How outsourcing works with Speechwrite 360

How outsourcing works with Speechwrite 360

22 Nov 2022 | Insights

Speechwrite 360 digital dictation system with outsourcing

Using a cloud digital dictation system has so many benefits, to name a few:

  • secure cloud hosted takes away the pain of managing security;
  • it’s always available and it doesn’t need to be installed on your network infrastructure because it’s in the cloud;
  • fully supported system means you have help with any issues you may come across;
  • it’s easy to set up and use;
  • dictation and workflow system across multiple devices and platforms to suit all of your team;
  • there’s built-in outsourcing transcription and speech recognition if you choose to use it.

Workflow can be designed to route dictations and tasks internally to your secretaries but did you know you can also route them to an outsourced team?

Think of Bluebird as attached to your system, and we access only that work you choose to send to us.  Choosing where to send your work (internal or outsource) happens with a click of a button on an app.

The smart way of working with Speechwrite is to create workflow transcription routes.  Here are some examples of how work can be routed once your dictation has been typed.

The simplest route is the author sends dictation, the secretary types it up, and the completed task shows as completed to the author.

But, if you have internal staff, you can route your outsourced typing back to them by using an ‘approval’ stage.  Your internal team can process any tasks and admin before completing the task for the author in the system.

Did you know that your completed documents can also be attached to the task in the dictation system?  This keeps all of your work secure; you can easily track and audit tasks, and all of your information is visible on your desktop browser version of Speechwrite.

How to use Speechwrite outsourcing

  1. Contact Speechwrite support to have your dictation system configured for outsourcing.
  2. Decide which authors will be using outsourcing and how they will receive their completed work back.
  3. Send copies of your templates to Bluebird so that we can type into your format – or consider granting access to your office systems so your outsource team can work as your internal secretaries.
  4. Once the Speechwrite dictation system is configured, ask your authors to send a test dictation to check everything works as it should.

It is that easy!

If you want to learn more about which dictation systems to use, read here.  Or, contact us if you have any questions.

How does outsourcing digital dictation work

How does outsourcing digital dictation work

11 Feb 2022 | Insights

How to outsource digital dictation

The first question you want to know: how does outsourcing digital dictation work? And the answer to that is very simple.  Digital dictation takes the audio recordings of your voice notes (dictations) and sends them over the internet to the outsourced typist who will then return your completed transcribed document to you.

But that’s not all you want to know, is it? I expect you need to know what to dictate into, which digital dictation devices, if there’s any extra software needed, how does the typist know what to type?  Here’s the answer to the most frequent asked questions and my reasons for them.

Which digital dictation device is best?

Much depend on your style of working, whether you prefer to sit at your computer and if you already have a digital dictation system.

Since most of our work can be available on our mobile phones it will come as no surprise that there are plenty of options for digital dictation apps.  A dictation app will operate in the same way as any stand-alone device with the usual controls to pause, rewind, play and record.  The beauty of the app is it will send your dictations from your mobile so you have the freedom to work anywhere and at any time.

One of the main advantages of using mobile digital dictation apps is the software can sit on your phone and nowhere else.  You don’t need to install on your wider computer network and you can have all of the benefits of outsourced digital dictation within minutes.

That said, some businesses have internal secretaries and want to use outsourcing as a backup.  So there is a need for a more comprehensive system that can route work to different resources.  We recommend the cloud based system Speechwrite360 as it doesn’t touch your existing infrastructure and offers a full workflow solution with lots of automation features and full reporting.

What if we have an existing digital dictation system?

We can integrate with most existing digital dictation systems and the benefit means little or no change to how you’re currently working.  The main change is that instead of your recordings being transferred to your inhouse typist, you have the option of choosing to outsource so you have greater flexibility in how you work.

Producing your dictated documents in your format

Not only are your dictations transcribed into your templates but humans can far more easily understand instructions than any speech recognition.  For example, if you have a standard report template that is many pages long and contains standard text, you can dictate to us to fill in the blanks.

A long 30-page report may therefore only take 5 minutes of dictation to complete and you only pay for the dictation length, not the length of the document.  It’s straight forward to set up as we simply take a copy of any existing precedents and templates you have so you will always receive consistency from us.

Receiving your completed outsourced dictation work

There are a variety of ways to receive your completed work and the one you choose will depend on (a) ease of use (b) security of data (c) efficiency of working practices.

To start with, the easiest to use and which most people are comfortable with, is email.  We will simply attach the completed transcript and send it by email to an address you choose, whether that’s yourself or an administration point.

If security of data is paramount, then you may prefer to download your completed work from a portal.

If you have case management systems then you may decide to grant your outsourced team access so they can work for you just as an inhouse secretary would.  You retain all of the efficiencies of your case management system for template management, filing, time recording and diary management.

