Website Development

With the rise of e-commerce and growing confidence in the internet as a secure medium, companies are realizing that the worldwide web offers the unprecedented opportunity to conduct business in a completely new way, and to obtain vast exposure in previously untapped international markets.

Though we often refer to the internet as the "worldwide" web, the potential for marketing of products, services and information on a global level is in the fetal stage. Since corporate American English is viewed as the internet's "standard" language, focusing on English has been the main solution for many multinational corporations. An English-only site is still an adequate answer for many businesses, and may also be a good starting point for larger companies.

Multilingual Website Development has grown in a somewhat haphazard way, with various approaches. Some companies have merely duplicated their existing website in different languages (the "Global content" approach) while others have permitted complete autonomy to their divisional offices which add "local content" to their site.

At COME ALIVE COMMUNICATIONS, we are ready to help your company develop a state-of-the art website, intranet site or e-commerce solution, in one language or in several.

Website Maintenance

Website maintenance has historically been left to the Webmaster, who implements changes, updates and additions as he/she is directed. This may be adequate for single-language websites, but is indisputably more difficult to manage for every additional language added to the site. The most challenging aspects include coordination of effort, translation, review, QA, approval (on multiple levels) and publishing.

The big challenge for many companies is keeping the English and foreign language versions of their site fully synchronized. For example, if one section or even one word of an original site is updated (e.g., Human Resources), corresponding sections of the foreign language sites must also be updated correctly and efficiently. The changes are often small, but the effort, elapsed time and costs associated with keeping a multilingual web site current can be high, especially if it is improperly managed. Every single text or graphic change to a site may need to be synchronized simultaneously in perhaps twenty languages.

The challenge of the next round of website administration is to put as much control as possible into the hands of the content creators rather than the webmasters. As certain elements of a site are automated, they can be updated almost automatically, in numerous languages. The added plus of a database-driven solution can be a highly effective way to help efficiently manage evolving multilingual content.

The result? Response times are greatly reduced and the logistics of updates are eased, and the "worldwide web" has truly earned its name, as your company/organization and its message are reaching all corners of the globe.

COME ALIVE's design team and multilingual web administrators are here to assist your company with web updating/website maintenance on a regular (e.g., daily intranet postings or weekly online newspapers) or intermittent (e.g., annual budget report) basis -- in one language or in several.