Welocalize Newsletter


Welocalize Newsletter - March 2008		www.welocalize.com
QUARTERLY UPDATE By Smith Yewell, CEO 2007 was a significant growth year for Welocalize. We acquired two more companies, Tech Index in Tokyo and Localize Technologies in San Francisco, we expanded to over 300 people; and I am proud to report that we grew to 8 offices in 5 countries! The most gratifying thing for me is to see a team of people dedicate themselves and extend their abilities to achieve what they had previously only dreamt about. For years, we dreamed of a worldwide vision for our company, and our staff has been working extremely hard throughout the ups and downs over the last 10 years to build a truly global platform that could service the needs of clients in all major markets worldwide. Our dream has now become reality, and we are excited to be able to provide the best service and quality to our clients anywhere in the world! We are also proud of the fact that we have been able to grow rapidly while staying very strong financially. Q4 2007 marked our 24th consecutive quarter of growth with our company reporting 56% growth over Q4 2006, and overall we achieved 32% growth for the year. I am looking forward to a very exciting 2008. Our priorities in 2008 are attracting and retaining the best people in the industry, earning the trust of our clients to grow in ever greater areas of our business relationship, and innovating in all ways possible. Our success is a direct reflection of the high quality of our staff and clients. Thank you for another successful year.		Please click here to view this newsletter in your browser In this Issue : • Quarterly Update • PM Corner • Latest News • Hear from WL experts • Upcoming Events • Contact Us

PROJECT MANAGEMENT CORNER Is My Software Ready for Localization? (Part 2) By Willem Stoeller Vice President How do you determine if your software application is really localizable? Below are some guidelines that may assist you in assessing the localizability of your software: Does the software development environment support localization? For example, Perl script does not support an externalization mechanism for user interface components. Therefore, Perl is not a good choice for global software. All user-visible text strings, images and icons should be externalized by using standard constructs, for example, Windows resource files or Java resource bundles. Although the concept of externalization has been known and used for 10-15 years, it is the most common localizability issue. Any user interface elements not externalized cannot be translated. Do not use string concatenations. In other words, do not combine text strings to form larger text strings. Doing so causes serious translation problems, due to language-dependent word order. Ensure correct handling of dynamic messages. Dynamic messages have embedded variables such as “<filename>”. It is essential that translators have control over the placement of such variables within the string. Again, this is necessary to meet the correct word order requirements of the language. Read the full article here.		LATEST NEWS Welocalize announced last month the acquisition of Sinometrics, a multilingual software localization firm based in Seattle. The acquisition—number eight for Welocalize—signifies another major stepping stone in building a great company with first-class talent and customers. As the largest Seattle-based localization company, Sinometrics has cornered the Seattle market by providing language solutions to technology companies using a value-based service model and a solid technology platform. Sinometrics will be working closely with the Welocalize Portland office on a number of customer-focused initiatives, from technology integration to marketing outreach efforts. For more information, please read the full press release.
HEAR FROM THE EXPERTS A Clearer Vision for 2020 By Chris Grebisz COO In 2020, the internet will have reached most of the globe, developing communities that unite people across language, cultural and national boundaries in a way never before possible. Similar to the open-source movement, these communities will encourage participation and contribution towards a greater outcome, one that has been unattainable by separate entities. Globalization will incorporate the concept of communities united to a common objective: creating a process centered on the customer while providing value and collaboration throughout a unified supply chain. Read the full article here, as featured in the Jan./Feb. 2008 edition of Multilingual Computing.	UPCOMING EVENTS Welocalize is a sponsor for the LISA Forum Asia held on March 10-14 in Beijing, China. The conference will focus on "Outsourcing Globalization and IT Services to China." Smith Yewell, CEO of Welocalize, and Yolanda Tan, General Manager of Welocalize China, are featured in two interviews on the LISA Globalization CD that is available to all attendees. Yewell shares why his team has been so successful with its eight acquisitions so far, while Tan explains how Welocalize China has implemented the company's Hybrid Delivery Model. Welocalize is also attending the first Translation World conference held in Montreal, Canada on March 11-13. Translation World is a new cutting edge international conference dedicated to the business of translation and interpretation, and the technologies that help propel these businesses to succeed. Chris Grebisz, COO of Welocalize, and Willem Stoeller, Vice President of Welocalize, will be participating in the TAUS Summit III in Boston, MA on March 19-21. TAUS is a networking community for corporate and institutional users, developers and practitioners of authoring, translation and localization technologies and services. By sharing best practices and intelligence in cross-industry meetings and online forums, the members aim at advancing the adoption of translation automation technologies.
CONTACT US - Global Offices
USA	EUROPE	ASIA
Headquarters 241 East 4th Street, Suite 207 Frederick, MD 21701 USA [t] +1.301.668.0330 [t] +1.800.370.9515 [e] info@welocalize.com Portland 735 SW 20th Place, Suite 230 Portland, OR 97205 USA [t] +1.503.274.2211 [e] info@welocalize.com Redwood Shores 100 Marine Parkway, Suite 250 Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA [t] +1.650.226.0260 [e] info@localize.com Seattle 1929 Third Ave, Suite 200 Seattle, WA 98101 [t] +1.206.267.4100 [e] information@sinomet.com	Germany Nell-Breuning-Allee 10 66115 Saarbrücken Germany [t] + 49.681.992940 [e] info@welocalize.de Ireland Unit 5, Block 4B Blanchardstown Corporate Park Dublin 15 Ireland [t] +353.1.882.9000 [e] info_ie@welocalize.com	China B406 Grand Pacific Garden Mansion 8 Guanghua Road Beijing, 100026 China [t] +86.10.6581.9699 [e] info_cn@welocalize.com Japan Welocalize Japan Y.B. Building 5F 1-10-4 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa Tokyo 140-0001 Japan [t] +81.3.5796.6330 [e] info_jpn@welocalize.com
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Copyright © 2008 Welocalize, Inc.