Remember Me
forgot your password?

Producing Documents Fast With Bighand Digital Dictation

Today, our firm, Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin can report a 300% improvement in document turnaround times and a forecasted saving in administrative expenses of $1500 per attorney per year, through use of BigHand Digital Dictation software.

Like many law firms across the United States, our firm still had many employees relying on old analog tape dictation machines. This was a concern because most tape manufacturers have already discontinued the production of tape equipment and those who have not, soon will.

We were also having increasing difficulty in recruiting quality support staff, especially at some of the smaller regional offices in our 17 office network. This led to occasional document turnaround times averaging 7 to 10 days. We knew we needed to take action to not only increase efficiency in this area, but to provide a workflow that would simplify our employees' ability to proactively and efficiently dictate and transcribe.

Increased mobility for attorneys is also an area we knew we had to address in order to remain competitive and offer top notch legal services. Clients now expect law firms to be mobile and productive 24/7.

When we began looking for a digital dictation workflow solution, we discovered most products seemed to be designed for the medical industry. BigHand stood out as being the only global vendor whose product was designed specifically for attorneys.

Technically, the back-end of BigHand3 was also very important. It allows us to manage all our employees across all 17 offices and also has proven multi-site redundancy (they have over 500 law firms using the system worldwide). This is important as for many attorneys dictation is mission critical in terms of getting documents out the door, and it facilitates our plan to provide secretarial support to remote offices.

Sandy Caiazzo, Regional Manager at Marshall, Dennehey described: “We really liked the user friendly interface, and that the workflow possibilities were suited to legal practice, as it was important that the product be easy to train. The results certainly supported that decision. There was no question that we posed that didn’t have a simple answer.”

The impact on document turnaround times has been dramatic. The way the system creates distinct, separate dictations and makes them available across the firm means secretaries can transcribe more efficiently and share the workload easily. In our Akron office there were times when document turnaround lagged 7-10 days. That is now barely 2-3 days and the majority of work goes out within 24 hrs. We are experiencing similar results in our King of Prussia office. So we’ve gained almost a business week in productivity.

Overtime costs have gone down too. We saved $3500 per 5 attorneys in Akron – so when you roll that out across the firm it does add up.

The firm was also spending $18,000 per year just sending tapes from office to office, a cost we have been able to completely eliminate since rolling out BigHand.

Also, it was not uncommon to incur travel expenses because it was necessary to send support staff to other offices to cover for a shortage of personnel. For example, in a 3-month period for a single office, travel expenses for support staff were $1,006. With BigHand, Marshall Dennehey will be able to eliminate travel costs since a secretary can transcribe dictations originating in any of our 17 offices without leaving his or her desk.

Less tangible than dollars returned - as we don’t have confirmed stats – is BigHand has helped reduce our recruitment requirements by improving our secretary / attorney ratio.

In terms of stress levels the office is now a more efficient and organized place because the attorneys have access to anything they would want to know about their dictations and the status of them; secretaries can clearly see what his or her workload is and office managers can distribute the work more easily and from anywhere.

We have also found an increase in the number of people who may work on a matter – sometimes three secretaries may pitch-in during a short amount of time in order to help get a ‘high priority’ piece of work out the door. Sandy Caiazzo describes: “It has turned into a bonding exercise and increased our sense of working for one firm. Support staff from different offices interact with each other more, and the staff at the smaller offices benefit as they can be recognized as key players by helping out at crucial times. Things like absence and maternity leave can have a real impact at remote offices so the support and saving that BigHand offers is crucial now too.”

In terms of mobility, we have one attorney using the BigHand Telephony/cell phone dictation module which has meant that he has no outstanding dictations when he returns to the office as compared to the days when he used to return and deposit 10 tapes with his secretary. It would take days to turn around.

John Gonzales, Shareholder in the King of Prussia office commented: "BigHand saves me time by allowing me to simply send an assignment electronically, instead of physically dictating on a tape, taking the tape to my secretary and then waiting for the tape to be returned. There is never a situation where I have to look for a blank tape and my work is completed faster and more accurately."

"My secretary and I have had an ongoing "contest" to see who can complete more work. Since moving to BigHand there hasn't been a day that goes by, no matter how much I dictate that my secretary can't complete all of the assignments that I leave her within a 24 hour cycle. There is never a backlog of tapes to be completed." BigHand.Com

Sandy Caiazzo, added: “One of the most amazing things was that many of the employees actually started using the system before the official employee training started. It was so easy-to-use and says a lot about the quality design of the software.”

lazyurl

Article originally written by Liz Brown, Director of Information Technology at Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin. The leading defense litigation firm provides legal services from 17 offices throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio and Florida.

