SUPPORTED BY RWS

When Dell acquired the data storage vendor EMC in 2016, it brought together two giants of the IT industry. Integrating the two companies was an immensely complex undertaking, and as part of this integration, three globalization teams were brought together into a single entity called the Global Translation Team, or GTT.

After spending time defining and optimizing its processes, the GTT became a tightly integrated unit, with everyone pulling together to generate business value from their globalization efforts. So, over the last few years, the focus of the GTT has switched from enabling integration to planning the team’s evolution.

As localization and globalization continue to adapt to using AI technologies and become increasingly automated, the GTT’s leaders recognized that the team must shift its focus to areas requiring human ingenuity and creativity, including strategic management.

The plan was to transition from focusing on project management to concentrating on strategic program management, becoming a center of excellence and a strong voice for globalization in conversations concerning the company’s strategic direction. And most importantly, by gaining a seat at the table and contributing to broader corporate strategy, the GTT could also ensure the strategy was implemented in its vendor engagements.

Uniting three vendors

Dell works with three language services provider (LSP) partners, including RWS, to deliver its globalization activities, emphasizing transparency and authenticity in its vendor relationships.

The company encourages open communication and honesty, sharing its goals and priorities with all three LSPs so they can align their services with Dell’s evolving needs. This emphasis on building true business partnerships enables developing and delivering important initiatives, addresses challenges as they arise, and supports collaborative work on large-scale programs.

Over time, Dell’s approach has moved the conversation with their LSPs beyond an operational focus and performance measurement against set key performance indicators (KPIs), toward innovative and forward-looking strategic discussions. That’s created an environment built on trusted relationships, which has enabled Dell to take its engagement with all three LSP partners to the next level.

By fostering honesty, authenticity, and trust, Dell has brought all three LSPs together — along with localization professionals from other companies — to share ideas, identify new opportunities, and collaborate to accomplish strategic goals.

Creating the vision for a strategic collaboration forum

For the program management (PM) team within the GTT, developing new skills and finding new approaches to stakeholder engagement was particularly important. As adopting new processes and technologies provides more precise return-on-investment (ROI) insights into the value of globalization efforts at an operational level, PM team members must strategically apply their extensive experience and practical knowledge.

To open up conversations and inspire the entire team, Dell organized the “PM Summit” — a collaborative space for Dell and its LSP partners to brainstorm ideas and find creative solutions to complex challenges.

Creating a safe space for three competitors to collaborate with a shared client is a highly unusual initiative in the localization industry. But the experience so far has demonstrated that everyone involved has gained enormous value from this one-of-a-kind collaboration.

Working toward a shared vision

The first PM Summit in 2021 focused on conceptualizing the evolution of the PM team. The discussions revolved around modernizing and optimizing both tools and operational processes to increase capacity, so the GTT could invest in up-skilling its program managers. That gave the LSPs a full year of specific objectives to accomplish together as partners.

In 2022, the PM Summit explored the new roles and responsibilities as project managers evolved into program managers. As the team began to think about what this might entail, RWS suggested a novel approach: invite external guests to share their experiences of becoming strategic partners with their valued stakeholders.

This “outside-in” approach proved invaluable in helping the team find inspiration for how their roles could evolve and what stakeholder engagement could look like in the future.

Visualizing new opportunities with outside-in thinking

Each LSP partner invited globalization professionals from well-known technology and retail enterprises to offer their perspectives on the potential future in the context of the challenges and opportunities facing the GTT. The PM Summit also gained valuable insights from members of the Dell Digital team, who provided expert advice on the technology side of the discussions.

Learning about the real-world experiences of their counterparts in the localization industry enabled the GTT to visualize the opportunities available. The external contributors offered advice on how to:
Improve and maintain relationships with key stakeholders to get a “seat at the table” for strategic conversations.

Use data insights to demonstrate the ROI of globalization and gain buy-in for global content objectives across the company.

Gaining inspiration for the professional journey ahead

Seeking insights from people who’d moved into similar roles helped GTT members understand and visualize their progression from project managers to program managers.

Although the team had a clear vision of where they wanted to get to, this had initially stemmed from responding to changing business conditions within Dell. Outside-in perspectives showed the team the tangible benefits of the transition to the new model, providing inspiration and outlining specific actions they could take.

The external contributors also helped everyone at the PM Summit identify the key skill sets required for program managers to be successful as their roles evolved. GTT leaders then arranged deep-dive sessions to help program managers understand how to apply skillsets, including:

• Strategic thinking
• Negotiation techniques
• Data-driven decision-making
• Evaluating localization impact
• Assessing program success

Learning and growing together

For the LSP partner representatives, the PM Summit offered a unique chance to gain exposure to a wider range of stakeholders and business needs in Dell’s ecosystem. And it also offered a chance to break new ground and explore innovation opportunities together. All three participated in brainstorming sessions that drove optimization initiatives and uncovered creative ways to solve emerging problems.

Perhaps even more importantly, the PM Summit gave contributors something they rarely get during the pressures of day-to-day tasks: the time to reflect, think, and learn. With access to a broad range of perspectives — from Dell, other LSP partners, and third-party organizations — everyone could interpret the input and apply what worked best for their organization, creating hybrid ideas to carry into future client engagements.

Forging new connections

All those who attended the PM Summits had a positive experience and were grateful for the opportunity to share their experiences and advice and connect with peers.

“It’s great knowing there are rock-star localization managers like you who actively seek out the ‘outside-in’ perspective and turn your organization into a learning machine,” said one of the external contributors.

One of the unforeseen benefits of outside-in thinking was that it provided a forum to build new long-term connections. Several participants have met at industry events and discussed further opportunities to collaborate. And one of the contributors even showed Aki around Edinburgh when she was on vacation in Scotland.

These strong connections demonstrate the power of creating a safe space for cross-team collaboration and how the trusted relationships it fosters can enrich participants’ professional and personal lives.

Getting started: accelerate the adoption of outside-in thinking

If you’re thinking of trying something similar to the PM Summit in your organization, or you want to adopt an outside-in approach to bring fresh ideas to your globalization efforts, here are some of the most important lessons learned:

A unique and powerful experience

Those of us who’ve attended the PM Summits have seen how it’s helped generate creative approaches to tricky challenges, drive globalization strategy, and forge closer working relationships between colleagues, competitors, and peers.

01

Build a culture of transparency, honesty, and good-faith collaboration
This is an essential part of the process, and somebody in the organization must champion it. Also, if your organization has no mechanism for bringing in external perspectives, challenge the status quo and advocate for the changes you need.

02

Don’t forget about internal partners
Bringing in and listening to other organizational stakeholders provides important perspectives that could otherwise be overlooked.

03

Take part in industry activities
Create connections by attending webinars and workshops or volunteering for industry organizations like GALA or LocWorld. You’ll quickly build a network of localization professionals you can contact if you have questions or need help with their areas of expertise.

04

Be open to trying new things
It can be difficult to try something that’s outside the norm, but the value you’ll get back from the new ideas and connections is well worth the effort.

05

Clients — rely on your partners
One of the easiest ways to get started is to ask your LSP partners to help you connect with relevant contacts at their other clients.

06

Partners — know your boundaries
While open, honest discussion is vital for effective collaboration, it’s also important for external partners to establish what they will and won’t discuss and to be respectful of others’ boundaries.

07

Make time
This is critical — you need to invest in giving people the time they need to expand their thinking, explore new ideas, and reflect on what they’ve learned.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the contributors to this entire process of evolution. Together, we’ve made a lasting impact not only on Dell’s globalization efforts but on the professional lives of everyone involved.