On an everyday basis, trillions of pages of content get created in multiple languages. With the advent of the internet and affordable accessibility of the internet, content can be made available online in multiple languages to make it accessible to the entire world. With globalization, the need and demand for language translation is increasing at a phenomenal pace. According to many research reports, the potential for language services is huge as there is more than 60% chance of selling a localized product or service compared to an un-localised product or service. There is a huge demand for localized online content, multimedia & video content as it helps in reaching out to a large number of non-English speaking population.
India which is already a multilingual country, is at the forefront of the Digital revolution and is one of the largest consumers of multilingual content. “Make in India” and “Digital India” initiatives have only fueled the demand for localized content. There is a renewed focus and interest from Foreign Investors and MNC’s to invest in manufacturing facilities in India. All these macro-level initiatives have facilitated the opening up of opportunities in the area of localization, digital initiatives and related analytics.
What Makes a Difference
The Translation and Localisation Industry in the Asia Pacific with a particular emphasis to India is highly fragmented. Most of the language services were being offered by either individuals or very small companies. One of the key criteria for a language expert is to have bi-lingual expertise coupled with a native level cultural expertise. It is important to be aware of the cultural nuances, dialect, slangs, values and local beliefs. There were no clear and acceptable methods of assessing the competency of the language and cultural expert by a large number of users of these services. In addition, due to its fragmented nature, the localisation industry was not using the latest project management and benchmarking techniques. The market dynamics was such that it did not encourage the adoption of latest technology. The customers found it difficult to benchmark the quality of service and pay a premium for high quality professional service.
White Globe enters the stage to bring about a significant change in the world of Translation localisation. In India, where Language Experts are scattered and have very limited employment opportunities, Students / Professionals with a good understanding & degree in language end up by either taking a teaching job or work as a freelancer with an irregular income and no guarantee of continued employment. White Globe reached out to these language experts and assessed them on their language and cultural competencies and provided them employment opportunities to work on various business assignments in the area of expertise. White Globe created offerings by using the “Best of Breed” techniques in Competency Assessment, Project Management, use of automation and technology. This has helped the company develop a very deep engagement with a large number of language and cultural experts across the globe.
Thereafter, it’s been a consistent growth with launch of many new services like Multilingual Video’s, SEO / SMO , Sub-titling, Dubbing, Multilingual Animation, Multilingual videos focusing on POSH, CSR activities, RUSH Hour Services etc. White Globe has also created customized offerings for over 30 Industry Verticals and has expanded the office network to six cities- Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.
The Quill of White Globe
Shetall Ramkumar, the Founder & CEO of White Globe, leads the establishment and the growth of the company with great passion and has personally led many interactions with large customers. She has more than 15 years ‘of experience in the area of Operations, Customer Service, Strategic Account Management, Learning and Development in very large Corporates. Under her leadership, the company has completely automated its processes across all functions offering a seamless experience to its customers and all other stakeholders.
Shetall has touched many shores to come to a position where she is today. She is an Alum of MICA and SIBM and is a communication specialist. She also did a long duration certificate course in French to understand the business imperatives, challenges in translation and the cultural nuances relevant for doing business in a different and new country.
White Globe Services
White Globe has already translated more than 50 Million words and created a record of sorts by translating more than 10 million words in one month. It provides Interpretation Services to Enterprise Customers across various domains including Simultaneous, Consecutive, Over-the-Phone, Video-Remote, Call Centre etc. White Globe has already provided more than 6000 hours of Interpretation Services across the globe in more than 25 languages in the last two years. The brand has offered its help to many leading Enterprise Customers with Website Localisation Services in more than 50 languages. White Globe has worked on many Multilingual Multimedia projects including Corporate Video’s, Corporate Policy Videos in multiple languages, Animated Content in multiple languages, Sub-titling assignments, Dubbing/Voice over etc. White Globe offers Pre-Production, Production and Post-production Services for Digital, Audio and Video content in more than 150 languages. White Globe has a pool of voice-over artists and many leading studio partners across multiple locations to offer its customized services.
White Globe also provides proofreading and quality assessment services to different Corporates, requiring a true service provider approach for highly important documents and content. This brand has also proved its excellence in Transcreation which are requirements of Publication Houses to help them publish books in many languages while keeping its intent, style, tone and context intact. White Globe also works with Partners to translate and assist them in creating Audio Books.
Advise for the Budding Entrepreneurs
Shetall has been ably supported by the other Founders and Promoters with deep experience in the corporate sector in the area of Sales & Marketing, Project Management, Operations and Technology. Thus, she has a lot of experience with this sector and its requirements and has some good words to say to the budding language enthusiasts, “Have a horizon of at least 2 years to build your services and capability stack. Be prepared for Cash burn during this period. Invest in technology and automation and focus on Quality right from the beginning.” She also believes that entrepreneurs should focus on the value their company will bring to its Customers stakeholders & Employees …Valuation will follow!!
The Futuristic Approach
Where growth can be the only motto to stay in the race, White Globe has plans to penetrate in around 20 large towns in the next couple of years in India to cater to the requirements of Corporates located in these towns and cities. In addition, White Globe is also looking at expanding to few countries in the Asia Pacific, Middle-East, Europe, Africa and America within the next two to three years. White Globe is already servicing more than 300 Corporates and expects to increase this number to more than 1000 Corporates in another six months.
The expansion is just one side of the story, and White Globe does not want to be in the race only for the bigger picture. It also hopes to preserve & restore some of the old dying languages in the world by creating & recreating content & has the vision to let various languages of the world to come and enrich the other to eventually be unified in a more harmonious way. As, what can be more harmonious than understanding the world-stage through the colors of the words!
Source :-The 10 Most Admired Language Service Provider Companies
