London, September 4, 2006 - As Crescendo finishes the roll-out of its DigiScribe-XL digital dictation and transcription system at Bates Wells & Braithwaite, the law firm's Partners already report significant benefits only a few weeks after the implementation of the new system.
Ranked in the top 160 UK law firms, Bates Wells & Braithwaite is renowned for its expertise in the areas of corporate law, employment law, as well as property, immigration, arts and media, litigation (with a particular emphasis on administrative law) and private clients. The firm also acts for a large number of charities of all shapes and sizes, and is recognised as the leading firm in the country in this field. Following a very successful pilot of the Crescendo digital dictation and transcription system in the firm's Litigation Department in January 2006, Bates Wells & Braithwaite soon decided to roll out the system to its entire staff of 110 users in their new offices opposite St Paul's Cathedral. "We decided to trial digital dictation technology for cost-efficiency purposes", explains Peter Bennett, Partnership Executive Officer in charge of IT projects."
Each of the firm's seven departments used to handle their respective documentation volumes independently. Now, thanks to DigiScribe-XL, work can be allocated and monitored across the firm as a whole. "The ability to share transcription work makes a huge difference" insists Bennett. "For starters, we already managed to cut 100% of temporary secretarial resource costs, which represents a £40,000 a year saving, and our float and night staff are much more efficient. This almost immediate saving was unexpected, but was not the only surprise brought along by DigiScribe-XL."
"Remote work was the other surprise. We were not expecting it to be so easy and secure.", notes Bennett. "We have to admit that the ability for both fee-earning and secretarial staff to work remotely, in a productive and confidential manner, is a significant improvement for our firm." While the fee earners' voice files are uploaded to the central server in real-time, wherever they may be dictating from, secretaries can work from home as efficiently as if they were in the office. This is particularly important to the firm's team of night secretaries, who don't have to show up at the office in the middle of the night anymore. Urgent dictations are made available to them, in real-time, thanks to the Crescendo voice streaming technology, which also allows them to start transcribing a dictation prior to the complete file download. Finally, since DigiScribe-XL stores all files on a central server, the firm is confident that no confidential data ever sits on local PCs at any time.
As for the roll-out itself, all 60 fee-earners and 50 secretaries were amazed at how smooth the implementation went. "The entire firm was up-and-running within 4 weeks, without one single glitch or headache. That's what I call a smooth implementation; unbelievably smooth to be honest!"
"Our Crescendo system had an immediate impact on report turnaround and staff productivity; we are simply thrilled with the results, and that's only a few weeks after the system was implemented. Likewise, I believe that what we are seeing now is only a small portion of the benefits it will bring our firm. We are awaiting Crescendo's voice recognition modules with eager anticipation", concludes Bennett.
For further information please contact:
Crescendo Systems Limited, Sunbury-On-Thames, UK
John Bendall, Technical Sales Manager
Tel: 44(0) 870 770 1717 Crescendo Systems Corporation Head Office, Laval, Canada
Claire Betis, Marketing Manager
Toll free: 1-800-724-2930
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