The choice for outsourcing is all yours

As you can see, outsourcing digital dictation has quite a few options as to how it works. It is easy to get started and quick to set up.  Contact us if you would like to discuss how you could work with outsourcing digital dictation and please visit our Pricing page for current costs. 

Productivity tools you already have

Productivity tools you already have

23 Mar 2021 | Insights

Productivity tools you already have – ten fingers and a voice

In a world where productivity really matters, whether for business profitability or simply helping your mental health by removing frustrations, one of the quickest ways to convey information is to speak with one another.

We might not like receiving or making cold calls let alone a straightforward telephone call, and a lot of us tend to hide behind the keyboard and use text as a preferred method of communication. 

We have certainly evolved into a type of keyboard warrior (pun intended).  Even as I write this, I’m conscious that at a typing speed of 96 words per minute, my text will reach a wider audience than dozens of calls.  And to be honest, I hate the idea of video!

In a world where typing is usually by 2 thumbs than 10 fingers, typing is now becoming a chore, a bore and causing frustration. 

If you want to learn how to type with 10 fingers, then check out Mavis Beacon Free who has been teaching typing since the 1980s!  

Or have you thought about simply using your voice? 

The simple fact is, we generally speak at a comfortable 150 words per minute.  An average typist can type at 60 words per minute but a fast and experienced typist is around 100 words per minute; some of us are even faster!   

Dictating is a skill of itself.  It takes practice, just as it does to learn to type with 10 fingers.  The upside is that you already have a lot of experience in using your voice.

Here are my top tips for learning how to dictate.

  1. Imagine you are preparing to leave a voicemail. By placing ourselves into that state and imagining that we are speaking with someone means we are already thinking about the words we want to say.  We do this unconsciously, but it wasn’t always like that.  Do you remember a time when you hated leaving a voicemail (perhaps you still do)?
  2. Don’t be a perfectionist! If you’re new to dictation then at this stage it really isn’t important to have all of your spoken words arranged in an immaculate way.  A great secretary will understand what you mean, and will punctuate your transcript for you.  If anything, your tone of voice really helps the listener to know where to punctuate, so just imagine you’re telling someone a story.
  3. Background noise does matter but not in the way that you think. Some people are put off dictating because they may be in hearing distance of other people.  If you are uncomfortable making phone calls and leaving voice messages in front of others, then this will likely affect your willingness to learn dictation.  Once you are conscious about your environment, you can do something to change it.
  4. Get your first draft out using your voice. Use dictation as a quick way to get your first draft written.  You can always update it and amend it later but at least it’s out of your head and onto a page where you can see it.  As you practice your dictation, your first drafts will become more perfect over time.
  5. Doesn’t it take longer to have someone else type it? This is a common perception but it usually not the case, particularly once you get used to dictating your drafts.  The reality is that we can return a piece of dictation very quickly – often within the hour.  How does that time compare with your own typing?

Try another free tool to help you practice

There are lots of dictation apps for smart phones and a lot of them are free.  If you would like to give it a try, then get in touch and I can advise on what will work best for you. 

To have your dictation transcribed is cost-effective.  Our costs are £1.35 to have a minute of dictation typed up, so 10 minutes of your voice will cost you £13.50. 

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What Our Customers Think

The work is completed accurately, with a choice of turnaround times and over extended office hours.

DGB Solicitors

They simply get the job done and they work around the clock too. We’ve saved salary and temp costs in our business by outsourcing the typing.

Child Law Partnership

They are the prime outfit for outsourced document
production.
Open Plan Law

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5 times you could outsource your typing

5 times you could outsource your typing

2 Feb 2021 | Insights

When is it a good time to outsource your typing?. 

Typing is necessary – there’s just no getting away from it.  Whether it’s responding to an email, editing a document or writing a file note, you either do it yourself or you pay someone to do it for you. 

Outsourcing can be a word that causes anxiety to some because it hints at structural change, redundancy and cost cutting for survival.  But we can flip that around to positive action and instead rename that word to ‘delegating’. 

From our clients’ experiences, here’s the top reasons why they chose to send their typing outside of their business.

1 Recruiting a new fee-earner

Recruiting new staff in your business is, hopefully, a sign of growth.  You will want your new hire to be as productive as possible, to feel supported, and start making money for your business as soon as possible. 

If you don’t have capacity for your support staff to cope with the extra work to be generated, then it can be a great opportunity to offer external resources to help your new team member work to their strengths. 

New staff means introducing them to new ways of working – your way of working – so introducing a remote support service won’t cause too much change-related-stress.

2 Staff sickness and holiday absence 

Organising a holiday rota and being fair to staff so they can have time off during school holidays can be a managerial nightmare.  Throw in sudden sickness absence, and stress levels in the team increase. 

