Thursday, May 6, 1999
EuroEntry, a seminar sponsored in part by Rubric for senior executives at software and Internet technology companies interested in expanding overseas, was held today at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts to a crowd of approximately 40 executives. The event focused on the issues faced by information technology companies as they develop their European markets.
Topics covered included financing overseas expansion efforts, establishing sales & marketing operations, understanding media and cultural attitudes, localizing products, and much more. In addition, Silknet Software of New Hampshire presented a case study of its recent expansion into the UK.
"We organized EuroEntry to be a useful resource for information technology companies looking for a wide array of information and materials about European expansion." said Tom Shapiro, VP of Sales & Marketing at Rubric. Tom gave a presentation about effective localization strategies for European markets at the seminar. "There is tremendous demand for software produced by U.S. firms outside of our borders. The U.S. Department of Commerce has named software as a best export prospect for over 30 countries around the globe. In 1997, the total software market size in the top 30 export markets alone amounted to over $83 billion, with U.S. companies accounting for more than 60% of this figure. The time is ripe for increasing one's revenue through European expansion.
"The popularity of the Internet is acting as a further catalyst for demand of non-English materials," Tom continued. "The number of non-English-speaking Internet users will most likely exceed their English-speaking counterparts by the year 2001. Jupiter Communications estimates that Europe will surpass the US in e-commerce spending on consumer products by the year 2002. With such an opportunity, it is critical for US high technology companies to expand internationally. Forrester Research has concluded that business users on the Web are three times more likely to purchase when addressed in their native language, and this is just one of the business justifications propelling companies to localize their products, Web sites and other corporate materials earlier and more extensively than before."
Speakers at the event included:
- Randi Bussin, President of Trilogie Consultants
- Howard Drake, Director at Invest in Britain Bureau (IBB) USA
- Tony Giannelli, VP of International at Silknet Software
- Jonathan Gray, Senior VP Technology at Silicon Valley East
- Marcia Hooper, Partner at Advent International
- Tom Shapiro, VP of Sales & Marketing at Rubric
- Alice Sloan, Vice Consul at IBB, British Consulate-General
- Andrew West, Senior VP of Group Marketing at Text 100 Group PLC.
About Rubric
Rubric assures a better localization experience. Specializing in globalization services for the high technology industry, Rubric brings flexibility, on-demand scalability, and integrity to guarantee localization success. Rubric's refined processes adapt to the high tech sector's need for proactive localization planning, anticipation of dynamically changing requirements, and agile response capabilities. For more information, visit www.rubric.com.