Six Steps To A Successful Localization Project
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Source: 2004 SCM Expert and written by Christine DiLacqua, President, CQ2 Consulting LLC. Copyright Wellesley Information Services. Used by permission.
Is your company planning to conduct business in an Asian country? Whether you are implementing a joint venture, rolling out a new business unit, or undertaking a merger, local language requirements for information systems must be evaluated. Your finance business users in Asia might need to work in English, while other users in operations, customer support, or supply chain management require access in their local language.
An effort to globalize is actually an effort to localize. Outside of Asia, SAP is usually implemented to support English and western European languages. The characters in these languages are stored in single-byte format. Asian language characters require double-byte format, for which you must load additional code pages into SAP. Delivering a system that has double-byte language capability requires planning, grueling translation, and above all, a bipartisan team that understands the competing currents of globalization and localization. Don't underestimate the amount of time and resources required to complete a conversion to run operations in any Pacific Rim location.