Global Content Management and the Multilingual CMS Milengo

As the influence of traditional direct and indirect marketing fades, web communication is becoming the main driver of business growth. Staying relevant in the digital age means publishing regular, relevant and highly targeted web content ? blogs, social media, email campaigns ? on a regular basis. ?For a global business, this content needs to be reproduced in multiple languages and distributed in real-time. Modern consumers expect information instantly, and with internet search providing instant results there?s no excuse for delay.

Global content management is no mean feat; your company needs the right infrastructure. A good multilingual CMS is the backbone of your communication strategy, empowering you to rapidly create and translate content in any number of languages.

Choosing a Multilingual CMS

The first priority is ease of translation: finding the path of least resistance to creating multilingual content. You should choose a multilingual CMS that can adapt to your existing workflow without disruption. To that end, these are three criteria to keep in mind:

Infrastructure
How will you manage your CMS? Do you run your Enterprise IT on a centralized system like SAP or Oracle? Or use separate infrastructure in each department or market? Central management gives you greater control over output, while a decentralized system allows for faster workflow. Decide which is more important to your company as your choice of CMS will need to reflect this.

Multilingual CMS

Users
Ensure that everyone can use the multilingual CMS comfortably. You will typically have three user roles to account for:

• Developers who maintain and customize the software.
• Administrators who manage and edit output.
• Authors who create content.

Each of these roles will use the CMS in a different way, and require a different set of tools. Localization of? interfaces may be necessary for remote staff. The best CMS is the one that works effectively for all users, so understand the needs of your staff before making a decision.

Design
Finally, consider the technical requirements of global content management. A good multilingual CMS should have the following:

• Support for bi-directional text and multi-byte characters. The system should handle non-Latin alphabets ? such as Hebrew, Arabic, or Japanese ? without any technical glitches.
• Support for standard file formats like XML, which allow seamless transfer of content from one system to another.
• An internal translation dashboard, or an API for connecting to an external translation management portal. This is a critical feature of any multilingual system when managing translation externally.
• Ground-up support for mobile devices. Your customers and employees access the internet on their phones and tablet computers, your CMS should support these devices.
• More capabilities than you currently need. A multilingual CMS is a long-term investment, so think beyond your present requirements and allow for easy upgrade.

Future-Proofing Your Business

In the 21st century few companies can afford to ignore translation, even in their home market. Anglosphere societies are increasingly diverse; just look how much Spanish-language marketing is done by US firms. Both at home and abroad, the mastery of language is a vital business asset to ensure you stay one step ahead of the competition. You can prepare your company for a multilingual future online by investing in the right content management system.

If you want to add professional translation capabilities to your existing CMS, Milengo can help. We use Clay Tablet technology to connect with your current infrastructure and manage translation externally. Get in touch with us to find out more.

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