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198 Reinhard SchälerWhile localisation was made easier and became less expensive, translation becameone of the biggest single cost in localisation and, therefore, the first and mostimportant target for automation efforts. Leveraging was the order of the day, localiserswere asked to re-use as much as possible from previous translations, toprocess as much as possible and to translate as little as possible. Changes to thesource text were limited to an absolute minimum to eliminate a domino effect: justone change in the source would trigger off adaptation efforts in all of the differentlanguage versions.2.2 Key phasesWe identify three key phases in localisation since it emerged as an industry in themid 1980s.Table 1. Key phases of localisationPhase Period CharacteristicI 1985–1995 Initial unstructuredII 1995–2005 StructuredIII 2005– VirtualThe first phase was characterised by ad hoc solutions to what were then perceivedto be ad hoc problems. Even senior people in the industry were proud to say thatthe biggest attraction of localisation for them was the constant change, that notwo projects were ever the same. It was not unusual then to hear managers say, forexample, that checking what aspects of a previously translated version of a projectcould be reused would be more expensive than paying the translators to simply geton with the translations of the new version.The second phase of localisation saw a certain degree of maturity emerge. Localisationprojects no longer had to rely on heroes living on take-away pizzas and onengineers that fixed problems as they occurred. Organisations such as the LocalisationIndustry Standards Association (LISA) and the Localisation Research Centre(LRC) made case studies and best–practice recommendations available, while – forthefirsttime–twodistincttypesofthird-partytoolsandtechnologiesrevolutionarisedthe way localisation was done: user interface (UI) localisation platforms,such as Catalyst and Passolo, and translation memory systems, such as TRADOSand the IBM Translation Manager.The third phase of localisation is still evolving and will mainly be characterisedby a move from desktop-based to web-based localisation environmentsresponding to the needs of distributed localisation teams working on the management,the engineering, testing and translation of digital material into close to one