Shrinking the Triangle

This article was originally featured in the Oct./Nov. 2010 issue of MultiLingual Computing Magazine, in

Adam Asnes’ Business Side column. Read the article “Shrinking the Triangle” on MultiLingual’s Website or

at http://www.lingoport.com/software-internationalization-articles/shrinking-the-triangle/

Good, Quick, and Cheap?

Good, quick, cheap – pick any two. Project managers will tell you this project triangle is the way it has to

be. Fair enough in the short run, but there is a dynamic perspective to this particular triangle that static

view will ignore.

Fulfilling New Market Vistas and Adaptation

A truism of technology is that it serves as a great flattener, ultimately

destroying pricing and economies in one area, only to give rise to new and

hopefully broadening opportunities. The rise and effect of communication

technologies that join markets, customers and workers are a remarkable

example accelerating change in the speed of fulfilling new market vistas

and adaptation. Our industry thrives in this, connecting products,

messages, vendors, clients and communities in far flung cultures. Yet, the

barrier to entering the localization industry is really not so tough. You need

a bit of expertise, contacts, some sales savvy and you’re in business. No

expensive machinery or large capitalization needed. But at some point, you are going to need something

to help you shrink the distances separating good, quick and cheap.

So how’s business? And if you’re on the client side, how are your budgets? It seems our industry hasn’t

seen the brunt of revenue devastation that many others have in the current economic slowdown. And as

some measure of that, recent vendor and buyer surveys from Common Sense Advisory have provided

more than anecdotal support for relative industry strength and confidence – even if vendors seem to be

more optimistic than clients. On a personal level, this in turn feeds my confidence as a business owner to

expand offerings, spend more on R&D, marketing, and (gasp), even hire new employees.

On Internationalization

Software internationalization, which is what my firm concentrates on, is actually a pretty good harbinger

of the mood of the tech industry. That’s because internationalization requires a fresh and significant

investment in future revenues, rather than maintaining localization on an existing product distribution

release schedule. In fact, internationalization can stick out as

a pretty large budget item at a time when tech companies

have done well to minimize expenses and maximize profits on

less to flat revenues. And while you never want to believe too

deeply in generalized economic trajectories when getting

specific about company forecasts, the investors’ expression

“the trend is your friend” comes to mind. This means the

onus has never been stronger on emphasizing the business

case for internationalization and ultimately succeeding in new

markets, while also finding new ways to bring together best

of breed technology and people to make the work cost less

with more predictability. It’s a great story, but the pressure

remains on to tighten that triangle. Internationalization and

localization must compete with any number of other potential revenue opportunities, strategic initiatives

and cost pressures.

I don’t want to imply that there isn’t a great deal of truth behind the good, quick or cheap

triangle, but we are especially pressed to tighten the space between those choices. Whenever I hear

someone use that saying (it’s usually when someone is trying to sell me something) I’m always looking

for a way out. How do we continuously find ways to produce better things, faster and for a lower cost?

That’s what the promise of technology, combined with improved people processes and greater access to

knowledge all have to offer. But particularly in the localization industry, at some point, it’s challenging to

get around human processes that don’t scale so well, so we are back to good, quick, cheap – pick any

two. Yet we all chip away at this, finding ways to move code or words along faster, better, cheaper. This

is basic principle of technical advancement, but often in the throw of daily work, do we give ourselves the

time to map out and affect these three competing attributes at once? When we talk with our managers

and clients, are we given the latitude, time and budget to change processes and technologies even in the

face of competing budget demands?

Tightening the Triangle

In many cases, the methods of tightening the triangle may not even reside within your firm, or your

vendor’s firm. In fact, it may be healthier to look beyond any all-in-one offering. For instance, my firm

has been partnering with many vendors right from its inception. We focus on

providing internationalization tools and development services, a software development endeavor.

Software development is a highly different skill set than managing words for localization, so a natural

partnership opportunity arises, as does the potential for misunderstandings (see: Bridging the Gap

between Software Development and Localization). We also just began a partnership with a company with

a product that supports internationalized documentation writing. That’s a natural fit that only benefits

customers. So it makes sense to partner companies, and then take it one step further by integrating

processes and services together for an outcome that reduces the size of the triangle. Note that I’m not

just referring about trading logo’s on websites, which is partnering in name only.

Watch as Industry professionals discuss

shrinking the good, quick & cheap triangle

Exports to from Germany to China are up by almost 60% this year. No other segment of German foreign

trade is growing as quickly. It follows that this kind of economic relationship ties nations, politics,

workforces, just as much as goods and services. We are seeing the triangle getting smaller in action.

Though China rightfully gets lots of press, there are other places having very exciting growing trends. In

fact, the fastest forecasted economic GDP growth rate for 2010 is actually from Qatar (16.4% –

EconomyWatch.com). 2010 to 2020 has been predicted to be the African decade, with rapid growth

forecast for many nations on that continent. How will this affect our triangle and our industry? Probably

quite nicely!

There Will Be Winners and Losers

But there’s more to this equation. With these trends for

global markets gaining purchasing power, there is also

ample opportunity for the flow of technology to go the

other way. All that market diversity, along with developing

labor shakes things up. One would hope that the

opportunities make up for the commercial pricing stress

that could accompany expansion, but there will be winners

and losers. Additionally, we can expect new opportunities

from untraditional channels. For example, we currently

have a new client which is essentially a financial group that

purchased Chinese technology and is remarketing it

elsewhere. In this case, they are not considering entering the US market just yet, but starting in places

like India where competition is not so dense. So they are buying good technology for less money, to sell

to new markets with lower barriers to entry. I’d call that a creative way to tighten the triangle.

About Lingoport

Founded in 2001, Lingoport provides extensive software localization and internationalization consulting

services. Lingoport’s Globalyzer software, a market leading software internationalization tool, helps entire

enterprises and development teams to effectively internationalize existing and newly developed source

code and to prepare their applications for localization.

An Introduction to Lingoport’s Globalyzer:

From Worldware Localization Conference:

The Rise of Chindia – Opportunity or Threat?