The World is a’changing – on the way to UNICODE James Mentele, Dow Corning Corporation Session: 2505 Global Implementations

Outline factors Dow Corning found important in ‘Going Global’ and to describe the considerations that we are weighing in planning to migrate to UNICODE. Purpose

Agenda Why Internationalization / Globalization? Changing Factors in the IT World Background on Codepages and such stuff Other Internationalization Issues Translation Requirements & Techniques So What? Elements for your Timeline

Goal Applications: SAP Enterprise, MDMP R/3, Single CP R/3, SAP Components, non-R/3 Plant, Lab, Department,… Internet: Web-services, Exchanges Supply Chain Portals: Anywhere, any language, anytime, Desktop, laptop, PDA, phone, print

Development of products and processes that that work seamlessly and appropriately across country borders, in different timezones, without language barriers. What is Internationalization?

What is localization? Selection of product and process interfaces (labels, displays, documentation, …) so that culturally appropriate and legally correct information is presented and requested in each users’ language & with appropriate conventions: units of measure, date/time formats, timezone, currency, order of magnitude delimiters. The user is any authorized person or agent – (real or potential): employee, customer, vendor, enforcement agent, automated workflow…

Globalization of Your Business Requires internationalization of capabilities and localization to each community of interest: Using same processes around the world enables leveraging your skilled people and shared services around the world Allows customers from around the world to access your business Allows you access to vendors & other resources from around the world

Some Requirements of non- English Text flow can be right-to-left or top-to-bottom. Icons may have to be changed to meet cultural standards. Buttons, input windows, menus, error messages Non-Western calendars and date formats Postal address formats etc. need to be not only translated, but reconfigured and tested for each separate market. Training materials, documentation and packaging and technical support must be addressed. How do you alphabetize in languages that don't have an alphabet? (Important for searching) Help-desk support, FAQ,…

Examples of non-English Texts США не будут очищать территорию Ирака от радиоактивных остатков обедненного урана, использованного ими в ходе военных действий в этой стране. هل تبحث عن وظيفة ؟ اشترك الآن واحصل على أفضل الوظائف في الشرق الأوسط 胡锦涛 14 日到广东疾病预防控制 中心考察，同医务工作者座谈。 조선외무성 대변인 미국이 대조선정책을 전환할 용의가 있다면 대화형식에 구애되지 않다

Scope Languages Office Plants Partners New mkts Communities … TimeZones Eff. dates Dates on docs Est. arrival Shelf-life Perf. Measures … Legal Compliance & Local Customs UoM, Currency Invoice numbers Privacy MSDS rules CE Mark, …

What is changing re Internationalization? EU is growing: East Europe with more languages: –Cyprus (Greek part), the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia Increased concerns over product safety: IVD Directive(98/79/EC) & CE markIVD Directive(98/79/EC) –Required to import certain products after Dec. 7, 2003

The EU Now & expected in 2004 Now: Austria Belgium Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Luxembourg Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Invited: Cyprus (Greek part) the Czech Republic Estonia Hungary Latvia Lithuania Malta Poland Slovakia Slovenia

What is changing re Internationalization? New international trade regulations & procedures (result of terrorism concern) Manufacturing is moving: Japan -> SE Asia + East Europe/Russia -> Middle East System Audiences: –Span of employees –Customers and end-consumers, government (tax & EHS) –Supply Chain –Prospects: Customers, Employees,… –Web Services IT Infrastructure: UNICODE, hardware, software, apps

Where are your (future) audiences? Customers? Suppliers? Employees? Tax authorities? Product Regulators? Transportation Services? Where do you want to be successful? Where do you want to go to jail?

Trends & Demographics Source: Global Reach

On-Line Population Projections Source: Forrester

TimeZone Sensitive Transactions Batch scheduling, Calculation of business days Price changes, Invoices, Payments (late fees) Contract durations, Shelf-life, certification dates, warrantee dates Ship date/time, Estimated Arrival date/time Prompts like yyyy/mm/dd are language sensitive Remember Summer/Winter rules

Country Specific Functionality Base SAP processing for local governments –Delays of Country versions in Enterprise may impact upgrade plans –Not all extension functionality is on the same upgrade timeline (E.g. Global Label Mgt) Address Layouts vary by Country, Units of Measure, Currencies Taxation (Country/State taxes on internet sales) Regulatory Reporting (Waste, consumption,..) EHS Requirements (Varying Country/State requirements) Privacy Requirements CE Mark

Why UNICODE? We didn’t start with UNICODE due to cost of storage and lack of standards Vendors had to implement regional systems on limited hardware so proprietary codepages were developed to support various languages ISO Standards followed, but not all applications have been converted yet Global systems needed Dynamic codepage switching & Global Data Mgt standards or blended codepages UNICODE enables storage definition of all common characters of phonetic and ideographic languages, many requiring multiple bytes

Glyphs/Fonts/Codepages & Locales Fonts control glyphs (A,A,A, A, A,…) Codepages (character to bytes mapping): –ISO –Microsoft –EBCDIC –Blended –UNICODE (Multi-byte) Locales connect upper & lower case letters Codepage on workstations, Various SAP application servers, non-SAP servers Dynamic codepage switching on SAP servers

