• Translation and Localization
• Interpretation
• Multimedia / Flash Engineering / Web Services
• Integration of Content Management Solutions
• Single-source Content Management
• Internationalization Consulting
• Quality Assurance Testing
• Cultural Training and Assessment
• Automated Workflow Technology

Internationalization Consulting

Bringing your product to an international market is a two-step process: software internationalization and then localization. Software internationalization prepares your original source code for the localization process. Software localization transforms the English (source language) software into one or more target languages, giving the product the look and feel of having been created in the target country.

Many companies develop their products with only a U.S. customer in mind. When these domestic products are slated for distribution to foreign markets, the process of localization often reveals limitations in the product design. Internationalization is the process of engineering a product so that it can be localized for export to any country.

Often, internationalization is quite simple. For example, some languages use more characters and take up more space than others. A properly internationalized source file will leave room for text expansion. Another common internationalization step is to resize an 8 1/2" x 11" document to European A4 paper size.

In addition to considering overall design and layout, the internationalization process focuses on, but is not limited to, the following points:

• Does the design account for cultural differences in various metrics such as currency, units of measure, date format, phone numbers, and addresses?

• Are all the localizable strings isolated from variables and other code for easy extraction?

• Is the product free of embedded and concatenated strings?

• Is the interface designed for dynamic layout so that it can accommodate text expansion?

• Do automated lists take into account any sorting order differences in the target locale?