Rich media content development is in for explosive growth

How has Lionbridge evolved since its formation in 1996?

Lionbridge was carved out from RR Donnelley as a separate translation and
localization company to serve a more diverse set of customers. When we started,
the fastest growing sector for translation and localization was the IT sector,
particularly software and telecom. It basically meant reverse engineering
software product to localize it. This made our operation very engineering heavy.
As we grew and acquired companies, this piece of our business got reduced. We
learnt how to develop software. We leveraged our product engineering
capabilities and started to look at other services that would integrate with
localization and take advantage of the skill sets that we have.

What new service offerings have you added?

Around 2000, we added application development and maintenance that made us a
true development and testing shop. The next was e-learning content and
application development which came through the acquisition of Mentorix while
application development and maintenance came from a couple of acquisitions such
as Data Dimensions and Mentorix.

Are you positioning as an e-learning or a software development
company?

We do software lifecycle development work and content lifecycle development
work. For content, our primary customers are training and learning department,
and documentation department. We offer, localize, and test content. In the
software space, we develop and test applications. Our focus is on content-rich
applications development. Some examples are learning management and content
management systems. These are the things where the interface needs to be very
simple and sophisticated.

Is there a talent crunch in the e-learning space as there is
hardly any training industry around this?

There is a shortage. There are a couple of reasons for that. It is extremely
difficult to impart those skills here in India but they can do finished product
work for customers, who will consume that information. Even the English
education here is different. India is good at creating instructional designers
but really replicating what a designer who came up through the US or UK
educating system is quite difficult thing to achieve.

Sudesh Prasad

sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in