What Is the GILT Chain? Globalisation, Internationalisation, Localisation and Translation

Opening a product up to another country is not simply a matter of translating text. Behind it lies a sequence of interlocking decisions: the structure of the organisation, the architecture of the product, process management and, at the very end, linguistic transfer. The industry refers to these four links with a single abbreviation.

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The GILT chain is formed from the initial letters of Globalisation, Internationalisation, Localisation and Translation; in Turkish these are rendered as globalleşme, uluslararasılaştırma, yerelleştirme and çeviri. As Jiménez-Crespo reports, the cycle was set up in order to smooth the localisation process from beginning to end (Jiménez-Crespo 2024, p. 15).

The value of the chain lies not in each link doing its own job but in the order of the links. When that order is disturbed, the cost appears not under the translation heading but under redevelopment. In this article we take the four links one by one and show the typical points at which the chain breaks.

What is the GILT chain, and which problem does it solve?

In the first localisation projects of the 1980s, development and translation were seen as two consecutive stages. Engineers extracted the text strings inside the code into separate files, sent those files to translators, and put the returned translations back into the code (Jiménez-Crespo 2024, p. 14).

This arrangement soon broke down. Translated text ran longer than the space set aside for it on screen, and culture-bound elements such as date and time formats or reading direction were left unadapted. Separating development from linguistic transfer proved impractical.

Two solutions came into play. The first was to take localisable text and images with embedded text out of the code and hold them in resource files. The second was to plan localisation and internationalisation from the very beginning. The GILT chain is the institutionalised form of that second solution.

The logic of the chain is simple: each link clears the way for the next. Globalisation prepares the organisation, internationalisation prepares the product, localisation runs the process, translation carries the text across. When one link is missing, the following links have to do its work as well, and the cost builds up under an unexpected heading.

Globalisation (G11n): the widest link

Globalisation is the outermost and widest link in the chain. According to LISA’s 2007 definition, it covers all the business decisions and activities needed to make an organisation genuinely international in scope and outlook (Jiménez-Crespo 2024, p. 15).

The reach of that definition goes well beyond language. Technical, financial, managerial, personnel and marketing decisions all sit inside this link. So does the organisation restructuring itself so that it can work globally. Globalisation, in other words, is not a translation heading but a heading for organisational transformation.

The example the book gives is a striking one: if your Japanese version says “write to us with your questions”, you must also have set up the mechanism that will answer the incoming Japanese e-mail in Japanese. Globalisation begins before localisation and carries on after it; it is a cyclical stage.

This link extends in two directions. Before localisation there is the restructuring of the organisation and its products so that they can work globally; after it there is the running of distribution and of multilingual customer support. The aim is not merely to support the localisation process but to put in place the mechanisms that will keep bilingual and multilingual interaction going.

Internationalisation (i18n): heading off re-engineering

Internationalisation is the body of work that keeps a product from needing to be re-engineered once localisation begins. The industry defines it as “the process of making a product technically amenable to localisation” (Lommel 2007, cited in Jiménez-Crespo 2024, p. 15).

The method is to develop the product independently of the language and culture in which it is produced. In concrete terms: during localisation, a piece of software or a website must be able to display different writing systems properly, including right-to-left languages such as Hebrew and Arabic. That capability is not added afterwards; it is designed in from the start.

If internationalisation has been done well, localisation begins, in theory, without friction. If it has not, the translation budget stays where it was but the development budget grows. This is why internationalisation is the responsibility of the product team rather than the translation supplier.

The book leaves an open question here: if developers can see cultural problems only after a localiser who is a specialist in intercultural communication has identified them, should the localiser be counted as part of the development team? In practice, the answer given to that question determines who is invited to the first meeting of the project.

Localisation (L10n): preparation, management, engineering, testing

In the industry literature, the localisation stage is defined as the preparation, management, engineering and quality testing of digital products (Dunne 2014, cited in Jiménez-Crespo 2024, p. 15). Note that the word “translation” does not appear in that definition.

The reason is that the GILT framework separates localisation from the translation stage. Localisation and translation providers mostly take on management, quality control and commercial work; translation itself is handed to freelance translators or to other providers.

The spread of cloud-based workflows has deepened that separation. The distance between management and the translation of the text has widened, and the stages have been spread across different countries. In the book’s example, the management and engineering work on Spanish projects is carried out in the United States of America while the translation may be done in Argentina or Spain.

Translation: the text layer of the chain

Within the GILT framework, translation means the transfer and processing of textual elements. It is the narrowest link in the chain but also the most visible one; this is the layer the user reads directly. The perception of quality is formed largely at this link.

That narrow definition is not beyond dispute. The book notes that whether translation should be placed inside localisation or alongside it is a boundary question still unresolved in academic work. In the industry, too, most providers sell “translation” and “localisation” as separate services.

