Business Opportunity in Japan
Frequently Asked Questions for shareEDGE
Q. Where is nextEDGE Technology located?
A. We have office located in Tsukuba-City, Japan and Houston, Texas.
Q. How long will it take to localize a product?
A. It depends on the size of the product and how well the product was coded from internationalization point of view. Key concerns are ‘Message Isolation' and ‘Double Byte' support. If the product coded well, most effort for localization can be focused on translation. In that case (best case scenario), it will be couple week. nextEDGE Technology will provide quick translation service and product quick review for you. If the code is not written with internationalized or you are not sure, nextEDGE Technology also provide consultation service about product internationalization.
Generally speaking, it takes about a month or two to localize a product and one month of good testing. Therefore, 3 months is usually the timeframe from start to completion of localizing software.Q. Is English Software or User's Interface (UI) acceptable in Japan market?
A. No. Japanese users are very culturally sensitive when it comes to reading foreign languages. There are not a whole lot of Japanese who even read or speak English. We highly recommend getting English software localized to Japanese to be successful in Japan Market.
Q. Most of Japanese speaks English. I think English User's Interface is good enough.
A. No. This is a common misconception of foreign companies who believes many Japanese speaks English. If this was true, many software companies will not go through all the trouble getting their software localized to Japanese. Japanese who works for a foreign company can speak and read a little English but generally, they would prefer reading in their own native language. We believe this applies to any countries. Software should be localized to the native language of the countries which companies are pursuing.
Q. Localization or I18n for Japanese support sounds complicated and expensive. What is benefit for implementing Japanese support for developers/vendor?
A. Biggest benefit for developers/vendors is attracting Japanese customers. As mentioned earlier, Japanese users prefer using software that has been localized to their native language. nextEDGE will take care of all the localization and marketing of the software for the vendor therefore developers/vendors don't have to use up their time and resources.
Q. How can I evaluate nextEDGE Technology's globalization service?
A. If you already have product and approved to sell via shareEDGE project, ask us what you need.
For example, if you want to try our translation service, we can translate first half page of your user's documentation therefore it will give you an idea of our translation services.Q. How safe is it to release our source code to nextEDGE Technology?
A. We usually assign one or two engineers to work on the software. They will be the only engineer who will access to the source code therefore you don't have to be concerned about source code leaks to the outside world. The engineer will also have to sign an agreement not to disclose any information about the product he/she is working on.
Q. How will nextEDGE Technology help us expand in Japan market?
A. We have vast amount of contacts and resources in Japan. We have shareEDGE service where users can download a trial version before buying the product. Every month, we send promotional mail or email to customers about new products that are available on shareEDGE service. If you are interested in shrink-wrap, we will help you design and localize the box help you market the product in Japan.
Q. We are interested in OEM business. Can nextEDGE Technology help us with that?
A. Yes, nextEDGE Technology will help you approach OEM's depending on the software. We will carefully analyze the product with you and surgically target the OEM's that you're interested in. We will do our best to help you win OEM business in Japan
Q. We are also interested in Enterprise Business. Can nextEDGE Technology help us with that?
A. Yes, nextEDGE Technology can help you with that. We have several close relationships in Japan which we can help you win the Enterprise Business. This also depends on the software and whether if it will be suitable for the Enterprise Business you are trying to pursue. We will do our very best to win these business.
Q. Does nextEDGE also support other languages other than Japanese?
A. Yes, we can also provide Chinese (Simplified/Traditional) and Korean localization services.
Q. Will nextEDGE help me market my product in US or Europe?
A. nextEDGE can help you market your product in US market. We do not have market plan in Europe but we are planning to have partners in Europe soon so you can have the choice to either sell your product in US and/or Europe
Q. How is nextEDGE Technology different than other localization companies that are out there?
A. nextEDGE Technology not only provides localization services, we also help you promote your products in Japan without any additional expenses to our customers via shareEDGE project. We will share the revenue together therefore nextEDGE and our customers would benefit from this partnership.
Q. Can nextEDGE Technology support us after the projects are complete?
A. Yes, nextEDGE Technology will guarantee its quality of work for one year. nextEDGE will charge maintenance fee after one year and the customers have the option to choose this option afterwards.
Q. We update our products once a year and does nextEDGE Technology charge any fee for minor updates?A. That will depend on how much update that needs to be done to the software. If the updates are very minor, we will do it for free. If there are significant updates to the product, we might add a small service fee.
Q. Why should we choose nextEDGE technology?
A. nextEDGE Technology is a true professional company and our customers come to us because they believe we can both achieve and be very successful inQ. I have other questions but it's not listed in the FAQ. How do I contact nextEDGE Technology to find out my question?
Q. What is defferent between Localization and Translation?
Translation is one of task within Localization task. In addition to translation task, lionization(l10n) task includes "project management, software enhancement to handle locale specific issue such as Double Byte support, Font and Character Set, Quality Assurance under native operating system and environment.
Regarting to terms used for 'Globalization', please visit nextEDGE Technology Web site.
Copyright 2004 nextEDGE Technology, Inc.