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27 January 2012
This weeks official economic figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) of a drop in activity by 0.2% in the last quarter of 2011 are a worrying sign for politicians, economists and for the UK as a whole, especially when the previous quarter had registered a growth of 0.6%.
The ongoing fragility of the economy contrasts with the experience of Voicepath, the UKs premier provider of outsourced transcription services, where in the same quarter of 2011 measured by the ONS and compared with the previous year:
- Volume of transcribed dictation is up 28%
- The number of law firms using the service is up 20%
- The number of typists retained by Voicepath is up 18%
Richard Bate, General Manager of Voicepath comments "In an uncertain economy, more and more firms are realising the economic and efficiency benefits of outsourcing non-core activities such as transcription. The growth has come from existing customers using us more and, happily for UK plc, a surge in new customers bringing their transcription back on-shore. And as a purely UK operation, we are pleased to be offering viable alternative employment opportunities to many people looking for a change of environment".
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14 July 2011
Santanders announcement last week that they are bringing their call centres back to the UK from India after a flood of customer complaints is just one example of a growing frustration with offshore outsourcing. The allure of lower cost clouds real issues around quality, confidentiality and data security, customer retention, cultural gaps etc.
Both legal process and business process outsourcing are gathering pace within law firms. Within the Magic Circle, Allen & Overy's plans to move legal work from London to Belfast was an example of a firm looking to lower their cost base but not at the expense of quality. Managing partner, Wim DeJonghe was quoted as saying "If the costs were the driver then we could've done something else, but we never wanted to compromise on quality. It's one of the reasons we went for onshoring not offshoring. We weren't going to take any risks with quality."
In a similar move, Buckinghamshire law firm, BP Collins pre-empted Santander and brought their transcription service back onshore by changing to UK service provider Voicepath. HR Manager Jacqui Symons commented "We were sending work offshore but found we were paying a high price for a service that could be delivered more efficiently and reliably from an onshore provider. The benefits of using Voicepath's service have been felt by the firm, our fee earners and ultimately our clients."
Richard Bate, General Manager of Voicepath comments "BP Collins are one of a number of firms who were initially attracted by the headline of lower costs overseas but went on to question the results that were achieved. Our clients are pleasantly surprised to find that onshore work, carried out efficiently, can be more competitive than offshore with the added bonus that the quality of service and confidentiality requirements are both guaranteed and backed up by relevant legislation."
He added "The new SRA regulations will force firms to take a more structured risk based approach to their business process arrangements. Onshore providers of transcription, telephone answering and similar services will allow firms to meet these obligations far more easily."
For more information on the Voicepath service, visit www.voicepath.com or call 01926 821904.
13 June 2011
Voicepath, the UK's leading provider of outsourced transcription services has recently celebrated receipt and completion of the 2 millionth dictation for external transcription by their UK based legal team.
To mark the occasion, Voicepath's General Manager, Richard Bate, was pleased to present a bottle of champagne to the author of the actual milestone, Sorrell Sachdev of Hodge Jones & Allen LLP, a law firm in London.
Sorrell was delighted and surprised to receive the prize and promised to share it with her colleague who sent in dictation number 1,999,999 and missed the bubbly by less than a minute, "The actual dictation was a relatively short note on a complex and lengthy case. It certainly brightened up my day to hear the news."
Peter Monaghan, Practice Manager at Hodge Jones Allen said "We have been working with Voicepath since 2008 and nearly all of our dictation is sent out to them - their work is consistently on time and of a high quality and their support is invaluable for the firm."
Richard Bate commented "I was delighted to make the presentation to Sorrell. Hodge Jones & Allen have been one of the key contributors to the ever increasing volume of dictation that Voicepath now process. It doesn't seem that long ago that we went through the 1 million mark and I am sure we will be giving out another bottle for the 3 millionth dictation before too long."
Richard Bate and Sorrell Sachdev
20 January 2011
The Law Society has signalled managing the cost of staff, premises and technology as a critical success factor for law firms in 2011. How can a firm manage its major cost areas flexibly and responsibly yet still be in a position to take advantage of opportunities as they arise?
The Law Society has begun 2011 by headlining independent reports on the continuing financial pressures on the legal sector in its first two editions of the Gazette.
