Memery Crystal and Thomson Snell & Passmore Opt for Digital Dictation from SRC

LONDON, ENGLAND - Memery Crystal and Thomson Snell & Passmore became the latest legal firms to opt for digital dictation workflow technology from legal speech solution provider, SRC, to improve productivity, reduce costs and increase efficiency through better workload planning and resource management. The two legal firms will both implement an SRC solution based on WinScribe technology to replace dated analogue tape systems, allowing digital audio to be sent automatically (over a LAN, WAN, Intranet or the Internet) to a transcriptionist using an intelligent 'workflow' system. 'Authors' - fee earners and other employees recording documents - are able to record information using handheld microphones connected to a computer, or handheld recorders when away from the office. Memery Crystal IT manager, Elizabeth Grist, said 19 authors and nine transcriptionists would initially be trained to use the digital dictation technology to improve document turnaround times and increase efficiency. "The efficiency gains from using digital dictation will allow our secretarial staff to support more fee earners and become more involved in other aspects of client care, enabling the firm to make significant savings, " Mrs Grist said. "The reporting element which the solution provides is very important to Memery Crystal as the firm can easily monitor where bottlenecks are occurring in document production and eliminate them through better use of our secretarial resources. "Memery Crystal recognised the introduction of digital dictation could have been viewed with suspicion by some employees, in order to ensure a smooth implementation throughout the firm the human resources department has been fully involved in the decision making process from the beginning," she said. Thomson Snell & Passmore's practice manager, Mark Day, said the firm's digital dictation pilot will be implemented in the company's Kent office. "While the firm will make cost savings through increased efficiency and better resource allocation, Thomson Snell & Passmore is excited by the ability to turn documents around faster for the benefit of clients," he said.