German and Japanese seem to be the most popular languages. There definitely is a strong correlation between a department's commitment to leveraging the web to its fullest and the fact that visitors come back to the site again. One was the look and feel of our site. This is strictly seen as a marketing effort and our Web Group falls under Siebel's marketing function. The foreign offices needed native-language online content to support their sales efforts.
Planning is a team effort.
Together with the marketing officials from EMEA, Asia Pac, Japan and the Americas, we decide in what direction the web sites will go. However, both the US Web Manager as well as the US VP of Corporate Marketing must approve all final plans. In my opinion, though, the Web Group should fall within the IT organization, because as a site gets more complex and technologically advanced, IT's role in the site's growth becomes crucial. Also, it is sometimes hard to recruit talented developers. The technical expertise within marketing departments is perceived to be minimal, so it's not a good thing when during the interviewing process you tell applicants that their position falls within a marketing organization.