This white paper discusses cycle time - the time it takes to localize, publish, and track digital marketing content globally. The paper summarizes a survey that found large variations in companies' cycle times, from 2 weeks to 8 weeks. It argues that shorter cycle times are important for SEO, engaging with current events, and communicating with customers in their own languages. The two main causes of long cycle times are identified as having separate localization and web production vendors, and not using a digital asset management system. The paper recommends streamlining content execution through a single vendor and using a DAM system to improve cycle time performance.

1. Cycle Time
Crawl, Walk or Run?
WHITE PAPER
© 2011 Lionbridge
Why cycle time matters in global
digital marketing and how to improve it

2. © 2011 Lionbridge 2
BACKGROUND
We’ve spent the last three years working closely with leading global companies
such as Microsoft and Cisco to develop best practices for global web operations.
We also recently partnered with Gatepoint Research on a survey of 973 selected
executives, with responsibility for global web operations, to identify key trends
in operational practices. Respondents were heavily weighted toward large
organizations, with 82% coming from the Fortune 1000. Sixty-three percent of the
respondents were Director-level and above, and 36% were VP-level or higher.
One of the main findings of the survey was the large variance in cycle time
performance across companies. We will examine why cycle times matter, the
causes of long cycle times, and what to focus on to improve them.
Why You Should Read This
++ VPs of Global Web Operations
++ Marketing VPs responsible for global digital product or corporate campaigns
++ CMOs, CIOs
Who Should Read This
++ Understand the importance of cycle time in global digital marketing
++ Compare your company’s cycle time to survey results
++ Understand the key levers to pull to improve cycle time performance
++ Learn how to apply benchmarking to truly assess your current operations
White paper
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Definition: Global Web Operations
Survey Results
Why Does Cycle Time Matter?
What Causes Long Cycle Times?
Operation Model & Digital Asset Management
Global Digital Benchmark
3
3
4
5
6
9

