Wright Hassall complete a firm-wide technology roll out including digital dictation and BigHand SmartNote.

LONDON - BigHand, specialists in speech, task delegation, document creation and workflow solutions, are chosen to replace dated voice technology for 95 fee-earners and 40 secretaries at Warwickshire-based legal firm, Wright Hassall. The technology implemented at the firm includes BigHand’s digital dictation solution with iPhone and iPad apps for fee-earners on the go, and server-side speech recognition to reduce secretarial workload. In addition to refreshing the voice platform, Wright Hassall have also opted to implement BigHand SmartNote, a document automation solution to automate the production of file and attendance notes.

Within the first week since go-live, Wright Hassall’s authors have already recorded and submitted over 1,000 dictations through the BigHand platform, totalling over 2.5 days of back-to-back talk time. Administrative time has been slashed with 32% of dictations being sent through BigHand’s speech recognition for automatic transcription. It is expected that within the next month, the number of dictations sent through speech recognition will rise to over 1,000 per week and as a result deliver significant administrative cost savings.

Martyn Wells, IT Director at Wright Hassall comments: “We had reached the limits of functionality of the previous incumbents' dictation solution and we just couldn't go forward to where we wanted to be. We wanted to refresh the speech platform, but we wanted some degree of autonomous dictation. We also wanted a solution that could integrate with our document management system, Worksite, and allow our users to remain productive when working remotely on their iOS devices.”

“A quick scan of the market and some basic due diligence all pointed to BigHand,” he says. “We were already aware that BigHand had a strong presence in the legal industry and that they supplied 86% of the top 200 legal firms. After an initial meeting it became clear that they would not only be able to cater for our voice technology needs but also help us to transform our document production processes.”

The objectives of the refresh were to reduce administrative costs, boost efficiency, streamline processes and implement a future-proof platform from a forward thinking provider who would be able to support future growth and diversification.

“We worked with Wright Hassall over a number of months to get a deep understanding of their requirements and the outcomes they were looking to achieve," says Ben Mills, Managing Director at BigHand. "We have now been able to implement an end-to-end voice and document automation solution that is already making a real impact on the business as well as each member of the team. We are looking forward to supporting Wright Hassall as they continue to grow.”

Wells added: “It was a well-managed and elegantly delivered implementation. BigHand helped create an internal marketing campaign including desk drops, posters and branded cupcakes, which really helped to create an exciting, team atmosphere and ensure a smooth roll out. The training was excellent and the implementation support we have received is next to no other I have experienced in 25 years.

"I am grateful to all of the team from BigHand for all of their hard work and for working seamlessly as part of our team. They have surpassed all of our expectations and we look forward to a long working relationship."