What's in Your Localization Kit?

A localization kit - as I've come to use the term - is the 5-kilo bag of items you hand off to a vendor for localization. When properly assembled and used, the kit contains everything needed to localize and test software/documentation/Web site/etc.

The quality of the loc kit is a barometer of the client's sophistication in and regard for the localization process.

The Best
Have you ever received or sent a loc kit of which you were proud? What did you put into it? How long did it take you to put it together?

• Software - resource files/bundles, object code, source graphics, installer scripts, start menu items and all libraries in the correct file structure required to build binaries
  
• Documentation - source files for text, source files for graphics in text, build structure for online help systems, list of preferred tools and authoring applications
  
• Web - files in correct structure, access to stage site to test translation (especially for .php/.jsp/.asp/.do- based Web content), clear guidelines about how far to translate and what to do about references to untranslated content
  
• Sales/marketing materials - source files (InDesign, Quark, Creative Suite), access to the printing company for proper preparation
  
• Multimedia - source files for Flash and movies, scripts, uncompressed QuickTime files
  
• Glossaries and existing TMs - assets from previous translation efforts, or at least previously translated materials (even sales collateral) whether authorized or not
  
• Instructions - what to translate, what not to translate, how to build the product, encodings to use, special notes for translators
  
• Request for Proposal/Quotation (RFP/RFQ) - target languages, timelines, expectations for the quotation
  

...and all of it properly internationalized.

The Worst
If a client sends a vendor a handful of PDFs and asks for the translations "as soon as possible" (most people's favorite deadline), they probably don't have much regard for the work involved. Most vendors can do the job from PDFs, of course, but they're a pain in the neck (the PDFs, not the vendors) because it's very hard to do a good job from PDFs. Without the source files from which the PDFs were made, the vendor has to create from scratch most of the things the client takes for granted in the PDFs: formatting, spacing, layout, typeface, page setup, headers, footers, margins...

Wiggle Room
Of course, perfection is not in human nature. The handful-of-PDF'ers aren't being malicious; they're just doing as they're told. Over time, the patient vendor may build a relationship with these people such that their interest in localization rises and their kits improve.

And even the best of loc kits does not answer every question. We've been running projects from the client-side with the same vendor for years, and questions still arise. I look forward to the questions, because we can improve the loc kit based on them. In fact, I get nervous when there are no questions: I suspect that somebody is doing something wrong and is afraid to check with me.

What have I left out? Do you have a secret weapon that you put into your loc kits?

Localization Still Needs You - The Myth of the Global Brand

Will your job go away as the world gets flatter? Not likely, according to an article by Eric Pfanner in the International Herald Tribune (link below).

Nigel Hollis, chief global analyst at the market research firm Millward Brown, argues that instead of becoming more alike, people are more eager than ever to assert their differences. And marketers - at least those who want to create global brands - ignore this at their peril.

This approach, which marketers refer to as "global/local," has been around for a while, and Hollis has a vested interest in supporting it.

"The vast majority of people still live very local lives," Hollis said. "By all means go global, but the first thing you have to do is win on the ground," he added. "You have to go local."

As localization manager, of course, your job is to keep your company's eye on the local side of global/local.

Do your execs think that the only thing people want to personalize is the choice of music on their iPod? How about the language in which they deal with you and you deal with them?

One size still doesn't fit all. Nor does one language.

Here's the link to the Pfanner article. Happy reading and happy localizing.

Your Unique Value Proposition

You're a localization project manager. What makes you any different from other localization project managers?

Marketing people devote careers to answering this question, and because they're in Marketing and we don't know what they do, we assume that it doesn't apply to us. But stop and think about your next salary review, and come up with a few things to mention to your boss that make you different from other project managers:

• Are you learning new technologies that the company will care about in the near future?
• Are you specializing in projects, customers or terminology of strategic value to the company?
• Can you point to a sum of money you've saved the company by doing something new?
• Have you asked your clients to recommend you on LinkedIn, so that you can show your profile to your boss? (What could be easier than that?) (You are on LinkedIn, aren't you?)
  
• Do you have an idea of what you want to do beyond managing localization projects, and have you discussed it with your boss?

These help you formulate your unique value proposition (UVP), as those inscrutable people in Marketing call it; the combination of talents and drive that makes you different. If you're not different - or are different, but you don't show it - you'll stay where you are. If you're different - and show it - you'll stand out in your boss' mind.

Common Sense Advisory has posted a Quick Take for its subscribers called "The Makings of an Innovative LSP." They look at every vendor's eternal quest for something above commodity status and describe the characteristics of vendors who have succeeded in differentiating themselves from their competitors.

This company-level perspective applies to those of us in the trenches as well. Are you learning another language? Have you taken a class to learn sales techniques to close more business? Do you have the skills to train incoming project managers? Are you learning about search engine marketing or other ways to generate leads? Can you put together a paper and present it at ATA?

Start working on your UVP. And see whether your marketing manager knows what that stands for.