The world has changed, especially for retailers. eCommerce adoption has accelerated, pressuring retailers to a tipping point; while many have rallied through innovative technologies and marketing presence, going forward, digital transformation is unavoidable.
But all companies need to embrace change in order to survive, as highlighted by Cisco's retired CEO back in 2015:
'At least 40% of all businesses will die in the next ten years… if they don't figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate new technologies.' (John Chambers, Cisco)
With change a certainty, digitalization brings opportunity: leaders are reshaping business models, portfolios and spend; innovators engaging in exciting ways; developers embracing new cloud software, superior algorithms and advanced machine learning (ML). Yet, with fewer barriers to entry, new entrants can rapidly become a threat.
Speed to market is vital. But, how do you deliver growth whilst minimizing risk in a volatile world?
Think fast and act differently – be bold, imaginative, innovative, yet informed and culturally sensitive:
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Amass and unify - your employees and even your suppliers;
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Be courageous - take risks, embrace change leadership, forget silos and co-create;
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Develop agility and speed - use data to decide quickly, leverage diverse expertise, and employ adaptive design. PepsiCo's response by launching, within a month, two bespoke DTC websites illustrates this agility.
Deploy these tactics to launch into new markets and achieve growth:
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Listen to your customer - 'I want it when I want it' makes them 'the most important person in the room';
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Anticipate 'jobs-to-be-done' - resolve pain points and exceed expectations;
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Meet customers where and 'when' they are;
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Understand 'Why?' - go beyond 'What?' and 'How?'.
Leverage language's impact through improved content localization:
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Upgrade to cutting-edge language technology;
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Implement best-in-class localization processes;
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Select innovation-centric suppliers;
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Ensure strategic alignment of resources to optimize turnaround and productivity.
So, what is currently hurting your product or growth goals?
Any inefficiencies can hamper your ability to meet your speed to market goals. This is especially the case with translation and localization.
Imagine you have perfected your new product and signed off on all marketing campaigns, but you are waiting on the translated, localized content before you release it to a global customer base.
Translation is known to be challenging, costly, and time-consuming for multinationals. It often requires liaising with several firms that translate a select few languages, which can cause inefficiencies, poor spend visibility, complex pricing models and security concerns.
The biggest risk is the missed opportunity to win new customers and secure market share by launching into new markets before your competition.
Imagine if you could move faster, at a lower cost, without compromising on the end result?
Can the rise of progressive technologies such as AI-driven RPA (Robotic Process Automation), AI automations like speech to text, machine learning, and API related advancements remove roadblocks from translation and enhance your speed to market?
What are multinationals doing right now to improve their performance in translation?
We have seen MarTech radically transform the marketing sector over the past 15 years, and language technology is rapidly following suit.
Here are the strategies multinationals are deploying to gain competitive advantage:
Supplier Consolidation
Rather than depending on multiple translation vendors that often fall short, multinationals are consolidating their supplier bases, choosing just one that matches their broader business strategies.
Supplier-Led Innovation
Some suppliers embrace innovation and technological development and align themselves strategically with their enterprise clients. Working with these suppliers can result in dramatic benefits for your business.
Localization Audit
Many companies are auditing their translation processes, people, and technology to uncover improvements and savings. Switching to best-of-breed technology that evolves alongside your organization helps you capitalize on the value generated and let your team focus on strategic goals.
Data-Driven Decisions
As data-driven innovation now plays a key role in business growth, many organizations are implementing better data capture and analytics processes to give them insight and oversight into their translation projects, linguists, project managers, and validators.
Security Enhancements
Keeping data safe and secure is crucial, which means that businesses can’t afford to ignore security risks in existing translation processes.
What are the key benefits of digital transformation in translation?
Consolidating, auditing, and improving your translation services can have significant advantages for your organization. By using powerful translation software that utilizes billions of data points, AI, smart algorithms, machine learning and Translation Memory functionality, you can:
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Achieve faster turnaround times
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Increase productivity
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Improve your translation performance
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Free up budget by lowering costs
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De-risk with better security measures
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Gain insight into your team’s efficiency and effectiveness
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Future-proof your localization with access to billions of data points
In 2020, IBM, the world leader in artificial intelligence, chose Straker as their primary Language Services Provider, and we are working together to future-proof their global communications using our innovative technology stack, Ai-Powered RAY and IBM Watson's NLP engine.
What should I do next?
Reviewing your translation performance to upgrade your approach is fast becoming a necessity.
To remain competitive, you need to hit aggressive speed to market goals.
If you don't want avoidable delays caused by outdated technology, a fragmented supplier base, poor processes and a lack of automation, now is the time to benchmark and determine what areas you need to improve upon.
Book a free Localization Analysis to review your existing translation performance and future-proof your global communication.