The future of Localization ecosystem - thoughts after a very interesting panel discussion!

Last Tuesday I had the opportunity to participate in a webinar on a topic which is one of those topics in the localization industry that I find most exciting.

The future of Localization ecosystem

This is a subject that I feel close to my heart.

Localization is an industry with a level of technical sophistication that is more advanced than it may seem from the outside.

The main point of this webinar/panel discussion was about connectivity, specifically, how we might connect content creators, with content translators.

How to connect content management systems, with a translation management system, how to connect language buyers with language sellers.

Connect, connect, and connect. And there's a reason for this connection emphasis.

Connecting tools, processes, and aligning efforts is essential to take the industry to the next level.

The panel was moderated by Tucker Johnson of Nimdzi Insights The Localization Research company.

We had also in the panel Rikkert Engels, Xillio founder. Alvaro Villavilla Senior Language Manager at Nike and Renato Beninatto Nimdzi Insights CEO.

Before delving into the topic of the panel, I want to thank  Nimdzi and Xillio for the efforts that they are doing in the Localization industry. For this reason... The localization industry has evolved somewhat in a random way, compared to other industries. There has not always been clear training, There has not been easy access to case studies, business cases and generic information on localization research that could help clients and localization professionals to make the best decisions.

This industry always has been a bit of a black box in which it has not been easy to find reliable sources of information

Nimdzi Insights was born precisely to bring light to that black box since it provides information on important topics that sooner or later professional localizations must face.

For example, if you want to accelerate the growth of your global business which are the market verticals with the best opportunities to grow? What’s the market size there? Who are the competitors? If you want to migrate your translation technology what tools will bring you a competitive advantage over your competitors? If you need a pricing comparison between languages, between different localization disciples or between different language providers, how can you get some data to help you to make a decision?

That’s what Nimdzi is bringing to the localization industry, research, expertise, data, and guidance to help us in our Localization journey.

Xillio is also a company that is worth (and a lot) to spend a few words explaining what they are working to achieve.  

This company set out a few years ago to solve one of the problems that we have always had in Localization.

In this world, there have always been difficulties to create a solution that connects the various available systems between the different stakeholders. There has always been a tendency to reinvent the wheel and if we needed a solution to connect client A with Provider B, a specific connector was created for that situation.

That lack of standards has always weighed down on the industry.

Xillio with its LocHub product attacks precisely that endemic problem that we have been suffering since…. forever.

LocHub is a connector, which brings us the concept of universal API to connect systems closer than ever.

Thank you Nimdzi, Xillio for your efforts to make the Localization industry a better place!

Below I leave you some of the questions that we deal in that discussion panel, and I reflect on them this Sunday morning from my comfy chair while I enjoy a Costa Rica coffee and listen to the latest from Ludovico …..

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• How have language service providers (LSPs) and technology providers been managing translation automation so far? How did they deal with connectivity? 

In my opinion, there is no doubt that our industry has come a long way in terms of connectivity and automation, nowadays we can find quite a few solutions for connectivity, there are different solutions in the market and language technology out there to assist us.

And what to say about machine translation, neural machine translation, and AI translation! that's been very popular in the last few years! So yes I believe there's been a great effort to evolve our industry when it comes to translation, but, and this is a big but and I hope we have the opportunity to improve moving forward., in my opinion, we've been working all of us, most of the time in silos.

And I don't think we can or should work like this anymore.

I think each player somehow involved in what we can define as user experience has been working on a bubble, from the content creators to localization teams to technology providers or LSPs.

There has been a focus of each function focusing just on their part of the workflow, with a tendency not to pay much attention to the bigger picture.

There is a huge difference in what we translate today, and what we translated 20-25 years ago. There is a difference in how we organize our work, how we communicate with our stakeholders, there’s a difference in the urgency we need to get content published, so although there’s been progress in translation automation, although there’s been progress in the number of solutions to connect systems, I think we’ve been doing that by working in silos I hope this is something we can change in the coming years to bring our industry to the next level. 

• Why did TAPICC never land? 

Source: GALA

This question made me think …. Because that's actually something that sometimes I stop to reflect, why TAPICC has not taken off yet, because when you think about the problem is solving, it is a real one!

TAPICC removes friction points in the system and facilitates Content Management System connecting with TMS with CAT with freelancers, with customers. It sounds really like a great plan to have a standard for interoperability and connection!

In my opinion, the challenge that TAPICC has faced is not a technical one. There are many smart professionals working in this industry that can help to create this API standard ecosystem. That's why I think one of the main reasons is the human mindset, and also somehow conflicting interests.

When I think about it there are companies, tech LSPs who have invested a lot in research and development in customizing APIs and connections with their clients.

TAPICC might challenge that.

Technology companies have a strategic advantage, but initially might not being very on board to be opened up into a standardization process because they’re selling these kinds of solutions. So I think that's one of the variables that it has not helped TAPPIC. 

Another obstacle, I think TAPPIC faced might be related to finding the support and bringing enough brainpower to this initiative.

It's an open initiative, it's mainly focused on volunteering, so how do you coordinate this, how you align efforts? how you promote this?

It requires really going out there to a conference and explaining it and creating webinars and write posts and articles …. it does really take time! and it's an open solution, so getting lots of voices involved and making sure there’s always a momentum moving things forward I believe it's another of the challenges that TAPPIC has faced

It was an interesting conversation and I encourage everyone to follow closely this topic, as I believe the future of our industry will thrive once we see these connectors as a standard process/tool in the Globalization content journey

Have a great week!

@yolocalizo