Goodbye paper files - hello virtual typing pool

The traditional approach to dictation, with analogue tape machines, goes something like this: the fee-earner dictates and then gives the tape and the paper file to a secretary to transcribe.

However, with a digital dictation system (DDS), the direct link between the author and the transcriptionist is apparently lost - so how do they cope?

Although this is the number one concern of fee-earners when using such systems for the first time, every DDS-using firm I have visited says that within a couple of days the file ceases to be an issue.

It seems that if a firm already has a good practice management system, with a client/matter database, and a word-processing archive (and, in larger firms, case and document management systems), much of the information the transcriptionist needs is already available without recourse to the paper file.

Turning to secretaries, their biggest worry is usually a concern that they will be going back to the bad old days of the typing pool - albeit a virtual one - where work is allocated centrally.

Such fears prove unjustified in practice and most secretaries are left wondering how they ever managed without DDS.

Among the various benefits cited are a greater team spirit, because it is easier for staff to share the transcription workload, and the ability for secretaries to organise their time better, as they can see from the outset just how much dictation is awaiting transcription.

This is in contrast to analogue tapes, where until they start a transcription they have no idea whether they are looking at a three-line file note or a ten-page report.

In terms of cost justification, it is clear that some firms have been able to cut back on secretarial numbers, either by redundancies or natural wastage.

Even where this has not occurred, most firms have reduced temps, floats and overtime.

Others have improved staff ratios, recruiting additional fee-earners but without the need for additional secretaries to support them.

Incidentally, even if you are not planning to embrace a fully networked digital dictation workflow management system, it may still benefit your firm to move from tape to digital.

A number of firms have justified a move to DDS simply on the savings made on repairing and replacing old tape machines.

Charles Christian is an independent adviser to the Law Society's Software Solutions guide