Heather CunninghamPhilips HealthcareOctober 22, 2009 / Localization World

How a small group can effect big change

in a large corporation

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• You are the only one in your organization that knows what L10n or i18n stands for.

• It takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to do what you do but nobody but you understands why and they want you to cut costs.

• You are informed at the end of a product development cycle that you have to localize the product.

• Your new boss wants you to try working with single language vendors in an attempt to reduce costs.

• Nobody understands why it takes so long to translate over a 1000 pages of instructions for a system that can help save lives.

• Isn’t there a tool that can do this automatically?

Does any of the following sound familiar?

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• Get in touch with the Localization community

– Localization World

– Localization Institute

– MultiLingual Magazine

– TAUS

• Ask your manager for contacts at other modalities within your company

– Benchmark what is done by others

– Form a support network of other individuals involved in Localization

• This has all been done successfully by others; you can do it too.

How can you effect big changes?

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Philips Healthcare DocLoc Council – What is it?Organization:• A sector-wide support network where all Business Units (modalities) are

represented in the area of end-user documentation and localization.• Linking pins to other relevant disciplines.

– Departments such as Quality & Regulatory, Purchasing and Marcom– Regional representatives in Europe and Asia– Other divisions of Royal Philips: Philips Lighting and Philips Consumer

Lifestyle, Philips-Neusoft Medical Systems (PNMS)

Mission:• Improve efficiency and time-to-market and reduce costs of the creation,

localization and delivery of end-use product information.

Vision:• All documentation and localization groups will use common tools and

processes allowing their outputs to be compatible while maximizing reuse of information and enabling synergy with other organizations.

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Doc-Loc Council Representatives

Seattle

Bothell

San Jose

Madison

Hamburg

BestAndover

Böblingen

Cleveland

Helsinki

Haifa

Bangalore

Brisbane

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PMS DocLoc Council – How was it formed?After the many acquisitions in 2002, PMS was faced with a wide variety of different

documentation and localization strategies and processes.

Problems:• Inconsistency in Business Unit (BU) language coverage and compliance• Multiple translation processes• Over 23 translation vendors• Increasing number of regulatory-required languages (for IFUs and UIs)• Absence of an enterprise-wide strategy or structure for documentation and

localization

Questions that resulted:• “What is the language strategy?”• “How can we manage the translation costs?”• “How can we create synergy in this area across all BUs?”

To tackle these issues across all BUs, a working group was established: the ‘Doc & Loc Council’

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Accomplishments

• Standardization of key processes

• Internal inventory & evaluation of translation vendors

• Consultancy project executed to assess, analyze and evaluate the global translation processes and vendors across the business units

• Translation vendor rationalization– # of Translation vendors was reduced from 23 to 2 + 1 regional– New translation vendor pricing (driven by Corporate Purchasing)– Definition of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on cost, delivery times,

quality and efficiency

• All these activities have been grass-roots efforts.

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Challenges

• Buy-in and participation from all BUs

• Support for travel during difficult economic times– To meet face to face

• Finding resources and time aside from functional obligations

• Visibility within BU executive management

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Potential Solutions

• Establish Corporate Steering Committee

• Present accomplishments in dashboard format to BU executive team

• Show savings achieved through Council activities

• Demonstrate process improvement due to Council connection, benchmarking, etc.

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Develop a One-Page Strategy

• Strategic Direction with high level Mission, Vision, Strategy and Objectives of your Strategy

• Identify your Business Enablers, such as Leadership, People, Partnerships and Resources as well as Processes

• Get more detailed with Key Processes and Goals– Ensure your goals are specific and measurable

• Identify the Strategic Initiatives you will impact

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Inspire Others to Incorporate a Inspire Others to Incorporate a Localization Mindset in their Localization Mindset in their

daily workdaily work

Thank you!