BigHand Digital Dictation is a Microsoft Gold Partner, BlackBerry ISV Partner and ILTA Gold Sponsor based out of Chicago, London, Sydney and Toronto. BigHand is the leading digital dictation vendor in the global professional services sector. BigHand Digital Dictation won "Best of Breed System of the Year" at the Legal Technology Awards for 2008, and was nominated as ‘New Product of the Year’ at the LTN Awards 2008. For more information visit http://www.bighand.com or for details on clients and projects in North America visit http://www.bighand.com/digitaldictation/NorthAmerica.html

Rate this Article: 0 / 5 stars - 0 vote(s)
Print Email Re-Publish

Add new Comment



Captcha

  • Latest Software Articles
  • More from lazyurl

Sony Vegas file to Youtube Converter - How to import/convert/upload Sony Vegas videos to YouTube with Video Converter Platinum

By: appletv1985 | 11/11/2009
Sony Vegas to YouTube converter free download that can convert Sony Vegas files to YouTube support format, such as, FLV, WMV, AVI, 3GP, MOV, MPEG file.

The Advantages Of Video Software

By: Steve Beth | 11/11/2009
Internet is quickly becoming a flourishing media that helps you to find almost anything. You can find compatible partners through the net, sent gifts and flowers to any one around the world or even shop through various online shopping sites. These days watching new videos is not a tough job as there are various websites operating on the net that can easily help you to download and convert videos that run on different formats.

Recover partition after format hard drive

By: stickqiu | 11/11/2009
Hard drive partitioning is the act or practice of dividing the storage space of a hard drive into separate data areas known as partitions.So if format hard drive,the partitions will be destroied.You must recover partitions from formatted hard drive.

Digital Photography: A modernized tool

By: Angel Wood | 11/11/2009
The concept of photography has been evolved by combining many technical inventions. In fifth century B.C., the concept of pinhole camera was developed and introduced to the world. Dating back to 1820s the process of photography was evolved.

Sage Payroll: Your All-In-One Payroll Assistant

By: Jack Tyler | 11/11/2009
Sage payroll software can also compute for earnings and tax expense figures by department or division to better manage the general ledger accounts.

A Way To Your Employee’s Heart

By: Jack Tyler | 11/11/2009
Ensuring employee job satisfaction is an important part of any business whether small or large; and an absolutely essential aspect of employee job satisfaction is to give them the salary that is due them every month.

Powering Your Business With Misys

By: Jack Tyler | 11/11/2009
The MISys systems’ integrated currency converter is a very simple to use, yet, extremely beneficial tool for businesses who deal in multi-currency markets.

Windows Smart Security – Not a Smart Choice!

By: Carl Haugen | 11/11/2009
You may think that Windows Smart Security will detect infections and protect your PC from future parasites and other malware, but think again! This is actually a rogue security program designed to look real to the user, so that they will eventually purchase the product to remove threats from their computer. Beware though; this application has no ability to perform any of the services it claims to.

Warning: Economic Depression Just Ahead!

By: lazyurl | 25/03/2008 | Loans
The U.S. economy is in terrible trouble. In the years just ahead millions will suffer as never before as banks close, jobs evaporate and inflation rears its ugly head. Now is the time to act.

Want Some Norwegian Surfers?

By: lazyurl | 24/03/2008 | Affiliate Programs
Internet marketing is all about getting online traffic, the rule is that the more traffic online advertising generates - the more money an Internet business is making. So how about a swarm of surfers from Norway?

Producing Documents Fast With Bighand Digital Dictation

By: lazyurl | 18/03/2008 | Software
Today, our firm, Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin can report a 300% improvement in document turnaround times and a forecasted saving in administrative expenses of $1500 per attorney per year, through use of BigHand Digital Dictation software. When you add the increased mobility for attorneys, and overall popularity with employees, the BigHand project is certainly one of the most successful IT projects of the last 12 months.

Locksmiths Services in UK

By: lazyurl | 09/01/2008 | Home Security
The emergency locksmith may charge you a little more than the others, but they are well needed in case there actually is some emergency.

Blue Pit Bull

By: lazyurl | 07/01/2008 | Pets
Blue Pit bulls belong to the Molosser family of dogs. They are used for their natural guarding instincts. The blue color is a result of interbreeding of pitbulls. Blue pit bulls are not naturally born killers, nor are they human aggressive unless mistreated. It is best advised to adopt a blue pit bull as a puppy so that it adapts to its owner. The blue pitbulls needs training, affection, and proper care. Kennels provide great homes for breeding pit bull dogs, training them and providing food an

Leg Warmers are Back!

By: lazyurl | 03/01/2008 | Clothing
Leg warmers started out as workout accessories for professional dancers. Today, they are as much a fashion accessory as they are a dance accessory.

Improvements That Help to Sell Des Moines Iowa Real Estate

By: lazyurl | 02/01/2008 | Real Estate
Find our improvements that will help you sell your home in today's Des Moines Iowa real estate market

Asia Tour Guide

By: lazyurl | 01/01/2008 | Vacation Rentals
You think of a great holiday? Asia could be the perfect destination. Asia offers a great holiday experience to the knowledge of different cultures and attraction

Submit Your Articles Free: Signup
Article Categories




Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy | User published content is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Copyright © 2005-2008 Free Articles by ArticlesBase.com, All rights reserved. (0.25, 6, w1)