16. Bilingual product development

In Canada both English and French are official languages. This would lead to software applications being translated in both languages. This requires extra work by companies providing software products.

At Bestech, we also provide multi-languages software products, especially in English and French. However Bestech is an English speaking-based company in Ontario. [Many of employees and CEOs are bilingual.]

We had products with servers based in English for support staff to trouble shoot issues. The only options we picked were
- English server/database names - English UI
- French server/database names - French UI
- French server/database names - English UI [This option was for Bestech support team to trouble shoot in familiar environment. We need to resolve issue quickly for customers.]
- We didn't provide and test the option English server/database names - French UI, because support staff are fluent in English. If they wanted to use French - French version, it was included as stated above.

This was a decision to save development and test time. It wasn't the language issue as Bestech executives are French Canadians.

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