrading its business model (21%). These are also the top two reasons given by executives during in-depth interviews that we conducted during July and August 2018.
• The significance. Eighty-seven percent report that these initiatives are important for their organizations, with 62% saying that they are very or extremely important. The challenge for those in charge of localization is to ensure that international requirements and expectations are addressed and aligned beginning at the design stage or as soon as possible. Our Localization Maturity Model™ research confirms that globalization teams usually join these types of initiatives part-way through or after most decisions have already been made.

• The content types. User-generated and conversational content are the most common newer material types being considered under these initiatives at 30% and 28% respectively, with machine-generated content and speech-enabled devices next in line at 14%. All require updated workflows and the application of machine translation and interpretation to handle the higher numbers of languages as companies push more and more into long-tail markets.

How can localization teams be more effective at globalizing their firms’ digital transformation initiatives? Research that we are currently conducting indicates that focusing on two areas will keep other teams on track as an organization works to digitally enhance the customer journey: 1) the strategic role of global content, and 2) the integration of business process globalization into digital transformation. The full, data-rich, and actionable results will be available to CSA Research clients.