In May 2006, SDL International, the leading provider of Global Information Management (GIM) solutions, hosted an executive event in Paris which was attended by some of the world’s leading brands including Philips, FedEx, HP, GlaxoSmithKline, Sony, Kodak, Sun Microsystems and Intel.

SDL International instigated the event after identifying the need for a forum to enable senior executives to debate challenges and opportunities surrounding the management of global brand, corporate content and company information in worldwide markets.  The exclusive, invitation-only summit provided an opportunity for senior executives across many different industries to debate and share best practices regarding the challenges surrounding Global Information Management (GIM).

The SDL-hosted summit comes at a critical time, with an increasing pressure on organizations to more rapidly and seamlessly launch global products and services that are specifically tailored to local markets.  This need to act globally and communicate locally is due to many factors, including increasing consumer demands, the expansion of international trading, the huge growth of corporate information and the increasingly competitive business landscape.

At the event Daniel Franklin, Editorial Director at the Economist Intelligence Unit, presented a ‘sneak preview’ of the soon to be published research paper on ‘Guarding Global Brands’.  Debra Logan, Senior Analyst, Gartner, also presented her most recent analysis into Global Information Management, examining current trends in enterprise-wide information management and how the effective management of global content leads to competitive advantage. 

Following the presentations, attendees were invited to debate the issues raised and to participate in a survey.  The survey identified the top 3 factors to successful business in global markets, in order of importance: (1) increasing customer satisfaction in world markets; (2) reducing time to launch products and campaigns in world markets; (3) expansion into new markets.

Executives in attendance also reported that providing local language communications for sales and marketing, and communicating with one voice whatever the language or communication channel, were more important to delivering a superior customer experience than providing localized products or services, or personalizing communications to customer needs and preferences. Automation of translation processes and reuse of content were cited as the most important factors for shortening time-to-market.

Luuk de Jager, Sr Manager Content Management, Central Marketing at Philips Consumer Electronics commented, “I found this summit very rewarding. I learnt from other companies about how they are approaching the same global information management challenges that we have. I also found it interesting to get an insight into how SDL is evolving its technologies into a new GIM platform and the benefits that this will bring to Philips.”

Mark Lancaster, CEO of SDL International, added: “SDL is proud to have initiated this event which we view as an important industry milestone; it provides a roadmap for exploring future issues. Being able to debate these issues as a community affords the opportunity to share experiences and ideas to improve communications and raise standards around the management of global information.”