Locasis

Localization in Turkey: Four Years On

An Interview With Vedat Oygur, Managing Director, Locasis

As Managing Editor for the Localization Industry Standards Association, I interviewed Vedat Oygur, Managing Director of Locasis in Istanbul, Turkey four years ago. Since then, I have had the pleasure of meeting his rather unique team in their offices along the shore of the Bosphorus – still one of the world’s most stunning locations.

Vedat’s team is different, so I decided to interview him to find out why. I also wanted to be brought up-to-date on how the localization market has changed and matured over the last few years here, and what the future holds for the Locasis team and for the Turkish market. Here’s what Vedat had to say.

INSERT VEDAT’S PHOTO, OR A TEAM PHOTO, HERE

Rebecca Ray: When we last interviewed you at the end of 2004, you described localization as ‘taking ahold in Turkey.’ How would you characterize the market now? What changes do you expect over the next two to three years?

The localization market in Turkey grew even faster than I predicted in 2004

Vedat Oygur: There has been a boom in the localization of new and updated products entering the Turkish market, especially between 2006 and 2008. From automotive to life sciences, international companies have focused on addressing the local culture here to gain new customers, as well as to ensure customer satisfaction.

During this period, the Association Translation Companies (of which Locasis is a member) was also founded in Turkey to lead the localization industry. The goal is to enable the industry here to adopt both technical and business process standards so that its members can better support their own customers.

Currently, the only obstacle to this continued growth is the temporary impact of the current global financial crisis. However, I would like to specifically mention that, in the near future, more and more companies will opt to address their local customers in their languages. The current downturn will not alter this trend. The potential for the Turkish localization sector remains very strong, and I expect it to continue growing.

If there are any surprises, they will occur at the global, not the local, level. Of course, the current crisis may also open the door to mergers and acquisitions, on both the client and service provider side in our industry.

Rebecca: What are the typical mistakes that high-tech companies still make when entering the Turkish market?

Companies don’t realize how sophisticated the market here is, or how important status is to the average Turkish consumer

Vedat: I would say that they are not always aware of the potential of the Turkish-speaking market. The dynamism of the market surprises them when they enter it. When things don't work out as they plan, they have additional localization costs to catch up with the market.

This is because technology adoption is above the world average in Turkey. Companies don’t realize how sophisticated the market here is, or how important status is to the average Turkish consumer. For example, a doctor in Germany might use a diagnostic machine for a few years longer, rather than buying the latest model. But a doctor in Turkey will buy the latest model. The same goes for consumer products such as cellphones.

What often happens is that international companies apply their generic global marketing strategies and materials here, rather than targeting the Turkish customer. And customers here, just like every else, notice the difference. Even when a company’s goal is to provide a complete localization of its product or service, it often forgets to allow for the implementation of the processes required for attracting customers in our country. At times, sustaining sound local relationships is equally as important as the marketing of the product. The local partners here can provide excellent advice on how to attract and keep Turkish customers, so that a company’s initial investment in localization is not wasted.

The Turkish language is also used extensively outside of this country. This means that the market for a Turkish language product often extends beyond Turkey itself. However, since high tech companies aren't always aware of this, they don't factor in the additional revenue opportunities when they develop their strategy.

Rebecca: How has Locasis grown and changed over the last 4 years?

Vedat: First of all, we divided our long-term growth objectives into phases so that we could measure our short- and long-term progress. This strategy has worked extremely well because it has enabled us to develop consistency in achieving our objectives.

Locasis is now a household name

During the past four years, we have also successfully grown our customer portfolio and increased our service and language offerings, along with our capacity. Today, we produce projects for the top ten companies in each of the sectors that we address. Our partners also recognize the value that we have delivered to them, so Locasis is now a household name.

Rebecca: Locasis is known for the excellent quality of its terminology database. Do you follow any special process or standards when developing terminology for the Turkish-speaking market?

It is our responsibility to bridge the gap between software developer and end-user

Vedat: Our team truly understands that terminology forms the building blocks for all information produced by an organization, whether in the form of advertising, marketing materials, product/service information, web sites, sales support, customer support, user documentation, training videos, etc. Terminology, and the content based on it, is the way that our customers communicate their brand and their value proposition to their own customers. The work that we do in terminology is critical to our customers.

Our strategy for managing terminology as an intellectual property asset is to cooperate with challenging customers on challenging projects by targeting their challenging end-users. We continuously perform both academic and industrial terminology research in various domains to maintain a terminology database for the Turkish market that is the most expansive and up-to-date in the language services industry today. For example, we have developed most of the terminology that is now accepted and used in the ERP sector in Turkey.

Rebecca: Your capacity in the medical/pharmaceutical/life sciences field has grown considerably over the last four years. How did your team do this?

Investment in the medical sector is significantly on the rise in Turkey

Vedat: Previously, Turkish patients were going abroad to benefit from state-of-the art medical treatments and systems. But now it's foreign agencies that are organizing medical tours to bring foreigners to Turkey for treatment.

All kinds of the most up-to-date devices for diagnosis, treatment and operations are now extensively used here. Since there is a high demand, brand new technologies are quickly imported and applied.

We have a doctor on the team that manages these projects. We also work in tandem with different doctors for approval and validation. Team members also attend product introduction meetings for brand-new technologies to develop insights into their applications and to increase their knowledge by asking their questions directly to experts in the field. We have set up strong terminology databases and made sure that our network is ready to handle all of the many different branches in the field. All of these efforts form the foundation for an experienced team, and we are now a preferred partner in medical/pharmaceutical/life sciences for both clients and MLVs (multi-language vendors).

