South Australian law firm Bartel & Hall charge more hours with a move from tapes to BigHand Smartphone Dictation Software

from the official announcement:

Immediate efficiency gains through enhanced mobility, accuracy and security result in a decrease in document turnaround times and more chargeable hours

Sydney, Australia, 16th January 2012 – BigHand, the leading voice productivity vendor in the legal community supporting over 142,000 professionals globally, today announced South Australian law firm Bartel & Hall has replaced its legacy dictation system with BigHand’s latest v4.2 Voice Productivity technology for iPhone and Android with the firm reporting an immediate increase in chargeable hours and a higher level of client service through improved firm-wide administrative efficiency.

The progressive law firm had been frustrated with the limitations of their traditional tape based system, as dictations regularly had to be re-dictated due to damaged tapes, with some inadvertently erased. One of Bartel & Hall’s employees had used digital dictation in a previous firm and recommended Bartel & Hall also consider switching to a digital system with a view to improving work flow and efficiency.

Kym Bartel, Partner at Bartel & Hall, assessed a variety of systems in the firm’s efforts to replace its aging tape system, which it had used since it was founded in 1979. BigHand was the winner following a product comparison and also was recommended by another similar firm in the region: “It became obvious that the old tape-based dictation system was restricting our potential as a leading firm. BigHand was the clear front-runner for us as we wanted to adopt the latest and best technology in digital dictation workflow to further elevate Bartel & Hall as one of South Australia's leading regional law firms. Ensuring we attract and retain the right level of talent was also part of the strategy, as we recognise the importance of giving our staff the right tools to get the job done as efficiently as possible for our clients.”

Lawyers can now submit dictations into the office via their iPhone or Android device wherever they are in the world, via a Wi-Fi connection or a mobile phone signal with no docking required, and also track the current progress of their client documentation. This along with advanced workflows and the potential for speech recognition BigHand has revolutionised the way Bartel & Hall operates. Kym Bartel adds:

“Using BigHand is far more efficient than using tapes, with much greater control and accuracy. Productivity has improved due to an increase in the number of dictations submitted, coupled with a decrease in document turnaround time. Work from our three branch offices is sent back to our main office via the Smartphones. No time is wasted physically coming back to the office with tapes. This enables our lawyers to record and capture more chargeable time than they could ever have done with tapes. We opted for Smartphones as a dictation device rather than new digital recorders as the option to work anytime, anywhere, and have dictations delivered immediately to support staff was very attractive to our lawyers, who now say they can’t live without this technology. The win-win is that it is also more cost effective, as the firm is not paying for multiple devices.”

The transition from the old tape system to the new digital system was seamless. Kym comments:

“Although some staff were initially skeptical about the change, they all found it went surprisingly easily. The BigHand installation and training was excellent. We experienced minimal disruption and the BigHand team was friendly, patient and professional at every stage. All staff were happy with the system from day one and continue to be. It’s very easy to use with very few, if any, system issues. Overall we are extremely happy with the results we have seen in such a short space of time since adoption in November.

About BigHand
The BigHand Group supports over 142,000 professionals globally, across 1,300 organisations, and is based out of Sydney, London, Chicago and Toronto. BigHand is a Microsoft Gold Partner, BlackBerry ISV Partner, and was voted Australasian Legal Business Magazine’s Dictation & Transcription ‘Service Provider of the Year’ for 2010, North American ‘Dictation System of the Year’ at the 7th Annual Law Technology News (LTN) Awards in 2009, and 'Mobile Product of the Year' at the UK CNet Business Technology Awards 2008. Further info is available at www.bighand.com