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As part of Lingoport’s upcoming webinar, “2020 L10n Planning – Technology Automation, Strategy & More” we interviewed our featured guest speaker, Tucker Johnson, Founder of Nimdzi and Author of the book “The General Theory of the Translation Company”. Tucker provides us with some quick insights into future of i18n and L10n in 2020.

What do you feel is the biggest opportunity to improve i18n & L10n processes in 2020?

Tucker Johnson: The conversations that we have been having in the industry have been shifting, and we expect it to shift more as we move into 2020. Take, for example, the conversation around machine translation, which is no longer seen as a “nice to have” but rather a prerequisite for any self-respecting localization program. The lines between TMs and MT will begin to blur and become the new normal for the industry.

Furthermore, the lines between “language technology” and every other technology will continue to blur. Currently, language technology is a niche industry that is not well understood by traditional technology companies (or investors, for that matter). This has allowed for a proliferation of TMS and CAT tools on the market, some of them more effective than others.

The reality is that most globalization teams don’t want to be forced tow work in a third-party translation management system, and so it becomes a high priority to focus on seamless integrations. It is no longer enough to have an API – globalization managers expect out-of-the-box integrations with their systems. The companies that are best situated to address this challenge are today’s technology providers and some of the more technology-focused LSPs.

What are the most common L10n challenges localizations teams faced in 2019? How do you see this changing in 2020?

Tucker Johnson: One thing that we have been seeing a lot of chatter about in the industry is a reviving conversation around quality as well. The current quality metrics used by mature localization programs were developed years ago, and they have failed to progress along with the times. Advancements in technology and automation have made many of the traditional quality measurement practices obsolete, though the industry has not landed on a new solution at this time. We are going to see a shift towards user-driven KPIs to measure quality. The whole concept of quality is shifting away from having translations that are error-free to having translations that truly resonate and connect with the end-user. The focus turns from catching translation and internationalization issues after the fact to developing innovative new systems and processes for ensuring quality at source.

Which L10n technology do you feel is underutilized in the industry and why?

Tucker Johnson: When most people talk about L10n technology, we are typically referring to CAT, TMS, or MT. All of these are important and can lead to much efficiency gains. However, to focus only on these technologies is to neglect other technologies and automation that may be less fancy because they are not focused strictly on language services. There are a host of solutions out there for project management, supply chain management, finances, email automation, video conferencing… you name it. Most large localization programs consist of project managers rather than in-house translators, and so it would make sense to focus on tools that can help these people with their day to day activities.

How has automation changed the L10n and i18n landscape?

Tucker Johnson: Necessity is the mother of all invention. With the increasing agile demands of continuous development teams, the localization industry has been forced to adapt. Continuous localization is not just a buzzword, it is a requirement for many programs. Without working (and reliable) automation in place, it would be impossible to meet these demands, no matter how many project managers and translators you threw at it.

Automation is allowing us to process higher volumes, with smaller hand-off sizes, coming much more frequently. For language technology solutions, the goal has shifted from who has the best features for translation to who has the best and most integrations with other systems, allowing for seamless integration.

Where do you see localization 10 years from now?

Tucker Johnson: In 10 years, we are going to be spending a lot less time “educating” our stakeholders about localization. Today, the number one challenge faced by many globalization managers is evangelizing their services with their internal stakeholders. Convincing senior management to invest in international initiatives can be an uphill battle. This is largely because many of today’s senior managers grew up in a time when being international was a second priority. Today, the most successful startups are thinking about their international strategy from day one. They realize that it is no longer an option to be global. If you are online, then you are online everywhere. As more cloud-based services develop, and global supply chains evolve, so will the international opportunities grow, further driving the demand for localization into more and more languages as companies compete for increasingly diverse niche and developing markets.

Date/Time

• Date: January 28th, 2020
• Time: 9AM Pacific, Noon Eastern, 18:00 CEST
• Duration: 45 minutes, plus audience Q&A

In this webinar, Lingoport CEO, Adam Asnes, and special guest, Tucker Johnson, Founder of Nimdzi Insights and Author of the book “The General Theory of the Translation Company,” will be discussing strategies, tactics, and technology to help you lead globalization efforts in 2020 and beyond.

Topics We’ll Cover:

• • • How to identify market opportunities and take advantage of them
    • The leading technology advancements and why you should be using them
    • How to get ahead of development…and stay ahead
    • Strategies for 2020 and beyond

Featuring Special Guest, Tucker Johnson

Tucker has served in many different capacities throughout his career, from engineering to senior management. Jack of all trades, and master of a few… His special experience lies in on-boarding and building out large scale localization programs, supply chain governance, global team management, and advising business leaders on international strategy.

Tucker and his co-author, Renato Beninatto, published “The General Theory of the Translation Company”, to the delight of many in the localization industry.

Tucker’s latest endeavor is the founding of Nimdzi Insights, the new market research and consulting company with a focus on the international market. Nimdzi works with international businesses, language service providers, universities, private equity firms, government agencies, and anybody else who is interested in learning more about the intricacies of competing in today’s global marketplace.

As part of Lingoport’s December webinar, 5 Steps to Create a Software Globalization Culture, we interviewed our featured guest speaker, Elizabeth Riley, Solutions Architect at Vistatec, to get some quick insights into the current state and future of localization. Elizabeth explores internal team processes and how cross-team collaboration is affected by technology and G10n knowledge/support within your organization.

How has Localization evolved since you began in the industry? Where do you see the industry 10 years from now?

Elizabeth Riley: The industry has changed a ton since I began working in it. There has been so much technological innovation it’s affected pretty much every aspect of the work and made previously unimaginable gains in productivity become new benchmarks for throughput.

