Translating Product Documentation: The Right Balance Between Cost and Quality in the Localization Chain

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - January 6, 2010) - Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), published the results of its "Translating Product Documentation" study. Aberdeen found that as they seek to deliver products to an increasing number of markets and regions, many companies struggle with increasing costs of accurately translating and localizing supporting documentation. However, top performing companies reduce localization costs by 22% to translate their product content into 48% more languages than competitors.

Aberdeen's research identifies how leading performers work with translators and language service providers (LSPs) to improve how translation is managed, increasing translation output and decrease translation costs without sacrificing quality.

David Houlihan, Senior Research Associate with Aberdeen's Product Innovation and Engineering practice, explains, "With translation costs typically tied to 'cost-per-word,' companies that successfully reuse content and control their processes effectively reduce translation costs even as they increase multi-language output. As a result, these companies position themselves to enter more markets with high quality localizations. This can have significant benefits for the enterprise, as prior Aberdeen research has shown that high quality documentation contributes as much as a 41% increase in customer satisfaction scores and a 41% reduction in inbound calls to customer support and service organizations."

The report reveals the initiatives these leading companies use to each these gains, including key process and organization changes. In addition, Aberdeen identifies the select translation management suite these companies use to better control processes and reuse content. Based on these findings, Aberdeen offers recommendations for organizations at all levels of maturity, whether a company is struggling to get their translation processes in line or to drive the next in a series of performance gains.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Across and PTC. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=6230.

Visit Research.Aberdeen.com for additional access to complimentary Product Innovation and Engineering Research.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen or call (617) 854-5200, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748.

Contact Information: Media Contact: David Houlihan Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5341 david.houlihan@aberdeen.com © 2010 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company 451 D Street, Suite 710 Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1928 Telephone: (617) 854-5200 Fax: (617) 723-7897 www.aberdeen.com