In practice the distinction turns on this: does the brief cover a digital product as a whole, or only the text files? In the second case the project is set up as a translation job; in the first, localisation engineering and integration line items come into play.

An example related in the book shows how permeable that boundary is: translating web content counts as a translation project, yet an extensive piece of work that requires the same site to be integrated with a customer relationship management system may also be called a translation project, simply because it was first described as “website translation”.

Simship: why did simultaneous release become possible?

The most concrete commercial result of the GILT cycle is simship: releasing the same game or the same piece of software in different regions at the same time (Jiménez-Crespo 2024, p. 15). This would not be possible if translation were a separate stage beginning after development.

Simultaneous release removes the loss that delay creates. When the source-language version comes out months earlier, users in the target region either wait or turn to the source-language version. In the second case the return on localisation falls from the outset.

The table below summarises who is responsible for each of the four links and which cost arises when the chain breaks.

Link	What does it do?	Who runs it?	What happens if it is skipped?
Globalisation (G11n)	Prepares the organisation and its processes to work globally	Senior management, business units	After-sales support cannot work multilingually
Internationalisation (i18n)	Makes the product technically ready for localisation	Product and development team	Re-engineering becomes necessary during localisation
Localisation (L10n)	Preparation, management, engineering, testing	Localisation provider, project manager	Screen overflows and formatting errors reach the live version
Translation	Transfer of textual elements	Translator, language specialist	Content looks unintelligible or untrustworthy

Where does the cost move when the chain breaks?

The most instructive thing about the GILT chain is the way it shows where the cost of a mistake lands. If internationalisation is skipped, the bill is written not against the translation budget but against the development schedule. On the buying side this is usually noticed late.

In the same way, if the globalisation link is missing, the problem surfaces not on release day but with the first customer question. Localisation carried out without a multilingual support infrastructure leaves the user without an answer and damages the credibility of the brand.

This is why mature teams frame localisation not as a single purchase heading but as a four-link plan. We explain in detail which service corresponds to which link on our services page.

The Türkiye context

In Türkiye, the speed at which software and games companies open up to export markets usually outruns the speed at which the GILT links are put in place. The common picture is this: the product is translated into English and placed in the store, but support correspondence and the invoicing flow stay in a single language. That is a missing globalisation link.

The second frequent gap is on the internationalisation side. When an interface developed in Turkish is later to be opened up in English, it turns out that the text is embedded in the code. What is needed then is not translation but rewriting the software, and the schedule stretches far beyond what was expected.

The third issue is regulation. In a service opened to markets abroad, the flow of personal data sits between the KVKK and the regulations of the target country. Which locale gets its own privacy notice and terms of use is a legal rather than a technical decision, and it is dealt with at the globalisation link.

What does this mean for you?

When you are given a localisation quotation, asking which links of the chain it covers explains most of the differences in price. A quotation that covers only the transfer of text and one that also covers engineering and testing do not describe the same job. Before you compare them, the scope has to be put on the same footing.

Have the internationalisation status of your product checked before you ask for a localisation quotation.
Ask for translation, engineering and testing to be itemised separately in the quotation.
If you are aiming for a simultaneous release, plan translation in parallel with the development schedule.
Settle your after-sales support languages before the release decision is taken.
Set aside a recurring localisation budget for every version update.

These five points turn the project from a one-off translation job into a sustainable cycle. If you would like to work out your scope with us, you can get in touch through our contact page.

This article is for general information only and is not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

What does the abbreviation GILT stand for?

GILT is formed from the initial letters of Globalisation, Internationalisation, Localisation and Translation. In Turkish it is used with the equivalents globalleşme, uluslararasılaştırma, yerelleştirme and çeviri. In the industry these terms are often abbreviated as G11n, i18n and L10n; the numbers show how many letters stand between the first and the last letter.

Are internationalisation and localisation the same thing?

No. Internationalisation is the process of making a product technically ready for localisation, and it is carried out on the product development side. Localisation is the preparation, management, engineering and testing of an already-ready product for a particular locale. If internationalisation is missing, the product has to be re-engineered during localisation.

What does simship mean?

Simship is the release of the same piece of software or the same game in different regions at the same time. It becomes possible when the GILT cycle has been set up from beginning to end. If the translation stage is framed as a separate phase that starts once development is finished, simultaneous release is not possible in practice.

Does the globalisation stage carry on after localisation as well?

Yes. Globalisation is a cyclical process and works both before and after localisation. Beforehand it covers preparing the organisation and the product to work globally; afterwards it covers running distribution and multilingual customer support. The mechanism that answers a user asking a question in Japanese in Japanese is the work of this stage.

References

Jiménez-Crespo, M. A. (2024). Localization in Translation. Routledge, pp. 14-16.
LISA (2007). The Globalization Industry Primer. Localization Industry Standards Association.
Personal Data Protection Law (No. 6698), provisions on the transfer of data abroad.