Globalize your On Demand Business

IBM's Global Architectural Imperative (GAI) is the strategy IBM is following to implement full globalization within IBM hardware and software.

IBM has been delivering localized and translated products to the world market since the 1960s. Over the past few years, IBM has articulated its vision of e-business solutions based on simple, scalable, cross-platform, and secure components using industry-standard technology.

With the growth of the Internet and the needs of e-business in an on demand world, we are challenged to create solutions that simultaneously support multiple languages and cultures. In response to the these challenges, IBM assembled a Globalization Architecture team to create a new model. That team defined a set of Globalization Architecture Imperatives (GAI) for all IBM products.

IBM has helped a variety of multinational companies globalize their e-business. Based, on our experiences and those of our customers, here are some basic requirements for a GAI:

• Provide product information in the user's language and locale settings (date, currency type)
• Distinguish which information is dependent on the server locale setting and which is dependent on the client locale and ensure the integrity of information
• Accept input in the user's language and locale setting
• Store the user information in the user's own language and format
• Process user information such as printing invoices or mailing labels
• Accommodate existing information stored in traditional databases and processed by legacy applications
• Provide Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tasks on the information