The Advantages of Centralizing Your Localization
If you are a global company, you understand the importance of localization and how your efforts affect your potential customers' impressions of your products. However, if you're outsourcing your localization services, you may not be receiving the same level of service in every location. So how can you ensure that your global workforce has a uniform level of training that reflects the quality of your brand? A centralized localization strategy is likely the answer.
A centralized localization strategy is one that puts you in control of your localization efforts. By creating all multi-lingual versions of your company's training content, you can maintain control over the quality of your brand in every location. To determine the best way to centralize your localization efforts, it helps to get a clear understanding of the difference between a centralized location program and a decentralized program.
Centralized Localization vs. Decentralized Localization
Localization (l10n) is the process of adapting a product or content to a specific locale or market. The training materials and information you share during this process are crucial to the success of your efforts.
Both centralized and decentralized localization programs are used to help companies expand globally. Decentralized strategies are always outsourced while centralized localization can be completed entirely in-house or include outsourcing some tasks. While both localization strategies offer some advantages and disadvantages, it's almost always better to engage in a centralized strategy. Let's unpack the critical differences between the two strategies to get a clearer understanding of what they have to offer.
Centralized Localization
A company that has international offices/facilities and creates all multi-lingual versions of its training content from its central learning and development (L&D) location has a centralized localization program. The strategy ensures that ownership and control of every language version remain in the hands of a central body.
In some cases, centralized localization can be performed entirely in-house. This situation would require your company to manage the process of corporate learning and development for every facility, no matter where they're located. Yet, a small company might not have the means to carry out such an extensive operation. For any company that invests in a dedicated localization team, changing localization needs could leave the team with little work during some parts of the year. To outsource a centralized localization process, it's important to work with a single localization company that doesn't outsource tasks in different locations.
Decentralized Localization
A global company that has offices/facilities in multiple countries and decides to outsource all training responsibilities to each international entity has a decentralized localization program. While this strategy saves time and effort, it fails to allow the central company to maintain ownership and control over the various language versions of training materials.
Decentralized localization places your training efforts in the hands of another company. For a fee, you can turn over the entire process, but it also allows a third party to determine the best way to carry out the localization process. Even if the original company has methods you approve of, tasks can be further outsourced in different locations, yielding wide variability in the quality and accuracy of the content that you rely on as part of your business.
The Benefits of a Centralized Localization Program
Localization is about more than translation. It is the act of adapting your business's overall presentation, tone, marketing, and customer interaction methods. For global content creation to effectively interact with an intended audience, it should be linguistically, culturally, and functionally accurate. Equally as important, practically all localization efforts are subject to regulations. Today, 75% of all countries have implemented some level of data localization rules. These rules are often centered around preventing cybercrime and addressing rising concerns about privacy.
These intricate changes are important in both physical and e-commerce sales. When you adopt a centralized localization program, you maintain control of the information you share, marketing and otherwise, to ensure you get uniform results across all locations.
Engage Global Teams
Your learning and development team creates materials designed to correspond to your company's mission and goals. However, if you're not responsible for the way translation and localization efforts, important information could be omitted along the way. Instructions that demand strict compliance but fail to include the "why" can fail to engage employees. Even worse, when training fails to explain how certain procedures keep employees safe, important steps can be omitted from routine processes.
Assure Standard Processes
Manufacturing in multiple countries requires an in-depth understanding of the cost variables of materials and exports. Centralizing localization training on processes and reporting standards within the control of a central L&D body allows your company to standardize global data. Accurate reporting standards ensure cost inefficiencies don't go overlooked.
Control Accuracy
Accurate policies are an important part of maintaining employee performance levels and product control. For instance, when policies are created around sensitive or controversial subject matter like sexual harassment or equality, descriptions can be altered in ways that result in non-conformance. As such, your company/brand reputation could become varied across different locations.
Without strict control over localization strategies, quality can be undermined as well. Precise processes and sales strategies result in quality products and outstanding customer service. If vital steps in those processes are eliminated, your brand fails to yield the same quality across all locations. Outsourcing localization with large groups of data and asking for an expedited process
Maintain Control of Information Delivery
Businesses run on speed and efficiency. The phrase "time is money" becomes a mantra that can make it difficult to slow down even when you should. While speed is important in many ways, the speed of change can quickly get out of control. International offices are facing many new processes. Yet, critical changes like modifications and data security can't be put on the back burner. However, overwhelmed staff members are likely to take care of new training materials when someone finally has time. Often, this can be too late to avoid a data breach or roll out a new product launch on time.
Recognize Greater Returns
Globalization is a complex business investment that offers many returns. Yet, the process is elaborate, and costs add up quickly. The results of your globalization (and localization by association) are the counterweight of that investment.
However, measuring the ROI of a training program can be difficult. This is magnified when you outsource localization and have little control over the training process or clear information on how the process is carried out. If poor results occur, you're unlikely to have the data to pinpoint how such errors correlate back to the training program.
Centralized Localization Improves Control
Your localization process defines your brand's entry into new locations. A centralized localization strategy puts you in control of your narrative in these new offices/facilities. While outsourcing your localization strategy will allow you to expand into new locales without the time-consuming tasks of learning entirely new cultures and transforming your business model, you might not have control over how the process is diversified. When strategies are sent to different locations, they can be further outsourced, yielding varied results.
A centralized localization process requires your company to invest a considerable amount of time learning about the location your new office/facility will serve. Yet, when you invest time in the process, the knowledge you gain along the way adds value to your organization. Additionally, your level of control over the results will ensure brand quality stays the same across every location.
The way you approach content creation is a vital feature in your company's successful globalization. VTQ Magazine consistently offers updates on global business topics and thought leadership articles to offer valuable information to professionals worldwide. Subscribe to VTQ to learn more about the impacts of highly effective localization techniques.