InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
October 4, 1999
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With WorldServer, which is usually hosted by Idiom to minimize installation and maintenance costs, developers don't need to modify scripts to support double-byte character sets used in Asian languages, work with the foreign-language text, or create multiple versions of scripts or files. And because software automates the process of transferring content to and from translators, errors are reduced. Developers don't have to incorporate materials back into the Web site, nor do translators touch the code. In addition, the software handles currency conversion dynamically on a daily basis, converting U.S. dollars to yen, and in the future whatever currencies the company specifies, Goel says.
The aim, Goel says, is to localize the Web site as quickly and economically as possible. Chipshot.com selected Idiom because its product helped achieve this goal for Japan and other markets, because Chipshot.com could outsource the tagging and translation to Idiom.
Chipshot.com is deploying BroadVision E-commerce software, so that it can create profiles for customers and perform more-personalized marketing activities. Like other E-commerce software from companies such as Connect, iCat, Intershop, Microsoft, Netscape, and Open Market, BroadVision's software includes localization services and content-management tools. Because it provides the infrastructure for tagging content for translation, the product could potentially replace WorldServer. If it did, however, Chipshot.com would need to find its own human-translation services. Ultimately, Goel says, "the decision will come down to cost and ease of management."
WorldPoint is another vendor using database-driven software to solve the translation problem. Eastman Kodak Co., which has region-specific versions of its Kodak.com Web site in 16 countries, uses WorldPoint's PassPort software to translate the 30,000 to 40,000 pages of content on the site. "There's no way you could effectively manage that content in other languages without some kind of database capability," says Terry Lund, Kodak's director of Internet initiatives. And the WorldPoint tool makes sure any layout changes are flagged early on.
Custom Development
The company enlisted Transaction Information Systems, an E-commerce systems integration and consulting company in New York, to help build an enterprise portal using Lotus Notes Global Designer, Domino, and Domino Workbench and Domino Translation Object for translation. The database of product information is keyword-driven, and can be updated dynamically by maintaining tables of synonyms in multiple languages. Schneider and Transaction Information Systems plan to resell the application for $500,000, including software and services.
The company is also prototyping a process that relies on Lotus Notes 4.6 to manage the workflow between Schneider and the translation services it has enlisted to translate its content, which includes technical documentation, marketing materials, competitive information, market research, sales presentations, product literature, and price lists.
The process is launched when a visitor to the Web site requests a document in a certain language. A placeholder is automatically created for those documents, which are then transferred via Notes to the translation service. Once translated, the document and abstracts are fed back into the system via Notes. When approved, the documents are automatically updated on the Web site, and a person who requested a specific document receives it via E-mail in the requested language.
Photo of McElfresh by Shelley R. Harrison
Some companies prefer to automate the process even further. That's why Rajeev Goel, VP of technology at Chipshot.com, an E-commerce Web site that sells golf equipment and accessories, selected WorldServer from Idiom Technologies in May to create a Japanese version of the company's Web site. Idiom's WorldServer tags all the information on the Web site that needs to be translated with Extensible Markup Language, which is half the work, says Nick Mehta, Chipshot.com's VP of marketing. Then it delivers that material to an Idiom translation partner, receives the translated information, delivers it to the approval person, and automatically updates the Web site. The total startup cost to enter the Japanese market was about $100,000, including labor, time, translation, and marketing, with monthly fees of about $10,000 paid to Idiom and a consultant with expertise in the Japanese market.
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For some large multinational companies, the translation task is part of an initiative so complex, they have to develop the solution themselves. Schneider Automation in North Andover, Mass., for example, launched a major business-process reengineering effort in 1997 that included a global extranet and Web site as one of the initiatives. Schneider Automation is the worldwide automation business of Schneider Electric, an $8.7 billion global electrical equipment distributor in Paris with operations in 130 countries. Schneider Automation needed to improve the flow of information to marketing, sales, distributors, manufacturers, channel partners, and customers in more than 100 countries.
So far, Schneider Automation has spent $2.4 million creating a public Web site and an extranet for its sales channel in English, French, German, and Spanish. But the project required more than translating existing materials. It demanded that the company unify its channel and customer databases and create a window into a number of back-end systems, says John McElfresh, director of electronic business.
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