The localization industry was born at the end of the 1980s when the leading IT manufacturers in the USA started to distribute their products in international markets. The experiences of the manufacturers and their service providers at this early stage led in 1990 to the foundation of the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA), which had its head office in Switzerland.

While in its infancy localization was seen as a mere pendant to the software industry, today it is an important service industry with a presence in all vertical markets.

Due to the ongoing modernization and globalization of the world economy, manufacturers – particularly in vertical industries – need to become system integrators, and this further increases the importance of localization and global content management.