Ashursts puts speech top of global agenda

DIGITAL DICTATION: TotalSpeech goes international

City firm Ashurst Morris Crisp will be the first firm to roll digital dictation software across its international network of offices, following its decision last week to extend the use of TotalSpeech to its fee-earners throughout the world.

TotalSpeech - a digital voice system from software developers BigHand - was rolled out to all 850 of Ashursts' City staff and 100 Frankfurt-based staff last year (see [2002] Gazette, 17 January, 12).

It will now be rolled out to the firm's remaining 550 staff based at offices in Madrid, Munich, Milan, Brussels, Paris, New York, Singapore, Tokyo and New Delhi before next April.

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.

A secretary, who can type out the notes in an appropriate format, can then instantly access the file.

Chris White, Ashursts IT director, said the cost of implementation would vary from office to office, but in Paris - where the firm has 100 fee-earners - it would cost about 50,000.

He said the firm could implement the system using internal staff as it is 'really quite straightforward'.

He added: 'TotalSpeech will now enable our lawyers to work from anywhere, whether that be at one of Ashursts' international offices, in a lawyer's home, at a client site or while on the move.

In future, if one of our London lawyers visits Ashursts in Japan they will instantly notice a familiarity of desktop and have access to the same support mechanism that he or she would usually rely on in London.'

Jeremy Fleming