Most "bilingual" CRMs aren't, really

Every CRM vendor selling into the UAE will tell you they support Arabic. Some do. Most ship a half-translated UI that breaks the moment a rep types right-to-left in a free-text field. The list below is what we run on any CRM trial before signing.

The 12 checks

1. Switch to Arabic and reload. Does the entire UI flip RTL, or do some panels stay LTR? Mixed direction is a dead giveaway the vendor patched translations on top of an LTR product.
2. Type Arabic into a free-text field. Does the cursor behave correctly? Can you select Arabic text without it bouncing?
3. Open a deal name in Arabic in the pipeline view. Does the truncation work, or does Arabic text overflow?
4. Run a search in Arabic. Does it normalize diacritics (تشكيل) so a user searching "محمد" finds "مُحمَّد"?
5. Switch numbers to Arabic-Indic. Do AED amounts respect the locale or stay 1,490 instead of ١،٤٩٠?
6. Mix Arabic and English in one note. Do BiDi rules render correctly (no parens flipping the wrong way)?
7. Generate a PDF. Is the PDF actually right-to-left, or is it an LTR page with Arabic glyphs?
8. Send a templated email. Does the email subject line render correctly in Outlook and Gmail?
9. Set up an AI lead score. Are the reasons in Arabic, or are they translated English (a clue: "نقطة" used instead of "درجة")?
10. Use the mobile app. Does iOS Arabic keyboard input land in the right field?
11. Train a new rep. Are the help docs in Arabic with screenshots from the Arabic UI?
12. Talk to support in Arabic. Is there a real Arabic-speaking support team, or a chatbot with a translation layer?

What "good" looks like

A CRM that passes 10/12 is genuinely bilingual. A CRM that passes 6/12 is a CRM with Arabic translations bolted on. The difference shows up six weeks after rollout when reps quietly switch back to WhatsApp because the CRM feels foreign.

See how SOOMA AI passes all 12.