Lisle company helps others go global with services
Taking a company global involves several strategies, including a Web site that caters specifically to the language and culture of a targeted audience.
Lisle-based Interpro Translation Solutions uses partners worldwide to ensure companies and associations can reach the right clients. It translates Web sites, software, documentation and marketing materials.
It has worked with the Lions Clubs, Zebra Technologies, American Heart Association and Littelfuse, among others, said Nicholas Strozza, 23, the company's marketing coordinator, who works with his father Ralph, 51, the company's CEO.
"Besides translation, we focus on culturally adapting the content. It's key to what we do," Nicholas Strozza said.
Interpro was founded in 1995 by Nicholas' father Ralph, 51. He was always interested in business, languages and foreign cultures, having grown up in a bilingual home speaking English and Italian. But Ralph Strozza didn't want to be a teacher. His degrees in marketing, French and Spanish allowed him to work and travel for international corporations until he go on his own, Nicholas said.
Interpro's main staff of 15 works in Lisle, which includes programming experts, engineers, marketing and sales. The company also has offices in Rosario, Argentina. They contract with partners in various countries when a specific language is required for translation and localization.
A translator can translate, edit and proofread about 2,000 words per day. So if there are 50,000 words of content to be translated, and two translators are assigned to the project, the translation of content would require about 13 days, he said.
Content which is contained within graphics can take longer depending on whether or not the text is accessible or part of the graphic itself. The text may need to be translated and then the image reproduced by a graphics designer, requiring more time. Flash components with translatable content are very time consuming: while the extracted text is translated by a translator, it requires someone who has developed in Flash to reinsert the target-language text, Strozza said.
So far, the recession hasn't hampered Interpro's business, Strozza said.
"Companies still continue to go global," he said.
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