Given that we’re halfway through July and deeply entrenched in the summer, I thought it might be fun to share some fun facts about Living Abroad. A lot of us are suffering from long hot days, so we have some “cool” facts to share with you.
Living Abroad’s International Relocation Center (IRC) is an invaluable resource for any corporation that has an international presence. Most of our client companies have sizable assignee populations, but our information also serves business travelers and HR people in companies newly expanding into the international arena.
We have worked closely to support companies in many industries, including accounting, broadcasting, computer technology, construction, education, government contracts, hospitality, insurance, payroll, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, product manufacturers, relocation… and many more. The IRC also integrates well with online platforms and apps.
Here are some fun facts about Living Abroad:
How long has Living Abroad been in business?
Living Abroad started in 1987, providing country profiles to moving companies. At the time, there were 84 destinations available. When a rep went to a home to give an estimate, they would also bring a printed profile on the country to which the family was moving.
How many destinations are available today?
Living Abroad now has 235+ destinations reports, covering more than 600 cities. This includes reports on 10 regions and more than 80 U.S. cities. Reports today average about 80 pages. A complete list:
https://www.livingabroad.com/international-relocation-center/#destinations
What are interesting ways that our information was used?
At one time Gale, an educational publishing company, published all Living Abroad destination reports in a multi-volume set that U.S. libraries made available as reference books.
Today the PIVT app draws our data in via API.
What about our team?
Three of us have been at Living Abroad for over 20 years!
What was the strangest question you’ve received?
The IRC has a help desk feature, from which the Content Team fields questions. Someone relocating from the U.S. to Canada, once asked if they could drive their collection of 30 houseplants over the border.
How did the pandemic affect Living Abroad?
With a 14-year history working remotely, our team’s largest transition was not to working from home, but rather flexing and pivoting quickly to best serve our clients. We found new ways to serve our clients. Corporations still relied on the IRC as they supported employees whose travel had been cancelled or changed. Today, usage is up 82% over a year ago supporting over 61,000 users over the last 12 months!
How do you support users that don’t speak English as a first language?
Every destination is available in 100+ languages through Google Translate. Often the relocating employee has a good grasp of the English language. The accompanying family member can now access the information in the language of their choice.
What else?
Our philosophy is to design our services and solutions to meet the unique needs of globally mobile businesspeople, whether they work for a small start-up or a Fortune 100 company. Our focus on quality information and seamless accessibility supports our users, and, in turn, the goals of the companies for which they work.
Users don’t have to know everything about global mobility, but we do. One hundred percent of our work is focused on providing the very best information for our users. Our information is curated, vetted, and flexible. We believe that this work is essential to personal and corporate success.
We believe we do one thing well, and that we do it best. Users of our services prepare themselves for important challenges, and they save time in the process. They, and we, have succeeded for over thirty years, and will continue to do so in the future.
In the spirit of summer, cheers to you and yours!
