Ashursts follows trend with digital move

Dictation Systems: firm chooses computer storage of sound files but holds back on voice-recognition software

Top City firm Ashurst Morris Crisp is in the process of rolling out digital dictation technology across the entire firm following a successful pilot project.The move is the latest in a trend of law firms moving to digital dictation but rejecting, for the time being, speech recognition software.The firm ran a three-month test on TotalSpeech - a digital voice system from software developers BigHand - with 25 employees last summer and as a result is now half way through rolling out the technology to all 800 of its fee-earners.The digital software takes the place of traditional analogue tape by allowing a fee-earner to dictate into a PC-connected microphone and storing the words on a sound file in the firm's network.

The file can then be instantly accessed by a secretary, who can type out the notes in an appropriate format.Robin Farey, director of administration at Ashursts, said: 'TotalSpeech further integrates our office system and takes away the physical problems of tapes, while producing clearer dictation.

Fee-earners like it because they can do dictations from anywhere they have access to a PC, at any time, and secretaries can access it at their convenience.'Mr Farey said the transition to digital dictation had been smooth and he expected the system to pay for itself within two to three years.The firm originally contacted BigHand concerning speech recognition software, which comes as part of a dual package with digital dictation, but upon testing decided to only to implement the latter.Last month, the London office of international firm Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn HRK installed digital dictation software but held off on speech recognition after a mixed response to a pilot (see [2001] Gazette, 14 December, 12).Gordon McAlpine, director of BigHand, said this is a continuing trend among law firms.'Speech recognition systems take time to learn and a lot of effort and motivation,' he said.

'We started out selling these, but soon switched to dictation technology when we realised that the ease of installation and transition, as well as instantly tangible benefits, made the digital software far more popular with firms.'Last year, Lovells ran a successful pilot on TotalSpeech (see [2001] Gazette, 20 April, 16) and is currently in 'decision and budgetary meetings concerning implementation', according to Mr McAlpine.The system is also being piloted by City firms Simmons & Simmons, SJ Berwin, Lewis Silkin and Withers.l nFlow Software has released its advanced workflow server add-on for Philips SpeechMike Executive digital dictation software.Andrew Towler