Nearly half of US organizations plan to move to a global content operating model within 24 months, according to a study by SDL and Forrester Consulting.
The study, « Remove Translation Barriers That Obstruct Digital Experience Success,” analyzed 151 organizations across the US. It found 48 percent of business and IT professionals plan to move to the global content operating model, in which study officials say centralized technology and processes manage security, localization, compliance and workflows for local and culturally relevant digital experiences.
Another 70 percent currently support five or more languages across websites and other channels.
“This new research comes as the industry faces a significant shift, » Adolfo Hernandez, CEO of Maidenhead, UK-based translation and content management software provider SDL, said in a statement.
« The Information Age focused on availability of information — businesses have access to more data than ever before and customers have information at their fingertips, across various digital channels. Now, we are now entering the Age of Understanding, where information availability is no longer enough. The explosion of global content must be tailored to reflect language, culture, and context, catering to individuals’ needs.”
The research was released to coincide with two important events SDL is participating in this week: SDL Connect, the company’s user conference, which kicks off Wednesday in Palo Alto, Calif., and CMSWire’s DX Summit, which starts today in Chicago.
Most organizations still find challenges translating content:
- Respondents cited lack of standardization for translation process (35 percent) and lack of centralized budget (30 percent) as two top challenges
- Thirty-one percent of organizations feel that a lack of understanding of customer needs at the local level are impediments
- Twenty-nine percent of enterprises that work with a language service provider or translation management systems have a direct integration with their web content management system (Web CMS), resulting in subpar manual processes for most
- Sixty-two percent reported having five or more content repositories, while 36 percent have 10 or more, leading to fragmented technology environments
SDL Chief Marketing Officer Peggy Chen said she found it « astounding » to find global content operating models are not yet being implemented in mass.
« We actually weren’t surprised to find that enterprises struggle with localization, » Chen told CMSWire.
« Being on the forefront of helping global companies with their localization efforts, we have certainly seen the issues of clients’ struggling to understand the needs of their customers at the local level or failing to automate the localization process, etc. However, we were certainly shocked to find that ’92 percent of companies face challenges as they translate content into different languages.’ This is an obvious pain point of large enterprises, is completely underserved and needs to be addressed through localization process that serves organizations’ interests to go global. »
In other technology news …
Kaltura: More Enterprises Use Video
Video is becoming increasingly mainstream in enterprise applications, according to Kaltura. In its third annual State of Enterprise Video report, the New York City-based video platform provider found 6 out of 10 business have integrated video in their intranet and another 30 percent are considering it.
Video integration into social business platforms are also rising: 42 percent of respondents say that their businesses have done this already, with another 45 percent considering it.
When considering a video portal, respondents cite the ability to search, browse and watch videos on mobile devices as extremely or very important (72 percent). They also want to show different content to different groups (67 percent), detailed analytics on users and media entries (62 percent), in-video search based on transcription (51 percent), in-video quizzing (38 percent) and encouraging participation through gamification (38 percent).
Around 500 enterprise professionals from a range of diverse sectors took the online survey in September 2016.
OneLogin Acquires Sphere Secure Workspace
San Francisco-based OneLogin, an identity management provider, acquired Sphere Secure Workspace, a software vendor that provides mobile container technology.
The Sphere technology will be used to extend OneLogin’s endpoint security from desktops to mobile devices.
“In today’s BYOD world, enterprises struggle with securing employee access from mobile devices. Most devices are unsecured and enterprises are hesitant to deploy traditional MDM solutions, which are complex to manage and intrusive on the employee’s device, » Thomas Pedersen, CEO and co-founder of OneLogin, said in a statement.
OneLogin Mobile will be available in beta next month and generally available in early 2017. The Sphere acquisition is OneLogin’s third acquisition in the last 10 months. In June, OneLogin acquired Portadi, a cloud-based password management tool. Last December, OneLogin acquired CaféSoft, a technology that allows OneLogin to provide an identity solution for hybrid environments.
LinkedIn Updates Campaigns Platform
Sponsored InMail is joining the growing suite of self-serve LinkedIn products available through LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager. With Sponsored InMail marketers can target audiences in a personalized way.
Users can now create and manage Sponsored InMail campaigns along with other self-serve products, including Sponsored Content and Text Ads, directly through Campaign Manager using their advertising account with LinkedIn.
“The ability to send Sponsored InMails from credible, relevant senders has definitely contributed to the success of our campaigns, » LinkedIn officials said in a statement.
Seamless DX Is Still Not a Reality
Only 10 percent of marketing technologists believe their organization is structured to deliver a seamless experience on all touchpoints — and 31 percent report do not have metrics to measure their success.
That’s the conclusion of a survey by Boston-based SapientNitro. Other key findings:
- Marketing technologists are leaning into marketing and lack the ability to drive change. More than half come from a marketing background (53 percent) and nearly half of respondents (44 percent) report to the CMO.
- Marketing technologists lack formal technical training and professional experience. They’re more than twice as likely to hold a marketing or business degree than a technical degree (51 percent vs. 22 percent).
- 46 percent of respondents believe machine learning will have the greatest impact on customer experience, followed by IOT (42 percent) and Cognitive Computing (25 percent).
Funding Update
Neo Technology Secures $36M
San Mateo, Calif.-based graph database provider Neo Technology, creators of Neo4j, closed a $36 million Series D round last week. Greenbridge Investment Partners and existing investors including Sunstone, Creandum and Eight Roads Ventures, led the round.
“This new round of funding builds on the tremendous momentum we’re seeing this year around Neo4j — both development-wise and commercially — as connected enterprises look for real-time value from unprecedented volumes of data and graph databases become the enterprise standard,” said Emil Eifrem, CEO of Neo Technology and co-creator of Neo4j.
RiskIQ Nets $30.5M
London-based RiskIQ, which provides digital risk management, closed a $30.5 million Series C round led by Georgian Partners. Existing investors Summit Partners, Battery Ventures and MassMutual Ventures also participated.
Company officials said the financing will enable the company to expand its ecosystem, global sales and platform applications within the digital risk management market.
In the first half of 2016, the company reported year-over-year bookings growth of 80 percent, growing bookings and new customer acquisition for every product in its platform.
Lou Manousos, CEO and co-founder of RiskIQ, said Georgian Partners « knows what it takes to develop a business into a customer-focused, long-lasting and profitable company.”
Greenfly Secures $6.2 Million
Greenfly, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based provider that helps organizations orchestrate private networks of content contributors, closed a Series A round of $6.2 million led by Iconica Partners. Elysian Park Ventures, Mandalay Sports Media, R/GA Ventures, Corazon Capital, Go4it and TACK Ventures also participated.
Since its founding in 2014, Greenfly has helped sports leagues, teams and media companies to leverage their networks of influencers, brand ambassadors and staff for the production and distribution of video and other media content.
Mark Leschly, managing director of Iconica Partners, is joining the board.
Daniel Kirschner, co-founder and CEO of Greenfly, said Leschly has « helped companies grow from their early days into multibillion dollar operations. With this funding, we can focus on continuing to scale and on addressing new verticals and markets. »