Internationalization is involved during the development phase of software. Because the localization process has become part of business as usual, companies have found that creating software that more efficiently travels through the L10N process can save both time and money.

Sometimes shortened to i18n (borrowing the same shorthand as L10N, it is because of the 18 letters between the "i" and the "n"), Internationalization is an extra developmental step during the writing of the software code that will take into consideration issues such as:

• Unicode Enabling / Double Byte Enabling
• Ensuring that all resource file strings are translatable
• Coding to allow for multiple time and date standards
• Functionality on international platforms
• Encoding that deals with multilingual displays or multilingual processing
• Coding to allowing for bi-directional language localization

Sometimes, during the core product's development, shortcuts are taken that make the software difficult to analyze and extract for translation. These shortcuts can be time-consuming and expensive to correct during the localization process. Such delays and expenses eat into the profits from localized releases (both monetarily and in terms of lost opportunities). Properly enabled products can help turn localization from a chaotic and expensive game of catch-up into a smoothly functioning workflow.

For international companies, taking the necessary developmental steps to create products that are easily localizable is a smart investment to ensure shorter timelines and greater profits down the road.

CSOFT offers Internationalization and technical consulting to help your company develop software that will be easily processed by a multilingual localization company.

For more information about CSOFT's Internationalization Solutions, please click here.