Legal practice raises productivity and reduces costs with digital dictation software from Advanced
When Ellis-Fermor & Negus needed to overhaul its outdated analogue system, Advanced delivered time and cost savings while enabling the firm to increase efficiency.
Formed in 1893, Ellis-Fermor & Negus provides clients with a wide range of expert legal solutions across four offices in the north of England. Their success comes from recognising every client as an individual with distinct requirements. This is what they had to say about adopting Advanced Digital Dictation.
Overhauling an inefficient, costly dictation system
The management team realised that our dictation/transcription process needed to change. We had relied on an analogue system for many years, but it was inefficient and increasingly costly to maintain. As Jess Raebitt, our IT Officer, explains, “We’d known for some time that the cost of replacing and repairing our analogue dictation equipment was higher every time we placed an order. It was also taking longer to source what we needed and we were afraid that eventually we wouldn’t even be able to find what we required. It was time for a change.”
We contacted a large dictation provider and started a trial with two of our users. The system was fine and did everything that we needed it to but the price they quoted was very high. We didn’t progress because we felt the investment required was not reasonable for us.
“We don’t know how we got by without it’”
Then our Practice Manager, Paul German, returned from a Law Society event where Advanced was demonstrating its OS7 digital dictation system. Jess explains, “He was very impressed by what he saw and recommended that we investigate further.” The advantages of moving to Advanced’s dictation package were clear from the start. It offered benefits and features comparable to the first trial system but at a much more reasonable cost. Within just a few weeks, we had Advanced’s package installed for more than 40 users, across four locations.
Improved efficiency and cost savings across the businessAny concerns that users may have had adapting to the new system were eliminated very quickly. As Jess says, “Right from the start everyone loved it. It’s made dictation/transcription so much more efficient that we don’t know how we got by without it. Our secretaries can instantly see all the waiting transcriptions and the length and priority of each one. All dictations are retrievable and we no longer face the horror of broken or lost tapes. The benefits for us include time savings, reduced costs and increased productivity. We’vealso had excellent support from the Advanced team. Jess concludes, “I can’t rate them highly enough. Everyone was so professional and quick to respond to our requirements. Advanced is really lucky to have people like that working for them.”
