However, as Fuego, we never had a strong sales presence in Asia. Asia is a hard market to support without a large partner presence and lots of local staff. So, despite a feature set that lends itself to easy localization, ALBPM was never localized to Asian languages.

That is going to change in the next release of AquaLogicBPM. We will be including built-in localizations for several major Asian languages. From a technical perspective there are more interesting features in the next release. But from a sales perspective, Asian localization are a big deal. The Asian market is obviously very important and up until now we have been neglecting it. With the advantage of being part of BEA, and inheriting BEA's global partners and global presence, we are seeing lot of interest for ALBPM in Asia and this next release is going to let us start addressing that demand.

So, in preparation for that next release, I am off to Asia to do some deep dive training for Asian BEA employees and key BEA partners. I'll be spending the next two and half weeks on the other side of the globe in Japan and China. I have to admit I'm a little apprehensive. I've never been to Asia. I've been to non-English speaking countries a few times. But even in those situations I knew enough of the language and culture that if I could be relatively independent. However, going to a country with a very different culture, a completely different method of writing, a haphazard way of numbering streets, and a language that I know absolutely nothing about is a lot more intimidating. I'm sure I'll be able to get around, but I won't exactly be very independent.

As much as I can, I think I'll keep a travel diary here on my blog. I may or may not get the chance to make business focused posts while I'm away. It depends how busy my students keep me. But, if nothing else, I'll at least be able to share my experiences living a few weeks a very different culture.