BigHand technology and global support model confirmed ‘best fit’ for Bird & Bird

Global News

07
Apr
2009

International law firm Bird & Bird has selected voice productivity specialist BigHand to implement its digital dictation workflow system

BigHand, the leading voice productivity specialist for the global legal community, has today announced that international law firm Bird & Bird has selected the BigHand digital dictation workflow system to replace antiquated tape dictation equipment. Following evaluation of BigHand, SRC Winscribe, nFlow, SPS and G2, Bird & Bird concluded that the combination of BigHand’s market-leading technology and its global support model was the best fit strategically. BigHand has support personnel located across the UK, North America and the Asia-Pacific region, providing Bird & Bird’s offices with a single point of contact for 24 hour accessibility.

Karen Jacks, Head of IT at Bird & Bird, commented:

“The firm does not have a history of dictating, and our lawyer to secretary ratios are good; lawyers do not have designated secretaries, and in many cases we are operating at about 4:1. There has historically been discussion around digital dictation and the operational benefits associated with the technology, and we thought it was the right time to re-evaluate the potential benefits that a digital dictation system could provide.

We surveyed lawyers’ methods of creating documents and the issues support staff were having with existing technology, and tried to establish why lawyers were not using dictation as a business process. During the review, Bird & Bird merged with a London firm where lawyers were already using a digital dictation system. This confirmed the need to move forward with this project as secretaries used to transcribing digital voice files were being handed analogue tapes and vice versa. Analogue equipment is very costly to replace and maintain, and coupled with its incumbent inefficiency, the potential ROI became increasingly visible in addition to resolving the many issues we had with our analogue based system.

With the powerful workflow capabilities of this technology, the potential for work to be moved between departments, and our geographic spread, the international support component was not to be taken lightly. Having reviewed a number of providers we felt that the global support offered by BigHand was the best fit for our firm. BigHand’s global presence is significant when considering the requirements of an international law firm. We are now fully implementing BigHand within our London office following our recent successful pilot, and have over 80 users now live with a further 130 to follow in the coming weeks. The London project has progressed quickly and very easily, and therefore we will shortly be extending the pilot to Germany and will continue to review the requirements of our other international offices. In addition to the core implementation, BigHand offers impressive Interwoven WorkSite integration, and as users of the system, we will certainly be looking to integrate the two.’’