Global Business Challenges | Introducing Microsoft Windows Server(TM) 2003

A global enterprise is one that can carry out its business in any location in the world, in any language, as seamlessly and efficiently as possible. Microsoft and its partners have years of experience in deploying software in a global environment. Critical areas that must be taken into account to achieve the goal of a truly global enterprise include the following:

Accommodating regional differences.

In today's global market, people and organizations need to work and communicate in a variety of languages. Not only do they need technologies that support the languages of their users, customers and partners, but they also need to be able to deal with local currencies, date and time formats, character sets, and more. User applications and servers must be able to function in this environment. They must support international formats and standards. Users need to be able to open and display documents regardless of the language in which they were created. Your systems need to be able to display and store information regardless of the character set they use.
Supporting localized applications.

Most companies today use customized software applications. These can be line-of-business applications, tools for managing human resources or carrying out analyses, or internal applications used by a single department or division. For these applications to operate in an international enterprise, they need to be localizable. Localizable software is software that can be easily adapted to a global environment without the application being rewritten. Enabling software for multilingual use, however, can entail a costly development effort without an easy and cost-effective way to leverage international standards. Thus, not only do companies need their applications to support multiple languages but they also need a way to standardize this support across the enterprise at a reasonable cost.
Providing support for multilanguage users, services, and workstations.

In a multinational environment, it's becoming increasingly important to support multiple languages within a single office or division. A single user might need access to software in multiple languages. Equipment in one location might be used in more than one language. This situation can become further complicated when mobile or roaming users need access to systems in the language of their choice in more than one location. Supporting and providing services to users who need to work in more than one language has traditionally posed significant challenges and high costs.
Managing deployment across multiple regions .

Deploying software in an international environment poses significant challenges above and beyond those associated with deployment in one location only. Deployment must account for every unique combination of language and operating system, not to mention server and desktop applications. When you add the vast diversity of currencies and localized standards for representing numbers , date and time values, and so on, the complexity of the deployment can become immense. This results in longer deployment and higher costs. The ideal goal is to find a way to simplify the deployment while still meeting the multilingual requirements of your organization.
Deploying patches and hot fixes in a worldwide environment.

Support for patches, hot fixes, and upgrades is an increasingly important consideration as networks grow. The ability to quickly deploy critical changes is crucial not only for reasons of network security but as a cost-saving measure. Regular maintenance and upgrade tasks account for a significant measure of the work that the information technology (IT) department has to do every day. This load increases considerably with the number of configurations they must support. In a multilingual environment, this load can quickly overwhelm an IT department. Every combination of operating system, language, and localization is another potential support case that needs its own tracking, upgrade path , and support plan. In addition, there is the elapsed time involved in getting a crucial fix in every language where it is required. The elapsed time between release of an upgrade or patch for the English version of software and for localized versions can be significant. A key goal in planning for a global enterprise is to find a way to minimize the demands on IT resources by creating a standardized deployment that can be applied internationally. This leads to savings in time and support costs and frees your highly trained IT professionals to work on high-level tasks that help build the value of your business.

One factor, however, runs through this entire discussion: the total cost of ownership (TCO). A business has to keep its eye on the bottom line. A solution that solves all your localization challenges and yet is too expensive to deploy and maintain will ultimately fail. A solution that is cost-effective contributes to the business as a whole by lowering costs.

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