Press Release

The Conference will take place at the Sheraton City Tower in Ramat Gan, Israel and is intended for Software & Hardware Development Managers

The First Annual Localization Conference, which will take place in Israel on July 20th, 2006 at the Sheraton City Tower in Ramat Gan, is a professional conference intended to present leading technological tools to Software & Hardware Development Managers. Experts in the field from companies such as Mercury IBM Comverse and Net-Translators will present and lecture on topics dealing with localization.

Today's Development Managers are called upon to respond to ever-increasing language requirements and find themselves confronted with problems such as:

The importance of software localization has increased dramatically in today's technologically advanced world where the Internet unites us all into a single global village.

Localization and translation have been transformed into basic necessities and have become primary international marketing subjects in all business sectors. As a result, Development Managers ambassadors of Israeli companies which aspire to fulfill a significant part in the world market, are called upon to raise the banner of leading technology.

Localization
In order to achieve a significant market share, it is essential to translate all components of a software product into the local languages of the target countries so that the end user will feel that the product was developed according to his language, culture and needs. Leading software and hardware manufacturers approach their customers only in their native languages; their websites are translated into many target market languages. Their products are completely translated, including the accompanying documentation and all marketing materials. Technical translation and localization are inherently complex processes which require exacting quality control.

Internationalization (I18N) and Globalization (G10N)
I18N and G10N are phases of the development process of a product that can support a vast number of languages and accepted cultural norms without any need for reengineering. These processes occur during the planning and development stages, while localization occurs only after the internationalization process is complete. During development, it is necessary to take into account various parameters like software string length and text expansion. Many languages tend to expand by up to 30% from English, and therefore it is imperative to leave enough space for this expansion during the development and planning phases. The internationalization and localization processes begin with the software itself, along with the accompanying documentation and help, and extend to intensive Quality Assurance verification.

Simultaneous Shipping (Simship)
Simship is the release of the localized versions of software at the same time as the source language release. In order to achieve simship, Development Managers need to be assisted by localization experts very early in the development process.

Many companies are not aware of the need for localization and translation, and develop their products with an eye toward the American market under the mistaken assumption that all target markets speak English. In the United States alone, there are some 45 million non-English speakers. Only 28% of Europeans understand English, and only 12% actually speak English. Certain markets are not willing to accept new products which have not been localized. This fact alone turns localization into a critical issue.

Participants in the First Annual Localization Conference include leading international software companies.

For additional information and to register, please contact Tal at tal@Sbc.co.il or call +972-3-5652100 ext. 270