P&G In-Store Interactive Technology

Project Background:
For years, consumer product companies have been trying to personalize their product offerings to gain greater customer satisfactions and to increase product sales. However, helping customers select the most suitable products from the myriad of choices has always been a challenging proposition. Thanks to the latest advancement in interactive technologies with cutting edge design and ease of use, personalizing a customer's shopping experience is becoming a reality in many parts of the world such as Asia and Europe . This is exactly what Procter and Gamble hoped to accomplish when they began developing ScalpSense, a portable and easy to use interactive device aimed to help customers select the best shampoo, conditioning and styling products based on their personal hair types. Used by in-store beauty consultants and individual customers alike, ScalpSense helps customers to diagnose their hair type on demand and then immediately recommends an optimized product pairing while they are in store.

With a strong background in multilingual software localization that delivers quality and competitive service, Procter and Gamble selected CSOFT to help localize ScalpSense into 29 languages. It turns out China is also Procter and Gamble's number one growing market outside the US . Having a large technical presence in China makes CSOFT the ideal choice not only for product localization, but also for complete testing and deployment of the products into local stores.

The Challenge
As one of the most globally recognized brand names, Procter and Gamble decided to distribute ScalpSense in 29 markets by fully localizing the interactive application for each locale. In addition to normal software localization that has to properly address text truncation, dialog boxes resizing and hotkeys issues, ScalpSense has additional requirements for special images to be used and customized logical flow for each target market. Furthermore, CSOFT was required to build an application installer for each localized version. Unlike traditional graphics localization, ScalpSense has to use distinctively different imagery for each market for cultural considerations. For example, the model shot used in the software has to be customized to fit the general racial profile of the target market in which the product is being sold. The combination of special graphic treatment, customized logic flow, installer development and a tight deadline created a unique challenge for any localization vendor.

The CSOFT Solution

• Multimedia Expertise
  CSOFT has an experienced team of multimedia professionals that excel in interactive development with Flash, Director, 3D Max, Breeze and over multiple platforms such as Windows, Mac and Linux. Our multimedia team consists of graphic designers and programmers who work together to create interactive media that is both visually persuasive and technically sophisticated. Furthermore, CSOFT multimedia professionals are all trained to have multilingual development experience to deal with language related requirements such as international layout conventions and characters set issues. Coupled with our team's strong background in building complex interactive media, presentations, and eLearning applications, CSOFT is ideally positioned to help Proctor and Gamble localize ScalpSense with quality and efficiency.

• Dedicated Project Team
  Before officially kicking off the project, we assembled a dedicated project team consisting of a project manager, professional in-country translators, L10N engineers, graphic designers, multimedia engineers, and testers. By having a dedicated team for each client project, we are able to build up client specific knowledge and requirements among the same core team members. The same information is also entered into a central knowledge base so that different team members can more effectively share and update project information. A dedicated project team can also act more quickly for change management issue such as updated project requirements or delivery schedules. It also helps to avoid other technical issues from reoccurring again for future projects. Our dedicated project team worked hard to ensure timely project execution with regard to translation, post-processing, engineering, trouble shooting and QA. In the end, our streamlined localization processes and excellent customer service delivered a high level satisfaction to the client.

• Proactive Communication
  Proactive project management often makes the difference between fair and excellent localization executions. In addition to regular weekly project reports, CSOFT PMs also maintain proactive communications with client reviewers to ensure timely turnaround of review comments and change implementations to avoid potential impacts on the project schedule. Since the project is localized into 29 languages, it's a challenge to effectively organize linguistic reviews and consultation with client reviewers in each locale due to time zone and logistics constraints. This process is also further complicated by the fact that many of the reviewers have responsibilities other than linguistic review. However, by proactively communicating with the client project manager and reviewers, we are able to keep our localization process transparent and ensure important progress is made. Throughout the process, all linguistic changes are implemented by the translation teams and the resulting translation memory is updated for correct future project leverages. By proactively communicating with the client by means of updates and issue reports, our team is able to avoid costly surprises at the last minute and ensures delivery of a localized product that meets the client's quality and deadline requirements.

• Comprehensive Testing
  Localization testing is an integral part of CSOFT professional software localization. By performing comprehensive cosmetic and linguistic testing of the localization applications, CSOFT is able to deliver the highest quality localized products to our clients. After the localized applications have been created post translation, the CSOFT testing team went through each screen of the application to ensure no linguistic, cosmetic or functional issues were left without being fixed. The testing team also generated detailed test reports that had descriptions, corresponding screen shots, issue status, and tracking numbers to keep our client abreast of our progress. These reports kept the lines of communication open between the CSOFT engineering team and the Client's engineering team so that all software bugs could be located and resolved quickly and efficiently.

  Additionally, because it was clear that the Client had a desire to create a fully internationalized product that could be easily localized in the future, CSOFT was involved with providing suggestions to Proctor and Gamble's development team to resolve issues such as double-byte character display difficulties and other potential hang-ups for future localization projects. Proctor and Gamble was extremely pleased with the ease of communication between the CSOFT team and their own.

Conclusion
CSOFT's strong technical background coupled with our quality in-country translation and competitive engineering services allowed our team to complete ScalpSense localization on time and on budget. CSOFT's professional localization management capabilities assured our client peace of mind during the entire project execution by providing proactive communication and complete visibility into the production schedule and development. By taking advantage our large engineering production resources in China , we are able to help the client achieve substantial savings for their localization investment resulting in greater ROI.

If you would like to learn more about other completed localization projects in your industry please contact us for case studies and further information. We welcome your email at info@csoftintl.com.