Lees Lloyd Whitley Solicitors - UK

From analogue to outsourcing: the quest for the Holy Grail

"We had a clear goal. Increase the number of fee-earners without the need for a corresponding increase in secretaries, improve dictation turnaround and reduce the reliance on temporary staff during peak periods," explains Anthony Nicholls. In order to clearly define the organisation's needs for when the time came to purchase a full-fledged system, LLW embarked on a series of studies.

LLW initially explored the "Outsourcing" route, which consisted of recording dictations electronically and then e-mailing them to an external transcription service. This required an investment in basic digital recorders and LLW selected Olympus. Dictations were then e-mailed to the external transcription service and documents were returned electronically. This was a step in the right direction. However, by undertaking this exercise, it soon became apparent that more could still be done to improve the system in terms of quality, turnaround time and cost.

The next step was to investigate an in-house solution, staffing their own transcription department and replacing the existing analogue equipment used by the secretarial staff with digital equipment. This proved at lot less expensive, and improved the document turnaround time and quality. Transcriptionists received dictations directly by e-mail instead of the logistical nightmare of paper files and tapes. However, it still required fee-earners to manually upload dictations from the digital recorders and e-mail them; a time consuming and inefficient process. This basic system proved to LLW that digital dictation was a feasible and necessary solution which would bring defined benefits to the organisation in terms of cost and efficiency. This basic system however fell well short of where LLW wanted to get to. There was a distinct lack of management and control. There were no reporting facilities, indeed management reports had to be generated. Fee-earners wasted a lot of time uploading dictations, time that could have been spent "Fee Earning". The basic software offered no routing functionality, flexibility or security. Armed with a clear definition of what they wanted to achieve the search for the ideal solution began...

Comparing vendors

LLW wanted to be able to preserve the digital dictation hardware they had already invested in while being offered more workflow options. "Digital dictation and workflow software technology sounded exactly like what we needed. But it soon turned out that most vendors' marketing speeches were more promising than their actual technologies. After looking at all the UK market leaders, Crescendo was the only vendor offering us the wealth of functionality and flexibility we were looking for. Unlike all other vendors, the modular nature of the DigiScribe-XL software meant that the solution could be tailored to our specific requirements and we were not forced down a "One size fits all" route. This also meant that it became the most cost effective solution." explains Lisa Youds.

Furthermore, the system was not just a pretty interface; behind it were advanced routing, distribution and management features that no other vendor was able to compete against. "And when implementation time came, we were just amazed at how smooth the implementation went. After many years in Legal IT, I have never experienced such an easy implementation." points out Anthony Nicholls.

Fee-earning time is fee-earning time

DigiScribe-XL freed fee-earners from administrative tasks. No initial training was required, since the non-proprietary system supported their existing digital recorders. "Keep on dictating the way you are used to" was the only instruction they were given! The rest of the process is entirely transparent to them. Now, when they dock the digital recorders, voice files are automatically streamed to the main server in real-time, notifying the next available transcriptionist. No more wasting time manually uploading dictations to the local computer and then e-mailing them to the digital supervisor for distribution.

Even when on-the-move, fee-earners can dictate from their mobile recorders, as if they were in the office thanks to the DigiService-IP integration module. No more phone calls or logistical tape and paper file nightmares, no more housekeeping in order to ensure that confidential dictations or reports aren't sitting on local PCs, DigiScribe-XL automatically prioritises and routes the dictations depending on the type of work selected by the fee-earner. "Our Crescendo system has not only boosted internal productivity, it has also brought a reliable answer to data confidentiality matters. This is truly a professional system" confides Anthony Nicholls.

Reports are issued within a few hours

In the old days, we had to undertake a manual trawl in order for management reports to be produced. Information had to be manually collated from numerous different sources and presented in a usable fashion. With DigiScribe-XL, reports are generated automatically within a few hours.

Next on our list: speech recognition

"Objective met! Thanks to our Crescendo system. We know exactly what is going on in the firm. The system keeps track of every activity, issues detailed management reports and is ready for integration with third-party systems if need be. But we still want more out of it! We are currently investigating speech recognition to further boost document turnaround. This is another area where Crescendo has built both the expertise and the right partnerships, and we are confident in their ability to support us in every step of our growth." concludes Anthony Nicholls.