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One of Oxfordshire's leading law firms, Linnells, has rolled out BigHand's TotalSpeech digital dictation package to 90 of its staff after a pilot study proved the system offers significant advantages over its tape-based predecessor. Linnells was one of the earliest law firms in the country to examine digital dictation, and its study has revealed that TotalSpeech not only enables solicitors or secretaries to work from home more easily but also reduces firm-wide overheads such as temporary secretarial costs.

A key benefit lies in the 'family friendly' working style that this software facilitates. Linnells can now make more efficient use of part-time secretaries, who often have young families, or for other reasons are unable to come into the office to work all day but can give more hours service if they can do so from home.

For example, TotalSpeech has enabled the secretary to a senior Property partner at Linnells, John Deech, to work from home when necessary. While John is in the office, his secretary, can instantly pick up dictations at her home. He is still able to view the progress of each dictation on screen and redistribute to another secretary if necessary.

Linnells' legal staff can also work from home when required. The firm expects its clients to benefit fully as it is able to offer a faster and more responsive service. Linnells is also able to offer staff a more flexible working week, which is attractive when recruiting staff.

John Deech, the initial partner at Linnells to trial and implement TotalSpeech, commented:

"Through our use of TotalSpeech we have been able to put in place working practices that both benefit our clients and our staff alike. Linnells' clients are offered an enhanced level of response, and our staff are provided with a working option that, we believe, is currently not offered by any other legal employer in the area."

In addition one of the key aims of the pilot was to reduce temporary secretarial costs. TotalSpeech facilitates a reduction in temp or float bills by breaking up dictations and redistributing them should a secretary be on leave or off sick, thus avoiding 'cover' costs, as well as preventing work building up toward the end of the day or before break periods. The system also allows solicitors to prioritise individual dictations, enabling the most urgent or important work to be completed first, minimising delays.

John Deech continues:

"By way of a fairly simple change to the way dictations are recorded, split up and distributed, together with the experience of BigHand in implementing such a change, we have been able to reduce the cost of temporary support in a key department. Needless to say, we have been very pleased with the TotalSpeech initiative to date."Innovative workflow architecture enables TotalSpeech to operate easily across a number of locations and to offer minimal strain on a firm's network. The product has established a reputation for its reliability and easy-to-use design, which BigHand developed specifically for UK solicitors and their secretaries.

David Oakes, Linnells' IT Manager, commented:

"The easy-to-use interface disguises a well thought out and extremely robust workflow engine. TotalSpeech's three-tier architecture enables us to run the software across many locations without impacting network performance. I think this combination of technical resilience and popularity with users is why TotalSpeech is gaining quite a name for itself."

ENDS