One of the greatest strengths of the Internet is that it frees up the possibility of communicating across the globe.

The business possibilities of such a tool are infinite. But it could be argued that this is also a major downfall of the web. The technology may allow it but the language differences can make doing business with the likes of the Far East very difficult indeed.

In fact, it is possible to end up in a Tower of Babel situation where everyone is trying to produce the same end result but because of a fundamental lack of understanding, it fails.

This was the situation faced by Witney-based engineering firm Meech Static Eliminators which has a global market and a customer base speaking in many tongues.

It needed its website to act as a focal point for the business allowing live interaction from anywhere in the world but controlled centrally.

To address this need, managers called in Flux2Fusion (f2f) in a bid to come up with a successful solution.

The result is a multi-lingual website that is accessible to all employees no matter where they are and what language they speak.

F2f founder Frazz Jarvis explained: "Content can be uploaded to the website using English or Chinese but it can be viewed in either language."

Mr Jarvis said that this is not just translation but a management tool, a series of components which edit the content inside the browser.

"The result is a website that serves all of Meech's marketplace across the world, reduces cost to management and can reflect changes in the business and product range, as well as updating news."

At the heart of the system is f2f's own Digital Workgroups technology which has one code base supporting any number of languages including Chinese and Arabic. Mr Jarvis added: "The technology’s taken time to develop but now we have a platform which can translate across into any industry."

David Rogers, Meech product manager, said: "We needed to provide a multi-language, multi-division website that could be easily managed and updated by our staff. Our existing sites had become dissimilar and unmanageable. "From a basic set of instructions, f2f designed and built a website that provides our offices, distributors and customers with a wealth of up to date information."

In fact it has taken six years of continuous development for f2f to reach this point and this is the third version of the system.

It has been driven by the fact that people are doing more business in the Far East and translation costs are high. Once this system, which costs tens of thousands of pounds, is in place, it costs nothing and is driven by the staff of the company involved.

F2f, based at North Leigh, has clients ranging from the NHS to the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Partnership which do not need the multi-lingual platform but the content management technology has proved invaluable in areas such as teacher training where assessments and learning can be carried out online.

Another core area for the company is image processing systems. This technology takes large images and enhances them for use in large scale engineering projects, for example.

Mr Jarvis, 38, set up f2f, having started his career with Abingdon-based educational software firm RM in the early 1990s before he moved to Oxford-based Saqara Technology which produced CD Roms for clients. From there he decided to start his own business in 2001.

Now employing a team of four, the growing globalisation of business can only spell growth for this innovative firm.

FACT FILE: Name: Flux2Fusion Owner: Frazz Jarvis Number of staff: Four Established: 2001 Annual turnover: £250,000 Contact: 01993 772263 Web: www.flux2fusion.com