The majority of respondents to WinMarks network of managing partners annual survey are expecting "stagnation or worse for the UK economy" with increasing costs, notably in insurance, staff, technology and via bad debts.
At the same time, a report from consultants Jomati entitled New Frontiers: Law Firms in 2020 highlights the needs for firms to be more flexible if they are to cope with the boom-bust of global markets concluding that firms of all sizes need to look to switch their fixed cost base to a more variable model, which avoids the burden of unrecoverable cost should transactional volumes decline.
John Thomas, CEO of LawNet, the leading law firm network, agrees with the reports and believes law firms need to take a fresh look at themselves. "For most law firms, there is a pressing need to take a creative look at their internal structure and cost base. Outsourcing non-legal processes should be a no-brainer for law firms. With a more open mind and effective use of technology, there are opportunities to make significant savings that can be reinvested in business development".
Richard Bate, General Manager of Voicepath concurs, "The adoption of the Voicepath transcription service allows firms to change their support staff costs to become both lower and variable, more accurately reflecting activity within the firm and avoiding additional employment costs such as national insurance, which is set to increase from April 2011. It also enables firms to increase their fee earner:support staff ratio with resultant benefits in office cost and utilisation".
He adds, "Voicepath clients see tangible financial benefits within a few months of adopting our service. A 40 fee earner firm in the Home Counties has recently calculated that we saved them £500,000 in the first year of using the service. With all our work carried out in the UK, clients get financial flexibility whilst retaining access to trained legal expertise".
Thomas has seen it in action at a number of the LawNet member firms, "the LawNet firms using Voicepath have made significant savings, leading of course, to improved profit margins".
Click on the highlighted links for more information on the range of transcription services offered by Voicepath and to set up a free trial.
13 January 2010
The harsh weather conditions of the New Year are playing havoc with many firms' normal working patterns. Not only is travel difficult for road and train users but power problems and school closures, requiring parents to stay at home to look after children, have resulted in key staff shortages and knock on delays to normal workflow.
Voicepath clients have used the flexibility provided by our outsourced transcription and manuscript typing services to provide immediate support to fee earners who have made it in to the office or who are working remotely but lack support internally.
Richard Bate, General Manager of Voicepath commented "We have seen an increase in workload over the first two weeks of the New Year and I am pleased to confirm that the Voicepath service is not influenced by the weather and that we have been able to provide clients with the required extra support just as they needed it".
11 November 2009
The last few months have seen Voicepath play a key role in supporting a number of business partners user group gatherings.
In late September in Newcastle, Direct Dictation Solutions hosted a dictation seminar day at the city's Hotel Du Vin, attracting representatives from many of the region's law firms. Delegates were able to hear news about the latest dictation devices, the newest release of the WinScribe digital dictation software and how the Voicepath service can integrate with their existing infrastructure and document production processes. Jacqui Ryan, founder of Direct Dictation Solutions said "We were very pleased with the day and with the number of delegates who attended. We were also delighted to have Voicepath join us. They are the only transcription service we would recommend and consistently deliver an excellent service to our clients here in the North East".
October saw Voicepath be one of the key award sponsors at the LawNet 20th Anniversary Conference held at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport. LawNet, the national collaborative network of mid sized law firms, hosts an annual gathering for the senior decision makers in their member firms. This year's event saw sessions hosted by leading legal commentator, Joshua Rozenberg and other leading law firms consultants. Voicepath are LawNet's recommended supplier of transcription services and now have over 30% of the member firms as clients. Sponsoring the Best Use of Technology Award at the Conferences Gala Dinner, Richard Bate, General Manager of Voicepath handed the award to Mark Slade, Managing Partner of Nottinghamshire based Fidler and Pepper. A Voicepath client, Fidler & Pepper were given the award in recognition of the development their own I-phone application to allow clients on-line access to case updates. John Thomas, Chief Executive of LawNet commented, "We were delighted with this year's Conference and it was a suitable celebration of our 20th birthday. I would like to thank Voicepath for their ongoing support and for the continued excellent service they are providing to a significant number of our member firms."
