My services range from working with: corporations to develop global e-commerce Web sites; technical publications departments to establish standards for communicating with an international audience; non-profit organizations to better address globalization and issues of multiculturalism and multilingualism; and academic departments to consider ways to internationalize the curricula.

Here are some suggestions on the kind of services I can offer you, although this list is not exhaustive:

International project-management consulting

I work with the project's management and related staff, offering advice and strategic planning and counseling as necessary throughout the project. Together we design a product development cycle that at least facilitates internationalization, but that also accommodates localization or globalization depending on the corporate strategy.

Pre-translation preparation

I work with your internal translation coordinator and together we define criteria for translation quality, the selection process affecting translation vendors, the translation review cycle and review criteria, the translation style guide, and the pre-translation edit of any text. I also help with the development of a translation glossary.

World-ready product assessments and process audits

I evaluate your product for translatability and cultural acceptance in the markets to which you export. I also evaluate the product development processes you use to develop the product for a global market and make recommendations to improve their efficiency, effectiveness, and affordability.

Cross-cultural communication education and training

Research in international business shows that an important part of any successful global strategy is cross-cultural awareness training of all management and staff who interact with clients worldwide or who develop products for export. My training is tailored to your industy and to the markets targeted in your global strategy.

Global and international user profiles

Imagine how effective your international sales team, international product-development team, or traveling trainers would be if they had immediate access cultural profiles of your clients worldwide. I work with your staff and partners worldwide to develop cultural profiles of your products' users for paper, Web, or CD-ROM access. The content of these profiles depends on the information needs of your team and relies on current research and information from the field.

Localization or globalization cookbooks, international and cultural style guides

I work with your publications and product-development team to develop a cookbook (how-to) or style guide (reference) that captures all internationalization techniques and helps ensure their consistent application. I tailor the content of any cookbook or guide to focus on either localization or globalization, depending on your company's strategy.

Localization team building

Working as a member in a cross-functional and often multinational team is often frustrating, especially when team members have differing expections of deadlines, priorities, corporate etiquette, ethics, interpersonal communication, and so on. Contradictions abound and work contrary to corporate objectives. I work with management, staff, and corporate partners worldwide to promote an understanding of expectations that work cross-culturally.

Academic Consulting: Internationalizing the Curricula

I work with your faculty to consider ways of internationalizing the curricula. While my specialty is technical communication, I would be open to considering other disciplines and areas of study. We discuss issues relating to globalization, internationalization, and localization and how these differ in academe and business. We review your university's and your department's current curricular goals with respect to internationalization. I give discussion and activity intensive presentations separately on internationalization topics to faculty and students, and often am a guest speaker for some of your classes. I offer my suggestions and ideas to as many faculty as are interested, and leave behind course and assignment ideas, plus a bibliography of articles, books, and relevant internet lists and Web links.

I have designed and developed several Web sites. Although I no longer do much web site development, I do offer Global E-Commerce Consulting. I work with your management and development teams to plan and roll out global, country- and region-specific sites based on globally aware user analyses. I am happy to work with other third-party partners in helping you achieve your globalization goals on the Web.

Volcanoes Pages for MTU's Department of Geological Engineering and Sciences

I am currently facilitating the update to and redesign of a cluster of related Web sites at Michigan Technological University's department of Geological Engineering and Sciences. The Web sites address a variety of volcano-related topics. These hyperlinks are to the existing Web sites that we will be updating and redesigning over the next nine months and beyond:

• MTU Volcanoes Page
• Volcanic Plumes and Clouds
• Intercultural Volcanic Hazards Communications and Volcanoes and People
• Northern Central America's Volcanoes -- Web pages are interspersed throughout

I'm working with talented scientists and students from all over the world, which makes this project very interesting and fun. An important aspect to the project is that our efforts are a global, public outreach to an audience ranging from junior high school students to veteran scientists with an interest in volcanology.

CPR International

I completed this Web site in August 2000. This is the corporate Web site for CPR International, an international, executive search firm with its corporate headquarters in Florida.

Nancy Hoft Consulting: Here you are! This site won an AWARD OF EXCELLENCE in the third annual World Wide Web Page Competition sponsored by the Lone Star Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC).

MTU Self-Study and NCA Accreditation

I designed Michigan Technological University's Self-Study Web Site for their January 1998 reaccreditation assessment by the North Central Association's visiting team. The site was used by the NCA visiting team and faculty, staff, and students across campus. The self-study process is required every ten years and is responsible for MTU's accreditation status. This site won an AWARD OF ACHIEVEMENT in the third annual World Wide Web Page Competition sponsored by the Lone Star Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC).

Sun Microsystems

I was the chief architect of a large (1000+ files and probably still growing) internal-use-only Web site of technical documentation and various marketing and business process documents. We migrated documentation written in FrameMaker to HTML using Cyberleaf. We created a template library for rapid prototyping and development. The audience for this site is primarily software developers and MIS managers. I wish I could show you the site, but again, it's proprietary.

SOLUTIONS, Inc.

Take a look! I don't maintain the content, but the design and structure hasn't changed since I created the site. I designed the site, as I do all my Web sites, to be maintained by my clients. I built a template library containing annotated templates for all occasions, making it easy for SOLUTIONS to add new Web pages and update existing ones. We've been tracking feedback on the site's usability for quite a while and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. The site gets approximately 2100+ hits per business day. The primary audience is technical communicators worldwide.

MTU Administration Offices

I designed the Web site for Michigan Technological University's Administration Offices. Bill Tembreull created most of the graphics. The administration staff maintains the content using the templates in the template library I created and annotated. The primary audience is both faculty, administrative assistants across the campus, the administration's staff and officers, and the Board of Control.

Beacon Communications

Bentley College

Brown and Caldwell

Camp, Dresser & McKee

COGNOS

Compaq Computer Corporation

CPR International

Crowe Chizek

Digilog/Frontier Software

Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Systems International

DSC Communications

Edgewater Technology

Eindhoven University of Technology

Ford Motor Company

HDR Engineering

Intel Corporation

IRI Software

Kodak

Localization Industry Standards Association

Lotus Development Corporation

Lucent Technologies

Magic Solutions International

McDonald's Corporation

McDonnell Information Systems

Michigan Technological University

Microsoft

Rapistan Systems

R.F. Weston

Scientific Atlanta

Siemans Medical Systems

SOLUTIONS, Inc.

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Textron Defense Systems

Teknekron Communication Systems

The Boeing Company

The Family History Department of the Church of Latter-Day Saints

The Localization Institute

The Trane Company

University of Washington

University of Wisconsin

University of California Extension

Walmart Stores, Inc.

Wang Laboratories

World Health Organization

Xerox

Xyvision, Inc.

I am a firm believer in what I call "knowledge transfer." This means that before I leave your project, you and your staff are completely trained to continue to work on what I was hired to create, modify, or evaluate. I do not believe in a dependent client-consultant relationship. My goal is to help you and your staff develop the skills and tools and processes necessary to be self-sufficient in the area(s) we've mutually agreed to work on. I have had excellent working relationships with my clients.

I design a pricing structure on a project-by-project basis. Sometimes it makes sense for me to charge hourly rates, a monthly retainer fee for a guaranteed number of hours, or a fixed-price that is payable in installments. In all cases, travel and expenses are additional fees.

My fee structure for corporate training is different from my consulting fees.