1. Business Drivers for Investment
Why are companies investing in multilingual communications?
The most important drivers focus on time to market, global brand management, and meeting regulatory requirements.
Low priority of “increasing multilingual content volume” is logical when viewed from a content-centric interpretation of “do more with less.” More content isn't the goal. The objective should be "less content with more impact" through communications specific to regions and customer expectations.
Implications for SDL sales :
Note these are not ROI factors. They are drivers for a company’s investment in people, process, technology and services for multilingual content.
Companies of all sizes – including small/mid-sized – can identify with these drivers.
Illustrates that a mix of top- and bottom-line drivers are motivating corporations to spend money on multilingual content.
Provides insight into factors that can help build a business case appealing to executives.
Gilbane Group, Multilingual Communications as a Business Imperative 1
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2. ROI for Global Product and Brand Content
What factors figure most prominently in ROI for all content types?
Strong ROI expectations in two categories: increased revenue and improved customer relationships.
Both directly relate to corporate business goals for global expansion and meeting customer expectations.
Implications for SDL sales:
Revenues and customer satisfaction seen as more important than cost savings when making business cases.
See the slide on “Business Drivers for Investment” and how the data corresponds. Increased revenue as an ROI factor relates directly to business driver of increased revenues from vertical, established, and emerging markets. Companies are explicityly connecting their business drivers with promises they make to management in exchange for funding. Which means that . . .
Champions seeking funding need to look at specific corporate objectives related to revenue and customer satisfaction and tie them to business improvements as a result of content globalization in initiatives.
Gilbane Group, Multilingual Communications as a Business Imperative 2

3. Organizational Hurdles
What do companies perceive as the major obstacles to implementing an integrated solution?
The two highest ranking bottlenecks, “lack of collaboration” and “inconsistent terminology” are directly related to operational inefficiencies which can benefit from technologies available today.
Implications for SDL sales:
SDL offers technologies that address these very obstacles.
In addition to technology, a prospect company should be aware of people and process needs when implementing language asset sharing and management technologies.
Risk of inconsistent terminology is significant considering potential for brand mismanagement during the execution of corporate globalization strategies. Clear and consistent terminology, in both the source and target languages, is important across the complete globalization chain.
Because companies recognize inconsistent terminology as a major existing problem, investing in a terminology database should be a prominent part of globalization improvement planning.
Collaboration remains an issue due to expansion of internal and external worldwide corporate resources plus the drive toward a multinational customer base. It’s essentially a scale problem. Pushes the boundaries of collaboration strategies the same way that content volume pushes the boundaries of enterprise content management strategies: companies need to be able to scale for “volume” of collaboration as well as volume of content.
Gilbane Group, Multilingual Communications as a Business Imperative 3

4. Measuring Content Value
How are companies measuring or planning to measure the value of multilingual communications initiatives?
The top three measurement objectives are related to customer-facing benefits that can positively impact corporate goals for global expansion and customer satisfaction.
They also reflect specific tactical objectives such as content reuse (helping to manage content volume), and faster resolution of customer problems (helping to enhance customer experience).
Implications for SDL sales:
Metrics are still mysterious at many organizations. These factors can help SDL give champions some tools for developing measurements for business cases, performance management, governance, and so on.
Specifics for the first metric, “customer satisfaction with content”: companies are gathering this information through customer surveys, feedback buttons on websites (“is this content helpful?”), and field outreach to customers.
SDL has capabilities for helping companies track “level of source content reuse” within its TMS and CMS products.
Gilbane Group, Multilingual Communications as a Business Imperative 4

5. 2009 Business Objectives at Companies Delivering Product Content
What are high-level business objectives at companies that produce and deliver multilingual product content?
Global customer satisfaction is a clear strategic and operational business priority, outpacing the next most commonly-cited driver—revenue from emerging geographies—by a significant margin.
Customer satisfaction remains the top priority even when we combine revenue growth from both emerging and established markets (if only slightly).
New product lines, faster/simultaneous time-to-market, and improved global/product brand management are second-tier concerns.
Implications for SDL sales:
The key point of this slide is that SDL has products and services that align with all of these business objectives.
It’s a conversation starter or changer: ask the prospect if he recognizes any of these business goals as important to his company this year. When he says yes, then SDL has a solution to fit that business goal.
Global customer experience and satisfaction is the center of gravity for content globalization in 2009.
Cost savings will always be part of the product content picture, but in uncertain economic times, engaging and satisfying customers is paramount.
Emphasis on customer satisfaction shifts the value proposition for investments in content globalization. The business case is now about outward-facing customer impact, not just inward-facing operational efficiencies and cost reductions.
Gilbane Group, Multilingual Product Communications, 2009 5

6. ROI for Investments in Globalizing Product Content
What ROI factors are driving investments in technologies and services for programs supporting strategic business objectives?
Customer satisfaction/experience is the primary ROI delivered by or expected from practices, programs, and initiatives.
The next most commonly-cited ROI measure is “global-ready technology architecture.” This is significant: it’s a recognition that content globalization is a valued investment. This is the first time that Gilbane’s research has produced such a result.
Although cost savings weighs in at 18%, this issue was prevalent within respondent conversations, with many citing cost reductions as a gating factor for proving ROI.
Implications for SDL sales:
Customer experience figures prominently in assessing and proving the business value of global product content.
The perception that the payoff will be in a globalization-ready technology architecture indicates that companies perceive such capabilities as competitive advantage.
Gilbane Group, Multilingual Product Communications, 2009 6