Leading NZ Legal Firm Switches from Tapes to World Leading NZ Digital Dictation

Auckland, December 5, 2005 - Anthony Harper, one of New Zealand's leading practices in corporate, banking and commercial law, with 65 employees in Christchurch, reports greatly improved workflow management, following installation of WinScribe, a leading digital dictation system.

Moving with the times
Anthony Harper has taken the opportunity to update from its old tape-based dictation system with the WinScribe software solution, in response to a changing information environment and the needs of its clients. "We pride ourselves on being able to deliver timely and cost effective legal services. WinScribe certainly gives us greater working flexibility and further improves our ability to deliver solutions to clients" says Stuart Anderson, General Manager.

Work sharing
WinScribe is able to improve information flow around the office by delivering dictations to more than one person’s desktop. In addition to using tapes, lawyers had been dictating into Digital Voice Recorders and then emailing their voice files to an individual transcriptionist. Now, with WinScribe, it is possible for ‘virtual groups’ to pick the jobs up. Anderson explains, “Anthony Harper people share a sense of team and common values. However with the old systems, the support crew couldn’t share jobs easily with other users as it was not always obvious who was busy. WinScribe is much more transparent and the fact that we can now prioritize work and see what’s in the pipeline is working really well”.

Remote working
The ability to work locally or remotely from any PC, Touchtone Telephone or Legacy Dictation Station was also one of the key drivers for choosing WinScribe. WinScribe’s web enabled capability allowing for anywhere, anytime dictation and transcription will be used by employees working out of the office remotely.

Easy integration
The hardware used by Anthony Harper includes Olympus DS-4000 Digital Voice Recorders which integrate with WinScribe. Other digital dictation solutions were considered, but did not offer the same possibilities for integration. WinScribe’s open architecture made it easy as the company has always had DS 4000’s. They will continue to be used for remote working and Philips SpeechMikes will also be rolled out.

Successful implementation
The installation of WinScribe was carried out by Sound Business Systems, the Auckland based voice and data solution provider. “Installation was very easy and straightforward, initial training needs were light as it’s a very easy system to learn anyway and the after support has been very good,” says Anderson.

Anthony Harper has also found that internal acceptance has been much easier and more positive than anticipated. “The feedback from all our transcriptionists has been as positive as that from the lawyers. It is fair to say that there was a little bit of hesitation among some of them, which was driven by the basis that we like to work in small groups or one-on–one. We were worried that the new system would mean going back to the old pool methodology and none of us liked that idea in terms of job satisfaction,” says Stuart. “This was proven to be more perception than reality though and everyone sees the advantages in terms of improved information flow around the office and the more flexible team working approach.”

 

About WinScribe:

WinScribe is a leading provider of fully customizable voice to document solutions that incorporate digital dictation, transcription, speech recognition and workflow management. Founded in 1990, WinScribe serves more than 200,000 customers in 22 countries, including government departments, hospitals, police forces and law firms, all of whom are now benefiting from improved workflow and employee performance. As more customers migrate from tape-based systems, WinScribe is taking the lead in delivering next generation easy-to-use solutions that really satisfy their customers' requirements.

For further information and images contact:
Lucy Farrington - Marketing Manager
WinScribe - +64 9 486 9010 ext 917
Email address: lfarrington@winscribe.com
www.winscribe.com