Giving countries all over the world a new voice

A second KTP project at interactive language learning company, EuroTalk, has meant expanding their web sales operations to over 40 countries, giving people all over the world the chance to learn a new language.

EuroTalk prided themselves as being leaders in their field 20 years ago when CD-ROM technology was the newest thing available, but today there are countless alternative self-study software courses competing for this business. In this tough market, EuroTalk has a distinct advantage: a single product can be used in lots of different languages. It was a KTP with London South Bank University (LSBU) that helped EuroTalk become market leaders once again with their new online translation engine. “A localiser engine was needed in order for us to adapt to the needs of different cultures and language structures. Customers can now make their choice of language on the first page of the site and are then led down a nice easy path to the checkout, we are now leading in this type of technology,” says James Murray, KTP Associate. The technology of distribution is also changing rapidly. “As we are transitioning from our old traditional products to more online, downloadable products for mobile devices we are standing out amongst our competitors who have not yet expanded into these areas,” comments Jamie Stuart, Senior Programmer at EuroTalk.

EuroTalk identified an opportunity to significantly broaden their target markets through the development of a multi-language e-commerce system that would further increase sales in overseas markets. Although the company had proven interest in its products, with 60% of its turnover from overseas sales, EuroTalk knew that with academic expertise from LSBU plugged into the company their unique product could generate even more export sales. “Beforehand we were quite hap-hazard when we were making changes, just hoping it would work out, the KTP has helped us become a lot more analysis driven,” says Jamie.

In order to achieve this, the KTP project was split into 2 key parts and required 2 different KTP Associates with different skill sets to carry the projects out. The first Associate was tasked with the design, development, upgrade and implementation of a multilingual architecture template for the new website. The second Associate was responsible for identifying new objectives to deliver improved commercialisation of the website, including refocusing the marketing messages, search engine optimisation, expanding global reach, consumer tracking analysis and addressing piracy issues.

The KTP proved a tremendous success and managed to achieve its initial goals and more. International translation and localisation of the commercial websites has been achieved in 16 languages and cultures including South American, Spanish, USA, United Arab Emirates, French, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, German and Portuguese. These countries are now able to pay for EuroTalk products in their own currency, a huge benefit for the customer. The central website has had an extensive re-model, including search engine optimisation, design and navigational work that has resulted in 100% increase in website traffic in major target areas such as the USA.

The company have also managed to secure new sales channels such as Amazon and have promoted their UTalk products to devices such as the iPhone and iPod touch, so far generating over £150,000 of revenues so far this year.

In addition James created a fantastic new ‘success predictor’ which enables Euro Talk to identify more profitable language localisations by assessing the speed of return of investment for different languages. With this database EuroTalk can use readily available statistics on population, internet penetration, software piracy and tourism etc in order to identify which countries are best to target. “We ended up with a list of about 20 countries that we can get translations into, which would yield a decent profit.” remarks James.

“KTP has been a great bedrock that will dramatically change my CV for the better,” praises James “The really good thing about KTP is being put into an interesting role within a dynamic company that actually have the opportunity and freedom to give me my own project.” Jamie is also very complimentary about the programme and says “having LSBU input into this project was vital in increasing the amount of money our company makes.”

Mikko Arevuo, LSBU academic on this project has gained valuable knowledge from being involved in a live technical e-commerce development project with a global focus and is pleased at being able to develop industry focused case studies which directly feed into research for the universities Business faculty. "The assignment was very interesting as it combined working an a new technology platform to deliver enhanced customer value. I was also able to observe the dynamics of innovation and related processes across the firm that I was able to use in my research into how organizations develop value adding processes and resources."