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18 January 2007
Readers asked the Law Society Gazette to look at dictation devices with an outsourced transcription service. The Gazette tried out three machines and an outsourced dictation transcription service to get the feel of digitally recording audio, emailing it to a service and having the transcription emailed back. Voicepath's service is behind a number of digital dictation systems law firms can buy. These are usually clever software systems linked to practice and/or case management, but you can see some of the arguably lesser benefits of out-sourced transcription, which is what Voicepath let the Gazette do. Recognition of non-legal business terms and brand names was not always perfect, so clearly every transcript would need rereading.
Overall the service was good, with files coming back within the allocated times - there is a 24 hour and one hour turnaround service, with scaled pricing. Using email to send and receive files worked well, with only Sanyo's 'wave' format causing problems at Voicepath's end and a minor mutiny in the Gazette's mail server. But any outsourced service would suffer the same minor problems, and it was easy to see the attraction of a 'pay as you go' service that might allow smaller firms to reduce administrative staff, a major overhead.
Author: Rupert White Source: Law Society Gazette, January 2007
