Localization World Conference: Client-Side Cost Reduction

As a result of the global recession, client-side cost reduction strategies are being mentioned quite often at this Localization World Conference. Today's presentation titled Volatility is the New Norm delved into this topic of cost cutting, as did yesterday's Localization Business Round Table.

Vendor Consolidation
Wayne Bourland of Dell noted that Dell might have just tried to ask all vendors to cut prices by 20%-30%, but they actually had to be more creative than that. By consolidating many vendors into a select few, Dell and others can gain leverage to bargain for somewhat lower prices.

In addition to vendor consolidation, Tim Young of Cisco Systems noted that Cisco is also breaking down the walls that usually silo localization into departments (HR, IT, Marketing, etc.) and moving toward shared resources.

ROI Calculation
Young noted that Cisco and other companies are taking a closer look at whether or not products localized in each language are bringing the needed ROI. Iris Orriss of Microsoft noted that her company has products staggered according to varying degrees of localization, meaning a product will receive a certain degree of localization depending on the amount of return expected. Minette Norman of Autodesk notes that Autodesk has created a "path to volume" that indicates products will not enter a market unless a certain degree of revenue is expected, then those products are not localized until additional criteria are met. Minette also said that these guidelines are often ignored and products are localized anyway, but Autodesk is still very selective and locealizes in only a couple dozen languages. Minette also noted that 60% of Autodesk's revenue comes from outside the United States.

When asked how Microsoft measures the financial impact and return of localization, Orriss noted that it depends on the country. In some countries, it is very difficult to determine which revenues are the actual result of localization, but in other companies like Japan it is easier because "server documentation absolutely must be localized or you won't sell it at all."

Service Levels
Minette Norman said that Autodesk previously included heavier testing and heavier involvement from their internal localization team in its localization process. That is no longer a luxury they can always afford, so they have introduced the concept of service levels (SLAs). Departments are asked "do you want SLA 1, SLA 2, or SLA 3?," thus giving a choice to the business owners. Often, the answer is now that they want something "quick and dirty." This does not mean that the localization team will produce poor quality. It merely means that they might not go the extra mile that they used to go.

At the reound table, Leonid Glazychev of Logrus international also proposed a similar concept for use of service levels on the vendor side when providing machine translation with post-editing.

Finally, when asked if these companies have considered crowdsourcing to reduce costs, Microsoft and Cisco noted that they have implemented crowdsourcing to some degree; however, they do it for reasons of speed and quality, not to cut costs.

Paula Shannon of Lionbridge moderated the discussion on volatility. She did an excellent job assembling a panel of top names and developing the framework and content for one of the most timely, interesting, and popular presentations at the 2009 Localization World Conference.