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BigHand's TotalSpeech system has become the first digital dictation workflow software to be rolled out across a multinational network, with Ashurst Morris Crisp currently in the process of implementing the technology throughout its entire international group of offices.

TotalSpeech has already been provided to the whole of Ashursts' London (850 users) and Frankfurt offices (100 users), with the Madrid office (50 users) due to receive TotalSpeech in the next month and the Munich implementation presently at the planning stage. TotalSpeech will then go to the firm's Milan, Brussels, Paris, New York, Singapore, Tokyo, and New Delhi offices before April 2004. This will take Ashursts' TotalSpeech implementation to around 1500 users worldwide.

Ashursts' objectives are to provide its lawyers with international mobility and support; to put in place a standardised dictation infrastructure across its worldwide network; and to offer the firm administrative flexibility going forward. As well as the regular workflow improvements TotalSpeech will provide at each office, the firm will be able to move dictations around its international network instantly; exploit time zone differences between offices to provide 24hr secretarial support for any lawyer at the firm; and utilize multi-lingual secretaries wherever they may be located in the world.

Chris White, Ashurst Morris Crisp's IT Director, stated:

"We aim to provide universal, standardised IT systems across the firm. Generally I see no reason to maintain different systems in different countries, as long as the quality of the product itself is absolutely up to scratch. As it is TotalSpeech is a highly refined, mature and scalable software that offers benefits pertinent to an international network."

"TotalSpeech will now enable our lawyers to work from anywhere, whether that be at one of Ashursts' international offices, in a lawyer's home, at a client site or while on the move. In future if one of our London lawyers visits Ashursts in Japan they will instantly notice a familiarity of desktop and have access to the same support mechanism that he or she would usually rely on in London. International business conducted as normal."

At Ashursts' Frankfurt office TotalSpeech has already enabled a team in the Commercial Department to utilise remote admin support while working on a large deal in a data room based at a client's office. TotalSpeech enabled dictation to be sent back to Ashursts to be transcribed by the team's own secretaries, streamlining the overall service to the client.

The Managing Partner of Ashursts' Frankfurt office, Wulf Murkel, commented:

"As well as the standard internal efficiency gains, TotalSpeech provides our lawyers with flexibility if at a client site and mobility should they wish to work from home or travel. In time they will be able to move between European or even international offices and not lose a moments secretarial support. It is a logical and efficient way forward for international legal networks, and yet again Ashursts is at the forefront of the trend."

The international roll out follows the 850-user project in Ashursts' London office, which is currently the largest digital dictation site in Europe. Tens of thousands of separate dictations are sent and processed in the office in a single month, with individual dictations varying in length from just a few seconds to over 30 minutes. This volume of sound file traffic has the potential to significantly impact network performance. However TotalSpeech's three-tier architecture and compression technology, which make it the most efficient DDS currently on the market, ensure the entire system uses only 4% of Ashursts' available network bandwidth. TotalSpeech has also been designed to be extremely reliable; so much so that the number of people required to support the system at Ashursts is now down to less than ½ a full-time individual for 850 users.

Chris White added: "Importantly, in what is a specialist area of software we are able to manage this international roll out ourselves. While this is a credit to the quality of TotalSpeech, it is also a reflection of the way BigHand have transferred the necessary knowledge to our people. And as TotalSpeech evolves we expect to become even more sophisticated in our use of it."

ENDS

Ashurst Morris Crisp

Ashursts is a leading international law firm advising corporates and financial institutions, with core businesses in mergers and acquisitions, corporate and structured finance.Our strong and growing presence in Europe and elsewhere is built on extensive experience in working with our clients on the complex international legal and regulatory issues relating to cross-border transactions. With a team of over 140 partners in 10 countries, we provide advice of the highest quality to organisations around the world. The firm has recently advised international clients such as Go-Fly, P&O Stena Line, Hitachi Ltd, Virgin, Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, British Telecom, Centrica, Imperial Tobacco, Deutsche Telekom, Mitsubishi Corporation and Marriott Hotels.

Contacts:Chris White, IT Director, Ashurst Morris Crisp