Digital Dictation Productivity Sparks Extended Rollout at Irwin Mitchell

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - Productivity and client-care improvements resulting from SRC's WinScribe-based digital dictation system at UK law firm Irwin Mitchell have convinced the firm to extend their investment in the system to a further 195 users during the next two months. Richard Hodkinson, IT Director at Irwin Mitchell, said in the first month of implementing the digital dictation technology solution, the backlog of documents was reduced from seven to two days and support calls to IT were cut to practically zero. "Although well in excess of 12,000 dictations were created in the first month of using SRC's WinScribe digital dictation solution, the technology has meant we have been able to halve the average number of twilight jobs awaiting typing, meaning a significant cost saving," Mr Hodkinson said. "Irwin Mitchell has been extremely impressed by the immediate efficiency benefits achieved through digital dictation with the WinScribe system. The use of the technology will now be extended in the personal injury department and across other departments in the firm," he said. "The next stage will be to roll out to the corporate services division where we will use the mobile aspect of digital dictation more effectively. Traditionally, the corporate services division is more mobile than the personal injury department and fee earners are constantly travelling between cases and different locations. "Using SRC's WinScribe digital dictation solution, fee earners in corporate services will be offered more flexibility and remote dictation will now be possible. A spare half hour while out of the office could be used to record dictations over a mobile phone, which will then be automatically routed to the first available secretary and transcribed." Irwin Mitchell first implemented SRC's digital workflow solution in May of last year, with the aim of improving efficiency and resource management across the firm. The latest extension brings the total number of users to nearly 400. "When originally selecting a digital dictation workflow system we were keen to choose a world-class product that would support our long-term objectives. WinScribe has proven itself to be the most developed and robust system available and has quickly become an invaluable part of our support service. We are looking forward to the ongoing benefits it delivers," Mr Hodkinson said. "Irwin Mitchell is strong testimony to the tangible, and immediate benefits digital dictation and speech recognition systems can provide for law firms," Chris Hart, CEO of SRC, said. "Supported by SRC project management and support services, the Winscribe digital dictation workflow solution has rapidly gained full user acceptance and we are confident that by extending the rollout to the rest of the firm, Irwin Mitchell will maximise efficiency benefits for the business and its clients," he said.