A multicultural country like Singapore teaches one a lot through exposure. A unique blend of Malay, Chinese, Arab, Indian and English cultures sees one celebrating festivals, food, traditions and languages without any discrimination. This also makes one value the power of going global as well as local. A global market for a business is a chance to expand while a local market lets them grow roots and make themselves indispensable in areas that may be far from their origin. Offering services in the local language is the first step towards localization.
Serving Global Businesses
Andovar, a global provider of multilingual content solutions is letting businesses localize without a hassle. Its services range from text translation and content creation, through audio and video recording, to turnkey localization of websites, software, eLearning, video and games. Headquartered in Singapore, it has offices in Ireland, Thailand, Colombia, India, USA and the UK.
Irish-born entrepreneur Conor Bracken, CEO and founder, Andovar is as well-known personality in Asia-Pacific business circles. He is also a regular speaker at business conferences and a founding director of the Irish-Thai Chamber of Commerce.
Andovar focuses on emerging markets and technologies, such as websites, mobile, gaming, multimedia and cloud software. Owing to its medium-sized structure, it is agile, adaptable and able to handle projects of varying size. It focuses on creating customized solutions for each client to meet their needs and budgets avoiding the trap to automate everything like others. Placing production in low-cost countries allows it to offer more competitive pricing while keeping quality at the highest international level.
Improvising to Stay Ahead
Andovar doesn’t sell any software solutions and uses the latest technology itself, which allows it to give impartial advice to its clients. It concentrates on high-end projects that encourage innovation and offers technical translation expertise, the latest audio and video technology and project management skills. Bracken believes in taking risks, not sticking to safe zones and ways to innovate when taking up new projects and that these factors keep Andovar in the top league. He believes any larger localization company could be at risk of being “dinosaurs, as they’re unwilling to evolve along with a growing number of operating systems, device types, file formats and coding platforms.”
Employees are its Strength
A wide range of professional talent from across the world coupled with its own audio studios makes Andover a one-stop-shop for all localization projects regardless of size, type and language requirement. For employees handling the creation of in-language material, high proficiency in source and target languages, and skill in using modern localization tools are a must. The back office profile calls for constant learning and development to stay on top of the latest trends both in the localization industry, as well as the industries of its clients. Andovar is employee-owned brand, and everyone has a stake in the clients’ success.
Connecting to India and the Future
It identified India as a strategic location in the industry and opened an office in Kolkata in 2014. Affordable cost and availability of local technical talent make it a production haven and its growing economy marks it as a market for localization services. Being a country with great linguistic diversity it is both a challenge and an untapped opportunity for international business.
Since its foundation in 2007, Andovar has been growing, opening new offices in key locations, winning more business from high-profile clients, providing uninterrupted support to clients and successfully competing with larger and more established players. Currently, it is focusing on growth via customer acquisition and growing its offices by adding more staff and audio recording studios. It is also constantly making adjustments to follow the trends it sees in the industry to stay competitive and offer quality services to its clients.
Advice to the Young
The industry is growing and buzzing with young entrepreneurs. Bracken advises them that the market is more crowded, and one needs to find a niche and come to the table with a unique value proposition to be able to compete. Insisting on the need to come up with innovative and unique ideas, he says “Being aware of barriers to entry is a critical part of a company start-up. Nobody can copy my company or strategy. Many can try but it’s not something that you could easily replicate, given the complexities involved.”
Localization, right now, is a growing industry and is expected to continue expanding for years to come. Fueled by the globalization of business activities, international travel and the boom of the internet economy, a small start-up has the potential to become an international business and Andovar’s services seek to play a key role in these transformations across the globe.
Source :-The 10 Most Admired Language Service Provider Companies
