Main News Desk

$4.7bn: cost of ‘missed opportunity’ due to poor localisation by global business

~ Independent Commissioned Study finds global businesses lose substantial market share when localisation is not up-to-scratch ~

March 06, 2008

Global businesses are losing market share worth as much as $1.6 billion per year, or $4.7 billion over three years, by failing to localise product information.

A study of six Global Information Management customers, carried out by the independent technology and market research company Forrester Consulting and commissioned by SDL, the leading provider of Global Information Management solutions, found that properly localised information is a source of competitive advantage when launching products or services across global markets.

The study found that a composite company could realise significant internal and external localisation savings of $4.6 million over three years by deploying an effective Global Information Management strategy.
But beyond these savings there was a much more significant effect on global market share. The study found that translating corporate, product and marketing materials more effectively had a knock-on impact on global market share.

Mark Lancaster, CEO at SDL, believes this is a wake up call to organisations that do not prioritise localisation in their global product strategy. “With the size of the missed opportunity for some of the larger organisations standing at nearly $5 billion over three years, this is a stark warning to boardrooms everywhere,” said Lancaster. “Without an efficient localisation process, businesses are slowing their time-to-market for global products inexcusably, and allowing competitors to steal market share from under their noses.”

The study, which examined organisations taking a Global Information Management approach to translation, found that properly localised information can boost market share by an average of 0.5 per cent a year. This resulted in a 1.5 per cent increase in market share or $4.7 billion over a three-year period. If competitors are providing better and/or more localised content, market share could correspondingly fall by 0.5 per cent a year, Forrester found.

“With the growth in frontier or emerging markets the successes of global products is dependent on having the right information in the customer’s language of choice, available at the right time. This study is real financial proof that taking a local approach is essential for global success,” Lancaster said.

For more information and to down load a free copy of the study see www.sdl.com/tei

Executive quote

Mark Lancaster, CEO at SDL, believes this is a wake up call to organisations that do not prioritise localisation in their global product strategy. “With the size of the missed opportunity for some of the larger organisations standing at nearly $5 billion over three years, this is a stark warning to boardrooms everywhere,” said Lancaster. “Without an efficient localisation process, businesses are slowing their time-to-market for global products inexcusably, and allowing competitors to steal market share from under their noses.”

About the company

About SDL
SDL is the leader in Global Information Management (GIM) solutions that empower organisations to accelerate the delivery of high-quality multilingual content to global markets. Its enterprise software and services integrate with existing business systems to manage the delivery of global information from authoring to publication and throughout the distributed translation supply chain.
Global industry leaders rely on SDL to provide enterprise software or hosted services for their GIM processes, including ABN-Amro, Best Western, Bosch, Canon, Chrysler, CNH, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Philips, SAP, Sony, SUN Microsystems and Virgin Atlantic.

SDL has implemented more than 400 enterprise GIM solutions, has deployed over 150,000 software licenses across the GIM ecosystem and provides access to on-demand translation portals for 10 million customers per month. Over 1,000 service professionals deliver consulting, implementation and language services through its global infrastructure of more than 50 offices in 30 countries. For more information, visit www.sdl.com
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact details

For more information on SDL, please contact:

Paul Hampton at SDL
Tel: +44 (0)1628 416331
Email: phampton@sdl.com

Lisa Gillingham or Kelly Desinioti at LEWIS
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7802 2626
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7802 2627
Email: sdluk@lewispr.com
Website: www.lewispr.com

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$4.7bn: cost of ‘missed opportunity’ due to poor localisation by global business

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