Localization and Globalization
If you want to be successful in a global economy, you need to know how to reach local markets, across countries and cultures. Our job is to help you localize by adapting your products and your web sites to target markets.
What is Localization?
According to the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA): "Localization involves taking a product and making it linguistically and culturally appropriate to the target locale (country/region and language) where it will be U.S.ed and sold."
Software Localization
Software localization involves the conversion of the User Interface (UI), technical documentation and on-line help of a product from its source language into the local language.
We make it possible for users around the world to interact with software in their own language.
Web site localization
Web site localization involves converting web site content, images, links, format and style to a target language.
When doing localization, we keep in mind your goals, and the audience you want to reach. Our team of web site translators, localization testers and engineers work in tandem to make this happen.
We offer a comprehensive globalization solution which is reliable, fast and cost effective. We work with a variety of file formats, such as html, xml, and asp. Our translators use translation memory tools and web based file management systems.
Some typical things we check are:
- Dates and time formats: For example, in the U.S., a date is written as mm/dd/yyyy (e.g., January 1, 2005), whereas in most European countries a date has the format dd/mm/yyyy (e.g. 1 January, 2005). Similarly, time formats differ among countries.
- Number formats: In the U.S., decimal points are written with periods (e.g. 5.3) whereas in other countries they are written with commas (e.g. 5,3).
- Currency formats: In the U.S., a currency symbol precedes the number (e.g. $1,000) whereas in other countries, it goes after it (e.g. 1.000 $) [RR: what symbol goes here?]
- Text, image and color formats: We determine whether these are appealing or offensive to the target audience,
- Character-encoding adjustments: We support Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Asian and other writing systems.
Whatever your localization goals are, we can implement them with speed and quality. Please contact us to discuss your project.