Meet Emil: Leading the charge to make ServiceNow work for everyone

Millions of people use the Now Platform every day, relying on ServiceNow to provide a smooth and efficient service. Many of those active users require access to the platform in a language other than English. That’s why the Now Platform works across 24 languages and counting.

This type of localisation doesn’t just happen, however. Translating an entire platform—spanning thousands of plug-ins and store apps—to deliver a consistent user experience takes work behind the scenes. This is delivered by our dedicated internationalisation team, led by Emil A., vice president for internationalisation and accessibility engineering at ServiceNow.

About the internationalisation team

The internationalisation team was founded in 2018 to deliver an excellent user experience for non-English-speaking customers.

“Often, users take for granted what they need will be available in their language," Emil says. “When we set up a new phone, for example, we can choose French, German, or Arabic and expect that we’ll get exactly the same experience in whatever language we choose.”

He continues: “That’s essentially what my team does for the Now Platform. It’s about making sure there is consistency across different languages and regions. The minimum expectation is that a customer should be able to use the platform in any language we support and get an amazing, seamless experience.”

Availability of the platform in non-English languages is particularly important given that over 3,000 ServiceNow customers use the Now Platform in a language other than English. In these environments, it’s vital that the Now Platform is available with local language support. Without this, the native user experience would be affected.

How localisation works

“We release all applications and plug-ins in every supported language alongside each general release,” Emil explains. “This kind of work isn’t simple. We’re localising over 7 million words across 24 languages, each of which has its own nuances and idiosyncrasies.”

Emil and his team translate not just what the end user sees, but also the entire platform experience to ensure maximum accessibility.

“We never compromise. Anything that any user needs—be it the customer or administrator—is available to them,” Emil says.

Introducing Arabic support

Launching the Now Platform in Arabic as part of the Washington, D.C., release was a large-scale project that brought a unique set of challenges.

“Arabic is a right-to-left language, which adds a certain amount of complexity to the localisation process because we don’t just need to translate the platform; we need to make sure the format is supported fully,” Emil says.

Some areas of the platform didn’t work with the required mirrored interface, risking significant issues for ServiceNow users.

A huge collaborative effort across the ServiceNow ecosystem made it possible to overcome this challenge. Emil and his team worked with the development teams, translation vendors and in-country ServiceNow resources, project managers, and others to make sure the result was smooth, efficient, and accessible in Arabic.

Emil and the internationalisation team are dedicated to improving the Now Platform to make the world work better for more people across more regions.

Find out more about the benefits of the Now Platform, including internationalisation.