managing global websites finding the right approach

Managing Global Websites

Finding the Right Approach

CON

TENTS

Three Options for Multilingual Website Management

How to Find the Right Option

Introduction 3

4

7

Summary

Who is Lionbridge

12

13

3Managing Global Websites - Finding the Right Approach

www.globalmarketingops.com

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IntroductionManaging a global website is a challenge for most companies. The more languages a site supports, the more complicated it is to translate and manage content. Finding the right approach to global site management is critical to minimizing frustrations and ensuring success.

In this eBook, we examine the three options available to companies today. We then show you how to group your markets into tiers to determine your true requirements, and then how to select the best management option for each.

Let’s get started.



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Three Options for Multilingual Website ManagementThere are several different ways you can manage your multilingual website. Before deciding on the best approach,

let’s take a closer look at the three options.

Internal This is the model most companies have in place today, with their own employees working on the various web content management platforms, updating content across all languages, and doing all their own web publishing. This means they’re working with a language service provider for translation. They prefer to use some form of connector to make it easy to extract content from the web content management system and translate it back. This is typically a cumbersome process, and the management of translation memories can go one of two ways:

OPTION 1

1

2

Your Language Service Provider manages your translation memories

Your company manages its own translation memories



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OutsourceThis is a situation where a company says,

OPTION 2

I’d rather leverage my employees to do more value-added activities.

“I’d rather get some

of the benefits from offshore labor costs.

“””

or

So they outsource the web publishing, including all English content, to a third-party provider that publishes all of the company’s content to its website. There are providers, like Lionbridge, that offer an integrated process for both translation and web publishing (aka web operations). This yields a more seamless process that is ultimately less cumbersome than the internal option discussed earlier. In this case, the language service provider manages the translation memories.



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Translation ProxyIn this option, companies choose to manage their English content and have a third party proxy all of their foreign language content.

Here, the translation process is fully automated and integrated with the web publishing process, and the translation proxy auto-detects changes made to English content and routes them into a queue where they can be selected for translation. Once selected, the system notifies translators who then translate in-context with full visibility into the web page design. This eliminates the need for additional staging and QA, and translation memories and glossaries are fully integrated into the system.

OPTION 3



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How to Find the Right OptionOrganizing your markets by tiers can help you choose the right approach to managing your global website.

Here’s an example: Tier one represents markets that make up 60% or more of your total revenue; for example, your home market and maybe one or two key others. For these markets, you’re probably managing the entire web publishing process. If your company is larger, you may have full-time marketing people in other countries creating unique content for those markets. You probably also have a content management system.

Approach: Internal or Outsource

Rationale: You have unique content creation happening in your key markets, with significant input and review from local marketing personnel.

TIER1

Top markets that typically represent 60+% of revenue

Standardized WCM (Adobe, Sitecore, etc.)

Internal or Outsource Unique content generated by market with significant input and review from local marketing

• USA• UK• Germany• France

• UK (3)• Germany (1)• France (1)

Description Approach Markets(Example)

Market FTE(Example)

WCM Systems(Example)



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Your tier two markets typically contribute to the next 20% of your revenue. These are your faster-growing markets, and you know you need local content to be successful. But, you may not have dedicated marketing people in those regions. Most of your content for these markets will come from translated corporate source content. Your challenge is to have a local presence without a local staff.

Approach: Outsource

Rationale: You need local content to gain market share, but don’t have local marketing resources to create it.

TIER2

Fastest growing 20%

Mix of legacy systems that will be migrating over to the new corporate WCM standard

Outsource Local content needed to gain market share but limited to no local marketing staff

• Brazil• Russia• Japan• China• India

Few FTEs, overwhelmed by demand, OR no dedicated marketing staff in any of these markets


Market FTE(Example)




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In tier three, you have the long tail markets, maybe the last 20% of your revenue. Content here is always 100% generated from corporate, and there’s no content creation happening locally. Typically, there is a distribution of legacy platforms in these markets that IT and Marketing are looking to terminate and migrate to a new standard. This is a challenging tier for most companies.

Approach: Translation Proxy

Rationale: You’re translating 100% of your content and have no local content creation, so you don’t need web content management. It’s most efficient to shut down your legacy systems and use translation proxy.

TIER3


Market FTE(Example)


Long tail of markets representing 20% of revenue

Mix of legacy systems–hard to cost justify migration to new WCM

Host 100% of content is translated, no local content creation so no need for WCM. Most efficient to host and shut down legacy systems.

• Spain• Norway• Sweden• Belgium• Switzerland• Greece

No dedicated marketing staff in any of these markets

Most companies combine approaches to address multiple tiers.



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Tiers Can Change Over TimeHow you tier your markets is not a static condition, and your company’s situation can and will change over time. That’s why it’s helpful to take a bundled approach, as we illustrate in the following scenario:

1

2But let’s say within a year or so, Brazil is taking off, you’ve hired a local marketing person, and you want to do some unique things in that country with local marketing campaigns and local content. It’s easy then to migrate to an outsourced model where the content is migrated over to the corporate standard WCM system, and your local marketing person receives support from a language service provider to get unique Brazilian content onto the site.

Let’s assume Brazil is a tier three market for your company, and the local office in Brazil is on a legacy content management platform that IT wants to retire. Currently, there aren’t any marketing personnel working in that locale. That’s a perfect candidate for a translation proxy. The legacy system could be shut down and the proxy version could be added, giving your Brazilian site the same look and feel as your corporate site, but with translated content.



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Eventually, your Brazilian site could move toward an internal approach, if that’s something you want; and the same thing can happen the other way. You may have some tier two markets where you’ve decided to step back from the local marketing people, and it would make more sense to proxy your translation.

3

These options form a portfolio of choice and flexibility. It doesn’t make sense to try to do everything internally, nor does it make sense to proxy everything. But it does make sense to tier your markets and select an appropriate approach to multilingual website management for each of your scenarios.

Again, most companies use a combination of approaches across their different market tiers.



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SummaryHow to Choose the Best Approach to Global Website Management

Tier your markets to determine your true requirements; one size does not fit all

Select the best management option for each tier

Understand and apply best practices as much as possible across tiers

Contact Lionbridge for help in scoping and assisting with your company’s situation



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Who is LionbridgeWe support our customers at every stage of the Global Customer Lifecycle, helping them raise their online search profile, engage their global customers with locally-relevant content, and translate and test their products and applications.

Lionbridge brings together unique and proven program management strengths and local market “crowd” expertise with advanced cloud technology. Based in Waltham, MA, we operate across 26 countries and enjoy thriving, trusted relationships with more than 500 clients.

For more information on multilingual website management or any of our global marketing solutions, visit www.globalmarketingops.com.

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