German Ministry of Justice Selects ScanSoft's Dragon NaturallySpeaking

STUTTGART, GERMANY and GENT, BELGIUM - ScanSoft Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), a supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions, announced that the ministry of justice of Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany has selected ScanSoft's Dragon NaturallySpeaking XP Legal Edition for hundreds of courts to replace manual transcription with its automatic speech recognition solution. Implemented by ASKA, a German solution integrator, this solution is intended to help the ministry save time and money in manual transcription fees and to help legal teams to transcribe depositions, reports and other documents requiring time-intensive transcription. The traditional approach of dictation and manual transcription was costly and time-consuming, reducing productivity. Since the implementation of Dragon NaturallySpeaking XP, reports are being created more quickly, resulting in increased productivity and cost reduction. "Following our initial Dragon NaturallySpeaking XP pilot project in the court of Reutlingen, I was thrilled with the productivity gain and cost savings. The software's accuracy and the training offered by the integrator were unmatched," comments Peter Uhde, judge at the court of Reutlingen. "In fact, the results were so impressive, we decided to implement the software across the entire territory." "We are really excited about the added value that ASKA has created by implementing the largest volume installation of the software in a legal environment in Germany," says Peter Hauser, senior vice president and general manager for ScanSoft International. "This agreement underscores our success in delivering value to legal organizations of any size and our commitment to eliminating the barriers to productivity -- wherever they exist." Developed through close interaction with the legal community, Dragon NaturallySpeaking XP Legal Solutions is a speech recognition product created to address the workflow and vocabulary needs of the lawyer, paralegal and legal administrative professional. Its vocabulary is augmented by a comprehensive legal vocabulary containing Latin and German law phrases, court names and specialized legal terms. The product can also be integrated with other applications, including electronic records management systems, electronic forms and legal billing products.