Overview

The product standard for globalization aims to ensure that SAP tools are ready for our customers worldwide. The standard contains internationalization-related technical facets enabling SAP to create products flexible enough to meet the needs of our users worldwide. It also has nontechnical elements related to localization and translation, which help plan the product’s release strategy.

See also:

Product Standards - Product Standard Globalization Home

Globalization Areas

Internationalization

Internationalization is the process of designing a software application to adapt to various languages and regions without engineering changes. It covers fundamentals such as software being translatable into other languages or being able to display all characters correctly (e.g., Unicode support). These aspects, as well as additional I18N topics, are part of the product standard and form the basis of being able to deliver SAP software worldwide.

Translation

SAP must deliver products in the languages the users speak. Depending on the language, however, specific parts of related documentation, such as online documentation, may not need to be translated. Translation supports the languages of target markets. A screen is like a preformatted document but with more restrictions. Languages vary in length, style, and metaphors after being translated. Some languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew, read from right-to-left (RTL) and have different displays than left-to-right (LTR) languages.

2
do
false

Recommended

  • Leave room for longer translations.
  • Provide alternatives for translation.
  • Use descriptive feature names.
dont
false

Not Recommended

  • Avoid text in narrow columns.
  • Avoid text in images.
  • Avoid sentences with UI elements.
  • Avoid metaphors.

Localization

Legal requirements, as well as local best business practices, differ among countries. Therefore, SAP must ensure that all application components' localizations meet country-specific needs. Localization refers to adapting a product, application, or document content to meet a specific target market's language, culture, and other requirements (a locale).

See also:

Product Standards - Globalization Requirements

Cultural Considerations

We all know there are cultural differences among countries and regions. Therefore, designers should be sensitive to local cultures. Icons, colors, and images may need to be altered on a localized UI because they may have a different symbolism in the local culture.

1
do
false

Recommended

  • Always consider local laws and policies.
  • Consider local content (promotions, marketing, logistics).
  • Consider local currency.
  • Consider time zones, daylight savings, calendars.
  • Consider local holidays.
  • Consider local units of measure.
  • Consider local telephone numbers and addresses.
  • Consider local names and titles.
  • Consider local search engines.
  • Consider file size for users in low bandwidth regions.