Having a flexible resource ready to go means you always have a back-up plan and can be assured that work gets done and costs are kept to a minimum.

3 Keeping your business continuity plan updated

Just as above, those unexpected turn of events can throw normal operations into disarray.  Being prepared doesn’t cost much in money and can save you tons of time and energy in the long run. 

Believe it or not, hooking up dictation technology and sharing some templates is really easy.  You’ll get a lot of boxes ticked for your compliance because you have your back-up plan.

4 An unexpected large project

 For those occasional times when a piece of work needs more time than your support team have capacity for.  Here are a few examples of how we have helped our clients.

  • An old head lease document, poor quality PDF that can’t be converted to text, needs to be re-typed. It takes 16 hours of typing time. 
  • A 1-hour Zoom video meeting can take 8 hours to transcribe.
  • Police interview tapes are needed in a hurry.  Four hours of interviews could take 30 hours to transcribe.

5 Sick of doing it yourself

New business start-ups rightly do almost everything themselves.  Then comes the time when workload increases and a dawning realisation that time is better spent elsewhere.  Savvy business owners will have figured out where systems can be automated, templates can be created and repetitive work is treated like a process. 

But there are times when a spanner is thrown into the works.  Broken documents, long boring typing jobs or data input and struggles with PDF conversions, are just a few examples. 

None of the above circumstances require redundancy or a sharp reduction in staff numbers.  In most cases, restructuring workflow presents the opportunity to utilise employed staff to produce more and work to their strengths.

You might have your own specific requirements that you need help with.  If so, please get in touch  as I’m sure we can help you. 

 

What Our Customers Think

The work is completed accurately, with a choice of turnaround times and over extended office hours.

DGB Solicitors

They simply get the job done and they work around the clock too. We’ve saved salary and temp costs in our business by outsourcing the typing.

Child Law Partnership

They are the prime outfit for outsourced document
production.
Open Plan Law

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6 Ways To Get The Most From Your Digital Dictation System

6 Ways To Get The Most From Your Digital Dictation System

4 Jan 2021 | Insights

If you have a dictation system already, or perhaps considering an investment, these 6 tips will help you drive efficiency in your practice. 

 

1 Know your turnaround time

Did you know that a slow turnaround time STOPS people using the dictation system because they think it’s faster to do it themselves?

We measure the turnaround time from when a task becomes available to the secretary until it’s completed and the document is returned to you.  This takes into account any time that your work is stuck waiting in a queue.    

Some dictation systems produce a report that measures turnaround from the time a typist picks up a task and completes it.  This is only helpful as a comparison of speed of typing.  It doesn’t take account of the time your task has been sat waiting in a queue. 

Get in touch if you want some help with analysing your reports.

2 Get your notes typed up

The obvious use is audio transcription, but there’s a difference between transcribing notes and completing a form, or creating a report from a precedent.  Speech recognition software can give you a basic transcript (if you don’t mind correcting the errors) but humans can follow complex instructions and can work intuitively to give you what you need.  

If you’ve never used dictation before, think of it as telling a story or leaving a voicemail.  There’s no need to dictate punctuation as experienced secretaries will understand you and will punctuate with accuracy without changing the meaning of your sentences.

3 Send a voice instruction

Sending a voice note with instructions through the dictation system is an efficient way of alerting your support team to a new task in their work queue.  It’s more secure than email as you can quickly pass on explanatory information.    Did you know you can attach a document too?  So why not dictate those amendments you need to update your document?

4 Do you need a memory jogger or an audit trail?

How often do you give instructions then forget about them?  The task list in your dictation workflow system has multiple uses.  It gives you a visual reminder of what work is waiting to be done or has been completed.  It’s also a great way to monitor quality of the work produced.  The fact that every action is logged in a database we can see when the work arrived, who actioned it and when and if there was any query noted in the task. 

5 Analyse your costs and keep control of them!

How do you know if you’ve got a fast or slow typist?  Dictation workflow systems have reports to help you categorise and analyse your tasks and put a cost to them.  Did you know you can find out what the cost per dictated minute is from your reports? You can also analyse your average turnaround time to have work completed. 

6 Assign costs to a client file

Admin support is usually an overhead in a business but there are sometimes cases where the costs of certain tasks can (and should) be passed directly to your client to bear.  Release yourself from your overhead burden and ask for your documents and typing costs to be added to a client or matter file.  The digital dictation workflow system accurately produces reports and costs broken down to a matter reference.

What Our Customers Think

The work is completed accurately, with a choice of turnaround times and over extended office hours.

DGB Solicitors

They simply get the job done and they work around the clock too. We’ve saved salary and temp costs in our business by outsourcing the typing.

Child Law Partnership

They are the prime outfit for outsourced document
production.
Open Plan Law

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