Providing software solutions since 1976
Providing software solutions since 1976
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GLOBAL LOCALISATION
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August 05, 2004
Managing remote research and development centres, managing the localisation (read, translation into non-English languages) of SAS products to ensure the product is culture neutral that’s what is implied in the process of globalising software. “But I very nearly killed my team, doing that! Now, we have come to a more realistic time frame. Version upgrades in different languages are simultaneous,” says Stephen Beatrous, R&D director, Software globalisation, SAS Inc. With R&D centres in the US, Tokyo, Denmark, Pune (India) and China, SAS sees the need to expand the localisation/ translation of its software. “Software lags behind in non-English speaking countries but the business problems are the same in Japanese or English,” he said. As one step to correct this, SAS is expanding its localisation/ translation work in the Asia-Pacific region. The inevitable location is China, where SAS is scouting for office space in the Beijing area. At this centre, it will localise, internationalise the software, having begun with a core, five-member team. “In three-five years, this will have 100-200 people. We will begin with localisation and move on to testing. Our R&D centre in Denmark will grow, doing the local R&D and then push the testing to the China centre. We lack the testing staff skills in Europe so this work will go to China. Besides, localisation needs are higher in the Asia-Pacific region. In Europe, translation is less essential the higher you go. Everyone works in English,” Beatrous said. So, where does that leave the Pune centre? “Our India focus is not testing. This centre is focused on our core competence and here, development is paired with testing, as (our headquarters at) Cary, US. We are building a service group here which will test automation, across verticals. This will bring in more work here,” says Beatrous. He pointed to the marketing automation function which has already been released as part of SAS 9, the product slated for a September roll out. “At SAS, over half our revenues are from the US and the rest from the rest of the world. But the US economy is not half of the world’s economy, so we have to increase our sales in the rest of the world,” he says. So, over the next five years, the ratio is expected to reach the more accurate (reflecting the respective sizes of the economies) of 25% revenues from the US and the balance 75% from the rest of the world. |
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