Have you ever heard of software internationalization? This terminology is not as famous as software translation or localization, but it has a huge impact on your global marketing trajectory. Although, many people assume that internationalization and localization are identical, which is wrong. Yes, both these terms are related to each other in some way, but their purpose is entirely different. Any business that wants to expand its roots globally must not ignore the benefits of internationalization. Internationalizing your software would make your business globalization journey smoother and more effortless. Employing a cloud based localization management platform can also help you with software internationalization.
Just like translation, internationalization is also a part of localization. Translators are responsible for translations; similarly, developers are responsible for the internationalization of software. Software internationalization is the more technical aspect of localization, and your developers should have enough experience to do it properly. In this article, there’ll be a discussion about the significance of software internationalization for global expansion, and how to do it right.
What Is Software Internationalization?
It is a part of your business localization process, in which businesses would adapt the design and development of their software product in a way that resonates with their targeted foreign audiences. Just like translation deals with the linguistic aspect, it deals with the technical aspect of the software. It allows you to modify the content of your software to the cultural, regional, legal, and social nuances.
For instance, the time, date, currency, and numeric formatting is different for every region, so your software must adapt to each one of them. For this, it is important for you to hire experienced developers who are familiar with Unicode development and know-how to develop your software to meet global standards.
Significance of Software Internationalization
Why should global business be internationalized? It is one of the most commonly asked questions by startups and big companies who want to expand globally. Most businesses still believe that internationalization is irrelevant to their brand and it doesn’t fit in their business models. This notion comes from the business’s hesitation to change its processes. Although the demand for localization and internationalization is increasing globally, there are still many brands relying on the old-school ways of file management.
The idea of altering the overall business processes and workflow is so intimidating for businesses that they keep on resisting the change for so long. Following are some major benefits of software internationalization for global businesses.
- It helps you improve software quality. The purpose of internationalization is to make your software relevant to foreign audiences. It enhances the quality by making your software resonate with your targeted audiences’ interests.
- When you have your software internationalized through Unicode, you don’t have to spend time modifying it each time you are targeting a new region. This way internationalization saves your development time and code.
- Once you develop software through Unicode, you can reuse it again and again for different markets. There is no need to create new code every time you have to enter a new marketplace.
- It also reduces the overall localization cost and helps you enter a new international market smoothly. Having a TMS would further make the localization more budget-friendly.
- Internationalization also enhances customers satisfaction because your product is effectively catering to their needs and the content in the software is made keeping in mind the interests and psychology of targeted audiences.
Things To Consider While Doing Internationalization
It is important for the businesses to do their internationalization right; otherwise, all of their time, money, and efforts would be of no use. Below are mentioned some important factors that you have to consider while doing software internationalization.
- While developing code by the user interface, you should add placeholders instead of hard-coded text. These placeholders would call back to the text from translation documents. It allows you to use the right translations for every version of the software.
- You might need to change the formatting of the software for every new region. For example, different countries use different hour clocks (12-hour clock, 24-hour clock), based on this information you have to format the time accordingly.
- Cloud based localization management platform would allow you to organize your code logically to different segments separately. You should have separate files for each language to make it easier for your code to retrieve translation to the software.
- Developers should have a command-line interface tool for the localization process. This tool would allow them to create projects, download files, and add contributors. There is no need for any user interface or mouse to perform any operation. They just have to run a single command to do it.
- You should use webhooks that would generate automatic notifications to and from different applications. It also allows you to export translation documents across applications, and once you have downloaded translation, your tools get automatic notifications.
Conclusion
Simply put, getting your software internationalized is imperative for your business’ global success. It enhances the customer’s satisfaction levels, and they would resonate with your software product. As your targeted customers are more likely to connect with your brand, you wouldn’t have a hard time entering a new marketplace. Make sure you have experienced developers along with a professional cloud-based localization platform to do the internationalization job efficiently.
