Science and Technology Center

Sweden is an advanced nation known for its high-tech market, so it should come as no surprise that business opportunities in Sweden are geared toward tech-savvy companies.

If your team has the knowledge and skills to stand proud alongside Swedish engineers and techies, keep reading to learn about 4 big opportunities for U.S. companies in Sweden.

1. Information Technology (IT)
Sweden is an IT superstar, consistently ranked among the top countries in the world in terms of networked readiness, global connectedness, and ability to use the Internet to improve people’s lives.

However, this doesn’t mean there’s no room left for U.S. companies. Providing IT solutions to growing industries like education, healthcare, and business infrastructure and services presents a huge opportunity for techies interested in the Swedish market.

2. Healthcare and the Life Sciences
The healthcare industry is one of the biggest and fastest-growing on the planet. Healthcare is an especially profitable field in highly-developed countries like Sweden, where advances in technology and an aging population present new opportunities to improve the human condition.

Better yet, Sweden enjoys the highest per capita expenditures on life science research in Europe, creating an enviable environment for pharmaceutical companies and other players in the healthcare field.

3. Renewable Energy
As illustrated by viral international news reports that that Sweden has run out of garbage, Sweden’s commitment to renewable energy and sustainable living is difficult to rival.

As the country continues to move toward an even “greener” future, business opportunities in Sweden are plentiful for companies interested in the following areas:

Bioenergy
Biofuels
Solar power
Wind power
Geothermal heating
Waste-to-energy systems
Sustainable wastewater treatment
Electric vehicles

4. Manufacturing and Materials Technology
With plentiful natural resources, highly-skilled engineers, and a network of R&D centers focused on materials, Sweden is an attractive location for many players in the industrial and engineering arenas, especially those who wish to develop and test new materials.

This is particularly true for companies interested in cutting-edge areas like nanomaterials, bionanotechnology, and nanoelectronics. American companies looking to enter the nanotech field may wish to begin by reviewing a listing of nanotechnology companies in Sweden.

As you can see, many of the leading business opportunities in Sweden for U.S. companies are in fields that are becoming increasingly important all over the world. That should also come as no surprise, since Sweden tends to be on the cutting edge of research and innovation.

One last thing before you go: I have a professional background in IT myself, so if you are interested in pursuing the first of the business opportunities in Sweden listed here, please stop by my software and website localization page to find out how I can become a valuable member of your team.

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Yesterday I attended a seminar held by Utah Technology Council here in Salt Lake City. The presenter was Adam Wooten from Globalization Group, talking about how to develop localization ready websites.  His key point was to prepare in advance to ensure that the localization process will be easy and cost-effective. To correct an error for one language, before going global can be $1000, but $25,000 to fix after having launched the site in 25 languages.

In order to prepare well, we should think of both technical aspects and cultural aspects.

Examples of technical aspects are:

• Regional settings such as number and measurement formats
• Character sets
• Separate code and translatable text
• Text expansion
• Text in images (harder to localize)
• Concatenated strings (harder to localize)

Examples of cultural aspects are:

• Cultural aspects: eliminate local cultural examples, example, American Football
• Brand Names (will they work in the target country?)
• Symbols, Images and Colors (how are they perceived in the target country?)

As a translator, I especially liked his tips for content authors:

• Write with the translator in mind
• Avoid ambiguity
• Avoid references and allusions, such as references to sports
• Limit concatenations
• Take advantage of repetitions (easy to handle with CAT-tools)

Adam Wooten is the CEO of Globalization Group, a localization company in Utah, and a member of Utah Translators and Interpreters Association.

Readers, do you have any other tips to prepare websites to go global? Happy Global Earth Day everyone!

Check also:

• 4 Keys Steps For Translating Your Website From English to Swedish
• 6 Fundamental Tips for Website Localization to Reach Global Markets
• Swedish Localization and Website Translation: 4 Ways Your Business Can Benefit
• Why You Should Localize Your Website to Swedish?
• Things to Avoid When Translating a Website

In software localization, good tools are important. Without specialized tools, localization of software is very difficult and time consuming, with many repetitive tasks. Fortunately, there is a variety of specialized tools available today.

The main source and target formats: resource files (RC) or binary files such as EXE or DLL usually do not contain long translatable text strings surrounded by non-translatable code. Localization tools have to extract these short strings properly, provide a convenient graphical user interface (GUI) for the translation of the strings and save the translations correctly back into the surrounding code. Examples of specialized software localization tools are Alchemy CATALYST and Passolo.

In contrary, software documentation files (HLP, HTML, CHM, HTML or PDF) contain much more translatable text in much longer test strings. These files are usually better handled by a translation memory software ™, which memorized already used phrases, typically segmented by full-stops, and enable their recycling. Examples of translation memory software are Trados Studio, DejaVu, Wordfast.

I use Passolo, Catalyst, LocStudio, Trados Studio and Wordfast, of which I like some better than the others. For example, from a translators point of view I like Passolo, Wordfast and Studio the best. Which tools do you use and like? Which ones do you not like and why?

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