Bonfire night in November was the date for the BigHand Annual User Conference held at Vinopolis in Central London. As the first member of BigHand's outsourced transcription panel and the panel member with the highest number of BigHand user firms as clients, Voicepath are delighted to be the only member of that panel to have supported every one of BigHand's User Conferences so far. Over 150 delegates attended the day and evening celebration and were able to hear updates on the BigHand software and related partner activity including the best use of Blackberry and other mobile devices as dictation handsets and the use of the Voicepath outsourced transcription service. Dan Speed, marketing director of BigHand said "the Annual Conference is an important part of our year and is a great opportunity to maintain links with our clients and business partners. Voicepath continue to be an important partner for BigHand, a company we like to work with and we wish them every success."
Richard Bate, General Manager of Voicepath noted "Supporting our business partners in their activities is an important part of our own marketing effort. Working with a range of partners allows Voicepath to meet with a wide range of personalities within law and other professional firms, and this allows us to explore and explain to them how our service might benefit their own operations. We look forward to more of these activities in the future."
06 April 2009
Law firms risk falling foul of their own professional body's data protection rules by outsourcing their typing work to India and other countries outside the European Economic Area.
The warning from Midlands legal transcription service Voicepath follows media investigations into the illegal sale of confidential information from supposedly secure call centres in India; these showed the ease with which such details can be bought.
Despite recently tightening up its rules governing the use of IT, India still has no formal data protection legislation - and Richard Bate, General Manager of Leamington Spa-based Voicepath, says this potentially brings UK-based firms into conflict with their own professional code of conduct.
"The issue for law firms considering outsourcing transcription or other services overseas is whether they are able to comply with Rule 4 of the Solicitors Regulation Authority Code of Conduct. This sets out the requirements for dealing with the protection of clients' confidential information and the duty of disclosure owed to clients," said Mr Bate.
"There are considerable risks associated with sending confidential and personal data overseas. Cheaper options are almost always riskier and to us, the risk is not worth taking. It does not take a huge a leap of imagination to predict the consequences of being in the public eye and having the details of your divorce made public.
"Outsourcing much of the administrative burden of a solicitors'' firm is often believed to be synonymous with offshoring but there are many examples of successful outsourcing arrangements within the UK, which are bound by relevant and enforceable legislation. Compliance with the SRA rules should be the minimum standard that lawyers set themselves in such cases - and the fact is they won't do that if no properly enforceable procedures are in place."
Voicepath employs trained legal secretaries based entirely in the UK. It says that the number of enquiries it has received since the start of the economic slowdown has increased as law firms and other professionals seek to streamline their back office functions to ensure the long-term viability of their businesses. It also works with other professional sectors.
16 February 2009
Outsourced transcription specialist, Voicepath, has demonstrated its commitment to providing legal firms with high quality and reliable outsourcing services by becoming one of the first companies in the country and perhaps the first in the legal technology and services sector to be registered to the new Quality Standard ISO 9001:2008.
The internationally recognised Standard, which ensures that registered firms follow a formal framework for monitoring and evaluating their internal processes, was upgraded in November 2008 as part of the International Standards Organisation’s periodic review and introduces a number of changes to the requirements of the Standard based on user experience. The requirements are similar to those that law firms have developed in order to gain Lexcel accreditation – the Law society’s practice management standard.
Voicepath’s outsourced transcription service, the success of which depends upon Voicepath securely transcribing high volumes of confidential client documents on behalf of a rapidly growing number of law firms, first gained ISO 9001 accreditation in 2007. Recognising that client firms need absolute confidence in their choice of transcription service partner Voicepath have chosen to stay at the forefront of general and industry specific standards.
Richard Bate, general manager of Voicepath, comments:
“We are delighted to have received such early recognition of the enhanced quality processes and procedures we follow at Voicepath. When we first gained the ISO 9001 certification in 2007, we committed ourselves to driving standards as high as possible. This upgrade is formal recognition of this commitment. With many law firms looking at restructuring their support services to use outsourced transcription it is vital their users have well founded confidence in the service if firms are to realise full benefit. We have heard a number of stories where individuals have been let down by other service providers which stem from poor procedures in terms of technical set-up, transcription quality and customer service. The internationally recognised ISO 9000 certification means clients can be assured of a consistently high quality from Voicepath.”
Richard concludes: “The economic climate is driving more and more firms to look at how they can manage their cost base and move existing fixed costs to variable ones. Achieving this without consideration of service quality and reliability, however, is likely to only cause them more problems in these tricky times.”
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