Personally, I feel like the localization biz is experiencing something like an industrial revolution whereby translations have heretofore been done “by hand” and are moving to a method of “machine” production that’s powered by automation and of course machine translation. Of course, at present, use of MT is far from being standard practice and is still seen by many as a novelty if not an outright joke. At the rate that automation, MT and NMT, and other yet-to-be seen technologies are emerging and developing, however, I’d be surprised if in ten years we’ll still see it as standard practice to employ a “hand-crafted”, 100% human-powered translation process.

This doesn’t mean that I think human translators will be phased out in ten years and replaced by bots. When we talk about innovations in translation, there’s always a risk it’s perceived as this scenario where automation leads to mechanization and the complete eradication of human translators. But I have a more optimistic view of things. While we may be undergoing a sort of “industrial revolution” in our industry fueled by technological innovation, our “output” is still, ultimately, foreign language. As a human construct, I believe that language, and by extension, translation and localization, will never be completely mechanized even with vast technological innovation. In the future, innovations will allow those of in the industry to best apply our knowledge and intelligence; say, in curating foreign language content, post-editing NMT output, evaluating translation quality, rather than repetitively spend our time engaged in the execution of repetitive manual tasks like sending files, downloading updates, or gathering data.

How have advances in L10n technology impacted G10n processes and internal team collaboration?

Elizabeth Riley: The advent of tools like translation management systems have allowed for huge improvements in internal collaboration, not to mention process improvements. Modern enterprise TMSs have tons of features that permit substantial and extensive automation of processes that were previously done one at a time: think automated assignment of linguists to a project, workflows that automate project kickoff and task routing, even vendor quality ranking and allocation. Centralization driven by TMSs also allows teams to best leverage shared content, such as memories, glossaries, and the like, and made it much easier to do this as well. On the process side, I hardly know where to begin; we now have tools that are sophisticated enough to visually render web pages and certain applications that allow for certain software QA tasks to occur far earlier in the project cycle, which is a huge benefit for globalization because of course it allows internationalization and localization issues to be caught sooner – or eliminated altogether.

What is the biggest opportunity to improve L10n processes?

Elizabeth Riley: I honestly think that the biggest opportunity to improve localization processes rests in educating customers/localization project and program managers on the depth and breadth of tools that are already available on the market to automate, centralize, and streamline our work. It’s true that innovation continues to happen, and at a very exciting and rapid pace. But I feel the thing that would bring the most benefit to the greatest number of folks working in localization would be something very simple – just greater awareness of the tools already out there and some education on how to quickly start using them. There is so much already available that can be used to solve common—but still complex—problems. People should be better made aware of them and it should be easier to use and master such tools.

What would you describe as the number one globalization challenge organizations face?

Elizabeth Riley: I really like this question. I’ve worked with customers in a variety of industries, from medical device to gaming, religious organizations to startups creating dating apps, and what I’ve noticed is that everyone thinks their worst globalization challenges are unique to their organization, when in fact their challenges are just variations on a theme that everyone else has probably experienced at some time. So I’d answer this by saying that the biggest challenge organizations face is lacking awareness of how common their localization problems are – and by extension, how much information, insight, knowledge and tools are out there already to help them solve them. I suppose what I’m saying is that the biggest challenge is everyone’s lack of awareness how certain things are intrinsic to localization, regardless of industry or vertical, and as such, there are myriad suitable ways to solve those problems that are already in use by those who have come across it already. There could be more knowledge-sharing across verticals. The commonalities are greater than the differences, I think.

How does a lack of support and understanding from leadership teams impact globalization quality and efficiencies?

Elizabeth Riley: When leadership and management don’t understand localization, or even language, for that matter, it has an enormous effect on quality and efficiency. A great number of quality issues can be obviated or at least minimized at a process stage far sooner than by the time software gets sent out to be localized. This is an inefficiency in terms of cost but also time, of course. But if an organization’s management sees localization as an afterthought, it is—as we’ve all frequently seen—relegated to the last stop in a project process and subject to numerous time and cost pressures. If global organization leaders understood language and localization better, you might see localization departments brought to the forefront of any process development as a way to introduce quality at source, both in-language and in English, and save substantial amounts of money not having to test and fix issues later.

Date/Time

• Date: October 24th, 2019
• Time: 9AM Pacific, Noon Eastern, 18:00 CEST
• Duration: 40 minutes, plus audience Q&A

Continuous Localization is far from a “one size fits all” endeavor. In fact, the best technologies are nothing more than shelfware if you’re not fulfilling unique technical and business requirements. It takes bespoke attention to service, customizing to the unique needs of enterprise customers, security and software requirements, product teams, and target markets.

In this webinar, Lingoport and IOTA will be analyzing the most common personalized engagement needs we’ve experienced within client organizations to ensure the highest level of customer success.

A Powerhouse of Localization Experience

In this webinar, we’ll hear from Lingoport’s own Adam Asnes, CEO and Olivier Libouban, VP of Product Development along with featured guest speakers from Iota, Paul Hegarty and Graham Rigby.

Paul is Head of Engineering at Iota and has worked in localization since 1994. He has held various positions with translation service providers from roles in QA and localization engineering, through analysis/pre-sales support roles to his current Head of Engineering position at Iota.

Graham is Business Development Director at Iota and has been involved in the software industry for nearly 20 years, working in a broad range of client-side and LSP based roles in sales, marketing and solutions architecture.

What You Will Learn

• New practical ideas to help your localization go smoother and faster!
• How to eliminate friction points, delays and hiccups between development and localization
• How to avoid unforeseen costs
• How quality L10n engineering and systems enhance your efforts
• Future proofing your program as your organization expands its global focus

Date/Time

• Date: October 24, 2019
• Time: 9AM Pacific, Noon Eastern, 18:00 CEST
• Duration: 40 minutes, plus audience Q&A