To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that Cowan and Lancaster appeared at the same conference, much less on the same rostrum. The CEOs of the largest (Lionbridge) and third biggest (SDL) language service providers took to the stage to debate their views of how companies will provision their globalization needs in the future. This was no battle in Seattle, but a bland exchange of party lines from these two CEOs.

• Cowan outlined Lionbridge’s vision of what we call "language as a managed service" (LAMS) in which customers outsource their translation, localization, publishing and language engineering functions. Technology is critical to this approach, but it appears in the internet cloud as a black box provided by the LSP. Cowan emphasized Lionbridge’s investment in the heavy-duty hosting and language technology ("One Good Tool Buy, One Good Buy") that enables Lionbridge’s LAMS offering.
• Lancaster described SDL’s more technology-centric approach to language services in which he focused on enterprise issues, heavily dependent on visible use of SDL products at the customer and throughout the global code and content life cycle. The company complements it technology-heavy message with a full slate of services.

Which of these two approaches is most likely to succeed? The bottom line is that Lionbridge and SDL represent different sides of the same coin. Both CEOs joked about agreeing with the other’s view of the industry, with each retreating periodically to his corner to reiterate their visions of service-centric or software-centric language solutions.