Glyphs/Fonts/Codepages & Locales Fonts & FEP (A,A,A, A, A,…) PC Codepages Microsoft, Mac, EBCDIC SAP Applic Servers Enterprise MDMP Single (Blended) CP Your ABAP Non-SAP IIS SAP Enterprise Web Server 3 rd Party:Haht/Lighthammer/ RFC Internet Supply Chain Exchanges External Data ISO, Blended, Proprietary CP, Unicode Appropriate Locales, CP Convertors WAN Plant, Lab Special Function

Components:Hardware & Software Workstation upgrades: Win95, Win98, Win2K, NT, XP) & Office product versions Linux, Unix, Mac, … Local Servers and spools – Maintain needed Locales, CP, Fonts Application Servers - Versions –SAP components (Logistics, BW, APO, CRM, …) –SAP Web Application Server, IIS –xApps (NetWeaver), Connectors, RFC, ABAP –XML,.Net, J2EE, VB, … Database Servers (R/3, BW, SCADA, Sieble, …) Internet & Partners

Application sets Employees at workstations Bar code, RFIDs, SCADA Tailored to type of Workstation: –Telephone, PDA, Agents eCommerce Net Services Collaborative EHS Helpdesk & System Management

Document types Text, Spreadsheets, Images Renditions (Pdf, Word, PPT, etc.) Drawings (as in CAD) Audio Video Document Management –Searching Audio & Video –Indexing & searching ideographic languages –XML tagging

Translation Environments Dynamic (Machine) Translation Pre-translated components – Pulldowns, buttons? Partial translation – downloadable documents? Full translation? Translation of upgrades Localization vs. translation Registration of the web-site in search engines of other countries/languages? System generated documents with Phrase libraries (MSDSs, Labels, Shipping & Handling docs.,..) Translation of non-English feedback / inquiries?

Translation tools & options SAP Language Supplements Machine translation (E.g. Systran) Translation Memories (E.g. Trados – in SAP) EHS MSDS generation & Global Label Mgt system Internal Translation Team? –Setup, Training, Maintenance External Translations? (E.g. GLTaC) –Selection, Quality, Interface NLS Consulting? Phrase Library setup

Machine Translation Tool for Dynamic Translations Original document Remove markup Extract numbers (1,234.45) Proper names Determine part of speech (n., v., adj, etc) Document TypeSource Language Mush file of words & syntax Translate words based on Part of speech, Glossary priorities Assemble target language sentence Target Language Source language syntax rules Target language syntax rules Machine translated document Reapply markup Not-found word list Update CSD

Translation Memories Tool for Professional Translators Original document Original translation Aligned files of sentencesCut & Align Revised document Revised translation Translator only looks at differing sentences

Rules-based Document Generation Source Data: Product Properties Desired document: Format, Country, Language Product Appropriate Rules Headings & Phrases Assemble document sections Format document: Right to left, Left to right, etc.

Multilingual Content Management Authoring –Training for writing documents to be translated –Terminology control Revision Control –Terminology consistency –Translation Rendition: HTML, Word, PDF, etc. Publishing Control –Searches, FAQs, Solution Finders

Training Materials Translation Process 1. WorkFlow Documentation Spell-check Grammar check Ambiguity removal 2. Machine Translation Topical Glossaries SAP Dictionary 3. Human post-edit Readability Paper dictionary Update SAP dictionary System verification 4. Domain Expert Review Multilingual Power User SAP Glossary 5. Site Usage

So What? Begin addressing the business case for your organization –Strategic need? Urgency? How prepared are you? –Skills and awareness of your IT and your 3 rd party vendors? Develop your roadmap to get from ‘here to there’ –Identify & document elements not compatible –Make deployment decisions with end goal in mind

UNICODE Migration Issues Standardization & cutover of the workstations & printers Upgrades to the Databases –Any User-defined characters? Enforcement of MDMP rules Upgrade of databases to UNICODE Increased disk space, memory, CPU speed requirements Software upgrades (Your own code, 3 rd party, SAP release upgrades) Middleware upgrades Impact on Supply Chain integrations (coordination of integrations with suppliers and customers)

UNICODE Upgrade Timeline Assess workstation and printer (fonts & spool servers) upgrade plan Evaluate database upgrade issues: –Conversion of current codepages to UNICODE –Conversion of SAP Blended Codepages –Eliminate User defined Characters, single byte katakana –Define and program around violations of rules for global databases Global data only in English letters & Arabic numerals Text in language specified by language key If no language key, only Global data

UNICODE Upgrade Timeline 2 Check all 3 rd party and your own code for correct multi-byte handling Work with your Supply Chain & eBusiness Partners for compatibility or controls Check all RTFs for correct session and data handling capabilities Availability of CP translation tables Locale management as evolution occurs Determine availability schedule of all SAP components in UNICODE

Determine your Cutover Strategy Green-site SAP? => Start with Unicode Single language, ISO codepage => Move to Unicode before implementing multiple languages Blended codepage? => Work with SAP to move to Unicode MDMP Implementation? => Document any MDMP rule violations, Work with SAP to move to Unicode Big bang? Web front ends first? Impact of Supply Chain Partner plans? Good luck!

Thank you for attending! Please remember to complete and return your evaluation form following this session. Session Code: 2505