3. © 2011 Lionbridge 3
DEFINITION: GLOBAL WEB OPERATIONS
There are a number of different terms companies use to describe the operational
activities involved in localizing, instrumenting, publishing and tracking the findability
and use of digital content. We define Global Web Operations to be the following: All
the activities involved in localizing, instrumenting, optimizing and globally publishing
content (pages and other content assets) on various digital platforms. We include
all of these elements in the definition because, in an operational context, they all
become highly intertwined and iterative. They are all components of an inherently
common process. If you are not familiar with all of the terms used, here is a quick
description:
++ Localizing – translating or transcreating text and audio, selecting different
images that are appropriate for each market, and all the related technical work to
deconstruct source content from various formats
++ Instrumenting – applying appropriate tracking tags and codes to ads and
landing pages to be able to track a campaign’s performance
++ Optimizing – understanding search engine marketing to optimize content for
targeted keywords and track rankings and engagement so people can find and
engage with your content
++ Digital platforms – not just company-controlled websites but partner sites,
social networks, mobile apps, email providers, display ad platforms, search
platforms, etc.
SURVEY RESULTS
The histogram below shows the cycle-time distribution of survey respondents
that publish in more than five languages. As you can see, there is a wide variance,
with top performers “running” along at two weeks and laggards “crawling” at eight
weeks.
The cycle time we are referring to is as follows:
Begins – Source content and assets received from Marketing or Agency to begin
localization and production process
Ends – All localized content and assets fully quality checked and live in production
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4. © 2011 Lionbridge 4
The distribution is broken roughly into thirds, with one group crawling along at a
two-month cycle time, another sprinting ahead in two-week cycle times, and the
last group walking along in the middle, around one month.
WHY DOES CYCLE TIME MATTER?
Most Web Operations groups are constantly being pushed by Marketing to move
faster. Here are some reasons why:
++ SEO - New, highly trafficked keywords are emerging every week. The first
credible websites to have strong SEO content for those keywords will rank highest
on search results, yielding the most traffic and potential customers
++ News - To capture greater visibility, marketing campaigns must align with top
trending news and topics, which requires a much shorter cycle time to execute
++ Conversation – Marketing is no longer about just broadcasting the company’s
message; it must engage in a dialogue with customers online – requiring much
shorter cycle times
++ Localized – Prospective customers expect communication to be in their own
language and culture on a regular basis
In short, those companies that are able to “run” with short cycle times will
outperform those that are “crawling” when it comes to global digital marketing.
#ofCompanies
Avg. Cycle Time in Weeks
Cycle Time Distribution
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5. © 2011 Lionbridge 5
WHAT CAUSES LONG CYCLE TIMES?
We’ve seen the large variance in cycle-time performance by company and the
importance of shorter cycle times for the success of the business. So why doesn’t
every company have short cycle times? What causes some companies to have
longer cycle times than others?
Hypothesis #1: The more languages published, the longer the cycle times
This seems like an intuitive hypothesis. Certainly the level of work goes up as
languages increase, so it is reasonable to assume that the cycle time does as
well. To assess the validity of this hypothesis, we looked at our survey data for all
respondents. The chart below plots company clusters by number of languages
and cycle time in days. As you can see, the data points are not correlated. If
more languages led to higher cycle time, we would see a nice set of plots moving
from the lower left to the upper right. Instead, we see many companies with few
languages and long cycle times, and companies with a lot of languages and short
cycle times.
As the Myth Busters would say, “This hypothesis is busted.”
# of Languages
CycleTimeinDays
More Languages Do Not Lead to Higher Cycle Times
Hypothesis #2: The bigger the company, the longer the cycle time
Another highly intuitive hypothesis is that larger companies have more complex
processes, signoffs, and approvals that lead to longer cycle times. Again, we looked
to our survey data, and the chart below shows the plots of company clusters by
revenue and cycle times. If larger companies had longer cycle times, we would see
plots moving from the lower left to the upper right. Instead, we see a distribution
that shows no correlation between company size and cycle time. Companies of all
sizes have short and long cycle times. Another hypothesis busted.
R2
=0.076
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6. © 2011 Lionbridge 6
OPERATION MODEL & DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT
So what does cause longer cycle times? Through our client work, we have found
two factors to be the main causes of long cycle times: the operational model and
an effectively deployed Digital Asset Management system.
Company Revenue ($MMs)
CycleTimeinDays
Company Size Does Not Explain Cycle Times
R2
=0.001
Marketing
Management
Content
Execution
Content
Development
Factor #1:
The operational model
The most common problem
we find with long cycle time
companies is that their operational
model artificially separates a
single process into two, which
results in more handoffs, delays,
errors, and longer cycle times.
The graphic here shows the
three core processes involved
in the execution of global
digital marketing content:
marketing management, content
development and content
execution. The table lists core
activities of each core process.
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7. © 2011 Lionbridge 7
Most long cycle time companies artificially separate content execution into two
parts (localization and web production) and partner with separate providers for
each.
Core Process
Marketing
Management
Content
Development
Content
Execution
Activities
– Go to market strategy
– Campaign planning, creative briefs and budgeting
– Campaign performance tracking and improvement
– Campaign concept and message
– Campaign creative elements
– Localization (copy translation, appropriate image selection)
– Web production (deploying web assets and pages)
– Instrumentation (applying analytic tags to all assets, pages)
– Content marketing (organic search/social driven traffic to
compelling content)
Marketing
Management
Content
Execution
Content
Development
Corporate Marketing
IT OutsourcerLocalization
Agency
Digital Agencies
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8. © 2011 Lionbridge 8
This artificially separates a highly iterative process and spreads it across two
vendors with separate and uncoordinated policies, procedures, and incentives.
In addition, the other two components of content execution (instrumentation and
content marketing) often fall through the cracks.
Short cycle time companies have found a way to “run” by managing content
execution as a single, coherent process that is optimized through a relationship with
a single vendor.
Factor #2: An effectively deployed Digital Asset Management system
Once a streamlined process is in place for content execution, short cycle time
companies enable it through a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system. The
main activity in content execution is centered on content assets of various digital
forms that explode in number as they are translated, localized, revised and quality
checked. On a global marketing campaign, all versions of these assets and pages
can easily number into the thousands. Trying to manage this process through
email and file servers becomes a time-consuming and error-prone activity. Every
time an asset is emailed, copies are created for each of the recipients; when one
copy is edited, all of the others become outdated and review time is wasted. To
make matters worse, all of the assets, ads and landing pages must be correctly
instrumented and the correct version must end up in production.
Digital Asset Management systems are designed specifically to fully enable,
streamline and error-reduce this process. Fast cycle time companies employ DAMs
to enable their processes.
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9. © 2011 Lionbridge 9
GLOBAL DIGITAL BENCHMARK
Many companies we speak with are interested in benchmarking their performance
in global web operations against others to find areas for improvement. We do
offer a benchmarking service that combines both an external, customer-oriented
benchmark and an internal, process-oriented one.
++ External customer benchmark – reviews digital marketing platforms (web,
mobile, social) from the perspective of in-country potential customers and
benchmarks against competitors
++ Internal operational benchmark – compares operational models and
processes to other organizations
Together, the external and internal elements form a Global Digital Benchmark that
provides a clear assessment of current strengths and areas for improvement. If you
are interested in discussing a Global Digital Benchmarking study in more depth,
please reach out to us at globalmarketingops.com/contact.
White paper
ABOUT LIONBRIDGE
Lionbridge is a market leader in the globalization services industry. Through offices
in 26 countries and more than 90,000 in-market experts, we help companies
manage and improve their digital presence around the world with our suite of global
marketing solutions.
To learn more, visit globalmarketingops.com/contact