In recent months, I have delved into an aspect of Internationalization and Localization in relation to translations on the ServiceNow Platform that deserves more attention: the potential of having diverse translations of a knowledge article while maintaining the portal's primary language. In the context of employee experience within global organizations, this is often overlooked – making available different translations of knowledge articles without requiring changes to the language of the portal.
Business case & Value Proposition
Consider the scenario of a large multinational corporation with employees dispersed across various countries, each with its own language preferences and cultural nuances. Does this sound like your organization? In such an environment, enabling multilingual capabilities on the company's portal becomes crucial for effective communication, knowledge sharing, and collaboration. However, traditional approaches to translations often present challenges, such as disrupting the user experience by changing the entire portal's language or maintaining separate instances for each language version.
Enter the innovative solution: the ability to have diverse translations of knowledge articles while keeping the portal's language intact. This feature not only simplifies the employee experience but also brings tangible benefits to global organizations. In the image below, the original portal language is Swedish and the article on display can be viewed in English (which is the original) as well as Thai and Swedish.
What are the advantages?
- First and foremost, providing localized content in employees' preferred languages enhances engagement and productivity. Accessing knowledge articles in native languages empowers employees, promotes inclusivity, and ensures language barriers don't hinder information access and task efficiency.
- Moreover, this approach reduces complexity in managing multilingual content by centralizing knowledge articles and offering distinct translations within the existing portal framework. It saves time and resources, ensures consistency across language versions, and facilitates effective knowledge sharing and collaboration among global teams.
- Additionally, this feature reinforces the organization's brand as an inclusive and global employer. It showcases the company's dedication to accommodating diverse linguistic backgrounds and cultural contexts, which can be a significant factor in attracting and retaining top talent from around the world. Employees appreciate organizations that recognize and cater to their individual needs, leading to higher job satisfaction and employee loyalty.
Here is a link to a compendium on everything related to In Platform Language Support – your one start shop to everything related to language, translations, best practices and everything in between on the Now Platform – which is frequently updated by Alex Coope 😊 - https://www.servicenow.com/community/international-localization-blog/in-platform-language-support-gu...
FYI: This blogpost has made me a superstar in my organization when it comes to translations – “with great power comes great responsibility”
