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Leading Hull-based commercial legal practice Gosschalks has completed a firm-wide IT redevelopment project, which saw every IT system at the firm replaced in one year, and found BigHand’s TotalSpeech Digital Dictation Software to be both the most effective and popular system.

In an impressive initiative Gosschalks replaced all hardware (server and client machines), upgraded every piece of software, and migrated to a new DM platform within 12 months. Across all these new technologies the firm found TotalSpeech offered the greatest return on investment and proved most popular and effective with users.

Following a successful 32-user pilot project within their Commercial Property Department, Gosschalks are now in the process of rolling the software out to over 100 users.Gosschalks IT Manager, Steve Savage, commented:

"We ran a rather lengthy pilot project, partly because of the amount of other work we had undertaken at the time. Whilst we expected to see a steady return on our investment in TotalSpeech over the years, we were delighted to find that within two months we had already saved on at least three secretaries by not filling vacant positions, whilst reporting a much quicker turnaround time for documents. So basically the TotalSpeech pilot had paid for the firm wide roll out within 8 weeks.“

“Since the pilot, the way dictation is handled within the department has evolved, everyone feels more in control of their workload and everyone is more willing to share work and chip in to help others.It has also dramatically reduced the amount of overtime being worked.Never throughout my career have I seen the introduction of a new technology make such an immediate impact and be so warmly accepted by our users as I have with the introduction of TotalSpeech”

The firm wide IT infrastructure upgrade was planned around the refurbishment of Gosschalks’ purpose built office complex.Whilst the practice has been resident in their new offices for only 9 years, rapid business growth dictated the need for a major refurbishment of their already impressive facilities.“Our client base is becoming more demanding year on year.We have listened to feedback from our clients and have learnt a great deal from the successes and failures of other legal firms”, explained Steve Savage. He concluded:

“The fact that the refurbishment coincided with our plans to use technology to harness the potential of our people was a major bonus.It meant that we could wrap technology around the needs of the business at a time when people were looking forward to change.We have managed to squeeze an awful lot into a 12-month window, upgrading everything as well as introducing new technologies such as Web based Document and Content Management solutions.However, for me, the biggest winner of all has to be our move over to TotalSpeech.”

ENDS

Notes

Gosschalks

Gosschalks is a leading commercial Law Firm based in Hull specialising in commercial property, company law, licensing, litigation, employment, IT/IP and private client.

Contacts:

Steve Savage, IT Manager