Media Centre

Pinsents, a top 20 law firm, is providing the BigHand Digital Dictation System to 800 staff after an extensive review of the leading solutions found it to be 'best-of-breed'. A subsequent pilot implementation in November last year was highly successful and led directly to the roll out. The project will see BigHand technology installed across 6 sites, including Birmingham, Leeds, London (3 sites), and Manchester within 3 months.

Colin Smith, Director of Information Technology at Pinsents, commented:

"BigHand were selected primarily due to their demonstrable track record of delivering similar sized projects both on and ahead of schedule, as well as their flexible three-tier technology, which is preferable for large multi-site projects.

Overall we required a business partner that could take on-board the full implementation cycle right through from Project Management to implementation and training or, if required, work alongside and support Pinsents implementation team. BigHand's in-depth understanding of both the technical and commercial aspects of Pinsents business requirements paid off immediately with an extremely successful pilot."

Pinsents had several key business objectives in moving forward with BigHand Digital Dictation, and these included:

 - The transition from existing analogue dictation machines had to be 'operationally' transparent to Pinsents lawyers. The new digital system had to speed up document turnaround times without changing the way in which lawyers use the physical hand-held dictation device.

- The system should support geographically independent lawyers and secretaries. This would enable better inter-office use of Pinsents legal and support teams, and would aid effective team working. Potential document production bottlenecks would also be eliminated.

- The solution had to be flexible enough to support the introduction of a revised set of working practices across the firm, which focused on streamlining the complete document creation process. The quality and speed of service to Pinsents clients would benefit as a result.

- Digital Dictation was also to change the way in which a number of secretarial support staff work on a day-to-day basis. This would enable individuals to take onboard Legal PA and support responsibilities, rather than continue to operate in the more traditional secretarial role. This would only have a positive impact regarding job satisfaction and career development.

Colin Smith summarised:

"An extensive RFI process and thorough pilot was designed to identify the current best-of-breed digital dictation solution. There is no doubt now that we found it. However the future also plays a role in these considerations and BigHand have some exciting upcoming plans in place for digital dictation technology in the legal sector. Our lawyers will be able to take advantage of the heavy investment in development that BigHand are making for some time to come."

ENDS

Notes

Pinsents

Pinsents is a fast growing, dynamic law firm constantly striving to deepen its service to clients whilst maintaining standards of the highest quality.

Pinsents has a reputation for the depth of its expertise across a range of specialist areas with more than 80 of its partners independently rated by clients, competitors and peers, for their knowledge, experience and ability. The firm acts extensively for UK and foreign controlled companies in addition to a wide range of financial institutions and public sector organisations.

Pinsents was named the UK's "Most Enterprising Law Firm" at the Legal Business 2002 Awards in recognition of our innovative strategic approach and the success that it has brought our business.

The firm has more than 150 partners, a full legal team of more than 550 and approaching 1,000 staff. With offices in London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester we are able to service the needs of large corporates across the whole of the country.

Contacts:
Colin Smith, Director of Information Technology, Pinsents