Re-defining Localization at Yahoo! as
a corporate strategic growth driver
Salvo Giammarresi, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Localization
localizr@yahoo-inc.com
Oct 11, 2011
A great global Internet brand
Yahoo! attracts more than 680 million unique visitors a
month, reaching 50% of the global online population and
accounting for 5% of all time spent online globally.
Source: comScore Media Metrix, Worldwide, March 2011
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
No. 1 Mail service in the US
Source: comScore Media Metrix, U.S., March 2011
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
No. 1 Instant Messenger in the US
Source: comScore Media Metrix, U.S., March 2011
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
You get the pattern…
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
How can localization help drive growth?
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
The prelude: a huge opportunity
 Localization teams fragmented, ad-hoc
 No standard localization processes
 No real central vendor management
 No quality success criteria or KPIs set
 No central financial oversight
Operationally: Not scalable, not efficient
Strategically: Localization often was an after-thought
Financially: No central budget & oversight
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
The goal
 Centralized and strategic localization team
 Standard localization processes
 Central vendor management
 Quality success criteria and KPIs
 Central financial oversight
Operationally: Scalable, efficient
Strategically: Localization as a fore-thought
Financially: Central budget & oversight
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
The plan – phase I
 Raise executive awareness
of the power of localization
 Set a corporate goal:
enable all our products to be
localizable and get more products
in more locales
 Centralize all localization teams
and budgets
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
The plan – phase II
 Standardize on a
scalable localization process
 Re-define the role of the
Localization Project Managers
 Re-define the interaction between the
Localization team and other functional teams
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
The plan – phase III
 Establish KPIs & success criteria
 Re-confirm & deepen the partnerships with our LSPs
 Standardize on one localization platform
 Create a scalable, automated and continuous
localization engine with very few friction points
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
Localization at Yahoo Yesterday
Product 1
Tool 1
Budgeting
Product 2
Product 3
Product 4
Product 5
Product 6
Tool 2
Tool 3
Tool 4
Tool 5
Tool 6
Budgeting
Budgeting
Budgeting
Budgeting
Budgeting
Processing
Processing
Processing
Processing
Processing
Processing
Workflow
Workflow
Workflow
Workflow
Workflow
Workflow
LSP
L10n PM
LSP
L10n PM
LSP
L10n PM
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
LSP
L10n PM
LSP
L10n PM
LSP
L10n PM
Localization at Yahoo Tomorrow
Product 1
Product 2
Product 3
Product 4
Product 5
Workflow Management
Product 6
I18n QA
Metrics&KPIs
L10n Project Management
Terminology
Style Guides
L10n QA
Machine Translation
LSPs
Crowdsourcing
Global Live Products
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
Localization at Yahoo Tomorrow
Product 1
Product 2
Product 3
Product 4
Product 5
Continuous Localization
workflow
Global Live Products
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
Product 6
Today Localization is a corporate priority
 Yahoo’s vision
To deliver your world, your way
 One of 2011 strategic priorities:
Modernize, Globalize and Localize our platforms
and products
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
Future
What is the next evolution
of our localization team?
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
Final thoughts
 Localization teams play a huge role in a company’s
success
 When operating horizontally in a centralized fashion,
localization teams have a unique perspective on what and
how to optimize across many teams
 Localization teams can be catalysts for change within
organizations
 Very few teams have the end to end perspective that
localization teams have
 It’s harder to affect larger organizational changes if you
first have not optimized your localization eco-system
Salvatore Giammarresi @ Localization World Santa Clara 2011
Thank you!
Salvo Giammarresi, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Localization
localizr@yahoo-inc.com
Localization World Santa Clara 2011