Ward Hadaway has chosen BigHand SmartNote to create and store attendance and file notes.

Top 100 law firm Ward Hadaway has chosen BigHand SmartNote, a tool that uses both Speech Recognition and an advanced workflow engine to create and store attendance and file notes. Ward Hadaway have in recent years enjoyed consistent and considerable growth, however with this growth came an increased pressure on both staff and processes, namely in the production of these types of documents,

David Bullock, Director of IT at Ward Hadaway explains the issues and the main drivers behind the project.

“BigHand SmartNote comes as an extension of our existing investment with BigHand. We have BigHand Digital Dictation, and wanted to improve the way we completed time consuming documentation like attendance and file notes. The time it takes to Dictate and type up an attendance note for example, meant that the secretaries were at capacity with low-priority work."

With BigHand SmartNote, the process is simple.

• An author dictates on their desktop, mobile or tablet, and;

• Routes the Dictation directly to BigHand SmartNote, where;
• The text is transcribed and a Word document automatically created, followed by;
• The file - along with the original audio transcription - then being exported and saved for review at a later date, if ever needed.

Currently, the technology is being piloted by a number of users in the Healthcare department at Ward Hadaway.

Bullock says: “We use iManage Work (formerly WorkSite) as our Document Management System (DMS), so we needed to find a solution that ticked all the boxes, including an integration with our existing systems. BigHand SmartNote is the only product on the market that gives us not only the integration with iManage but the peace of mind in knowing that two of your technology suppliers can work together to create efficiencies for the firm, and on a larger scale – the legal sector. It’s great to see”.

“With this technology we’re not only seeing a reduction in the time it takes to produce such documents, but it also helps greatly with resourcing. BigHand SmartNote enables secretaries to spend their valued time more effectively. It’s an exciting time for us as we embrace new ways of working."

Moving forward following a successful pilot, Ward Hadaway plan to roll out BigHand SmartNote to a number of other departments within the firm.