Rebecca: Companies often claim that they can operate as their customers’ internal translation or localization department, as opposed to simply being integrated into their team as a service provider. However, your customers are willing to state publicly that Locasis is very good at this. What is your secret at Locasis?

We adopt the localized product as if we had developed it

Vedat: We consider ourselves totally responsible to the end-users whose convenience, comfort and ability to learn easily prove whether or not we have successfully localized a product.

Many of our high tech customers have integrated us upstream in their initial planning and decisionmaking phases. Our input is often requested prior to projects being put out for bid. Moreover, we always endeavor to provide full support to our customers during the localization process. We pay very careful attention to each and every aspect of a project. We establish relationships with other departments, so that we can be proactive. And most importantly, we ensure cooperation between those departments based on our experience and technical expertise.

This goes beyond trust. Our customers take it for granted that we will deliver their most difficult projects consistently with high quality, on time and within budget.

Rebecca: A very high percentage of your business is from repeat customers. Why do they keep coming back?

Vedat: For one reason: because they feel secure and are accustomed to receiving good results from us. Long-standing and sound relationships are invaluable to customers, so all of us work very hard to always deliver whatever it takes to maintain those relationships.

Rebecca: If I am a potential customer, what three questions should I ask you? What qualities make Locasis a good partner?

Vedat: It’s really very simple. Here they are:

1. What is the availability and quality of your resources? What is your level of technical knowhow?
2. How do you quality control the processes applied during localization projects?
3. What success stories and examples of scalable customer satisfaction can you provide?

Beyond these concrete facts, our definition of partnership lies in the assessment of what it is really like to work with a team of people on a day-to-day basis. We are a good partner because we are proactive in our collaboration. We share vital information, and we foresee and resolve problems on a timely basis.

Rebecca: Talking about scalable customer satisfaction, you had just received a special reward from SAP when we spoke in 2004. What other rewards have you received since then?

Vedat: The same qualities that earned us the SAP award have also earned us awards and references from companies such as Bosch, Cisco, Hitachi, Novartis, Danone, Deutschebank and several of our MLV partners. This recognition, of course, validates our model and continues to motivate our team.

Rebecca: Your Project Managers work with counterparts at both MLVs and customers. What is the difference in terms of project management between these two groups?

Vedat: When working with MLVs, our Project Managers cooperate with Project Managers who have full control over their localization processes from A to Z. They approach the problems together. This means that our Project Managers can easily communicate their solution proposals and refer to their counterparts’ advice when necessary. This definitely leads to time savings and faster results.

On the other hand, if there is no dedicated team available that is familiar with localization, both finding solutions and informing the customer become our job. We may compare it to working from different sides of the same table. However, as the collaboration continues, more rapid and proactive results are produced. Eventually, our team becomes an integrated part of the customer’s team.

Rebecca: What makes the Locasis team so special?

Vedat: You asked, so here's the list!

1. Our customer satisfaction orientation
2. Everyone's commitment to Locasis itself, and truly being proud of what we do
3. The way we continuously seek to improve our processes, with the goal of not repeating previous errors
4. Our discipline
5. Our solidarity
6. Each team member's innovative, inquiring and cooperative nature
7. Our versatility and proactive approach to all problems, whether they be technical, process or people-related

Rebecca: How did you gather such a team?

What matters is the team’s success

Vedat: It’s an on-going process. We set serious and complex challenges as objectives for new employees. And we drill into them, at the same time, that what matters is the team’s success, rather than individual interests. The team members who understand what this means have become the core team for Locasis.

Thanks to our close collaboration with universities, we offer career opportunities to the most successful students. At Locasis, they are taught how to manage quality, time, performance and resources. This means taking responsibility and using their authority in the most productive way possible.

The team as a whole assesses the candidate’s abilities

We rotate the new candidates among our experienced Project Managers to increase their knowledge, and more importantly, to immerse them in Locasis culture so that they understand what it means to integrate themselves as part of the team going forward. During this entire period, the team as a whole assesses the candidate’s abilities.

At Locasis, where perpetual motion and dynamism prevail, and very significant projects are managed, those employees who trust each other and are able to cooperate with one another in harmony minimize the downtime and allow us to deliver the quality that we do. That’s why this initial period is critical for Locasis and the potential team member.

The results are important; however, to me as a manager, it is more important how they are achieved. This is the metric I use to ensure that each team member (including myself) continues to grow as we grow the company.

I would like to take this opportunity to say that I take pride in working with such a team and feel a great deal of respect for them.

Rebecca: Are there any new services that you will be offering over the next year?

There are so many companies today throughout the world that really struggle with delivering English content

Vedat: Since the high-tech industry is very innovative, new products are constantly being introduced here in Turkey. We will find new ways to adapt them for this market, and some of these may require new services.

One of the services that we’re currently investigating is a writing service for both original and edited content in English. For example, there are so many companies today throughout the world – not just in Turkey – that really struggle with delivering English content on their websites to effectively sell their products and services to a worldwide audience of English-speakers. This is just one area where this need exists. Stay tuned!

Vedat Oygur is [INSERT YOUR PROFILE HERE] Do you still have the profile used in Vedat’s first interview? Rebecca: There wasn't one. You don't have to include one. You can delete my profile below as well.

Rebecca Ray has been a pioneer in managing worldwide product design, localization, marketing and distribution for successful products sold internationally by such companies as BMC Software, IBM, Netscape Communications, Symantec and Sun Microsystems. She is co-author of the book, Doing Business in the USA: Marketing and Operations Strategies for Success. Rebecca is currently a Consulting Partner and Managing Editor for the LISA (Localization Industry Standards Association)