Scottish Firm uses Voicepath to eliminate backlogs

12 July 2005

Stewart Balfour & Sutherland, a Scottish, West Highlands-based general legal practice, has turned to using outsourced document transcription specialist, Voicepath, to eliminate typing backlogs at the firm and solve the perennial problem of finding the right staff.

Based across three sites in Campbeltown and Lochgilphead in Argyll and Bowmore also on the Isle of Islay, the firm has a far wider catchment area than those in more densely populated parts of the UK. This means that not only are its offices routinely very busy, but it also faces recruitment challenges.

Managing partner at the firm, John Campbell, comments: “Before we started using Voicepath, our secretaries had so many documents to produce and send out that we were often faced with backlogs, which was not ideal from our clients’ points of view.”

This problem was further compounded by the difficulty of recruiting suitably experienced support staff from the local area. John continues: “Finding the right people is a challenge all businesses face, but it is a more problematic issue in rural areas, where populations are smaller and more spread out.”

Consequently when Stewart Balfour & Sutherland began the search for a solution, it soon became apparent that an answer might be found in Voicepath’s service, which allows dictations to be outsourced to its UK-wide network of home-based transcriptionists via a firm’s digital dictation system.

The service, which is compatible with most major digital dictation platforms, works by firms sending dictations to Voicepath via a secure internet connection. From here, work is sent to transcriptionists, who type it up and return it to Voicepath for quality control. This work is then checked and sent back to the client by the same secure connection. From start to finish this whole process is typically completed within the hour.

Using Voicepath to outsource the transcriptions its secretaries do not have time to complete has benefited Stewart Balfour & Sutherland in two ways. Firstly, it is not faced with the task of recruiting more support staff, which can be both a costly and time-consuming process. Secondly, with the typing pressure off, the firm’s existing secretaries can make more effective use of their time.

John adds: “Voicepath is exactly what we look for in a support service: it is quick, efficient and allows us to provide a better, speedier service to our clients in turn.”

Voicepath general manager, Richard Bate, concludes: “Much is made of the expense to city-based firms of employing good secretaries, many of which come at a premium price. A less well publicised, though just as prevalent problem to firms in more remote areas, however, is that of simply finding staff at all.

“This can be especially difficult in areas of low population density, leading to situations in which unfilled secretarial posts result in backlogs, workplace stress, and dips in client care. Happily, this is exactly the scenario in which outsourcing, where the location of a transcriptionist does not matter, can be a godsend.

“We are pleased to be able to work with such a foresighted firm and look forward to continuing our relationship in the future.”