Globalization - What Does it Really Mean to B2B?
The Internet has led to a much more connected B2B business environment which in turn has helped promote marketing globalization. As a result a number of our clients have been expressing an interest in globalizing their website. This article provides an overview of the globalization process.
The mistake many companies make is that they believe that website globalization is as simple as translating their website into the languages of their target audience. Nothing could be farther from the truth, there are significant challenges for companies wanting to globalize their website, most of which revolve around legal, technical, cultural and logistics issues. True globalization is a multi-step process for
creating localized versions of a website.
In general terms, the process can be broken down as follows:
- Creation of a Globalization Strategy (Globalization Road Map)
- Development of a Globalization Solution Design
- Internationalization of the Website
- Localization of the Website
Globalization Road Map
The success of any globalization initiative starts with the development of a solid globalization strategy. The first step is to determine your company’s globalization readiness. For example does, your company have the internal resources to handle foreign language business communications or will it have to be outsourced? Does your company have experience dealing with the legal, cultural, and tax issues of doing business with its global target markets? If you are about to enter a completely new market, then you will need to do some significant market research or acquire the services of a globalization expert familiar with you and your target markets.
Once you have determined your company’s readiness for globalization, the next step is to carry out a needs assessment for implementing a successful globalized website. This includes identifying the business, language, cultural and technical requirements associated with making the website available to your target market. Globalization of a complex B2B website can pose some significant challenges, particularly if the website was not designed from the beginning with globalization in mind. In such cases, a phased approach needs to be applied to the globalization rollout strategy.
Globalization Solution Design
The next step in the globalization process is the solution design, which identifies the technologies and defines the website architecture that will best meet the website’s globalization requirements. The website architecture is built around the selected content management system (CMS). Generally, a CMS system serves as the core technology required for any multilingual website solution that goes beyond providing brochure level information.
A CMS system can be a 3rd party application or a custom built application. Choosing the right CMS solution plays a very significant role in the long-term success of your globalization strategy and hence, requires an evaluation process that insures that the system meets certain technical and business requirements. We will, however, save the topic of choosing as CMS system for a future article.
Website Internationalization
Internationalization is the process of building (or rebuilding) a website so that it can be easily localized. Delivering your website in multiple languages goes well beyond simply translating the text content. Issues that will need to be addressed include:
- Local conventions: Your website may need to be modified to recognize which country's local conventions should be used.
- Time and Date Displays: International time and dates are displayed differently around the world. Your website needs to be designed to accommodate these variations.
- Measurement Systems: Imperial and metric systems need to be accommodated in order to comply with local convention.
- Numbers and Currency: Conventions regarding the presentation of numbers and currency need to be observed, and your website applications need to be designed with these modifications in mind.
To understand internationalization, think in terms of how automobile manufacturers operate. To minimize costs and maximize customer returns, a car manufacturer, such as Honda, develops a modular design that can be customized to meet needs of its various consumers and the countries they live in. Just as a website is often built on a global template, the core design of the Honda Accord also functions as a template. The internationalized version of the Honda Accord is the template of the car, the frame on which all the DXs, LXs and EXs can be assembled. By first creating an internationalized template of its cars, Honda has been able to easily spin off into hundreds of variations, each suited to a specific market.
If you are planning on localizing your website into multiple languages, internationalization can save you a lot of time and money because it forces the website architecture to be developed in a template format that separates all the elements that would be affected by localization. This makes it far easier to localize, instead of just localizing as you go and running into expensive problems along the way.
Website Localization
Localization is the process by which multiple language versions of your product are created. The goal is to develop a foreign language edition that appears to your target audience as if it had been originally developed in their native language. Basic localization includes language translation, graphic translation and localized conversion of unit measurements, as well as currency and date formats. In addition, more complex localization includes:
- Cultural issues, e.g. use of colors
- Multiple currency transactions
- Local domains
- Local search engines and directories
- Foreign addresses and contacts
- International sales taxes
- Customs regulations and tariffs when shipping products overseas
So there you have it in a nutshell, the basics of globalizing your website. If you have any questions regarding Website Globalization or the implementation of a CMS solution please don’t hesitate to contact me.
 |
