Bond Schoeneck & King Goes Mobile With BigHand

Bond, Schoeneck & King (“BS&K”), a full-service, 400-user firm, has been a long-time user of digital dictation (since 2005), previously using Philips hardware and the standalone software exclusively. At the end of June 2009, our lease on dictation equipment was coming to an end, so the strategic decision was made to investigate other options before upgrading. The Philips system was showing signs of age and required an increasing amount of IT support to manipulate workflow, manage access to dictation, and assist with splitting up large dictations between transcriptionists. In addition, BS&K's Technology Committee wanted to explore alternatives that would be tightly integrated with other system applications and facilitate collaboration, providing more options and control once dictation is done.

The other desired business benefit was seamlessness; we wanted to be able to share work across the network of offices. This would be especially critical in those instances where an attorney might be working in a different office but wanting to easily access their secretary back at the home office. Here, the flexibility and scalability of a digital voice platform designed to work in a multi-site environment was a key requirement. Beyond more workflow and increased work sharing among support staff, BS&K was intent on finding a solution that would enable the firm to take full advantage of its mobile workforce and ideally, leverage its existing investment in smartphone technologies.

Beyond Digital Dictation

We wasted no time in sizing up the market and began evaluating several top-tier digital dictation vendors. During demonstrations, it became clear to us that the BlackBerry component and mobility options provided by BigHand would be a key point in our decision-making process. In addition, the BigHand team clearly articulated the vision of “voice productivity” and how the staff could dramatically increase its document production capabilities without completely revamping the firm's technology and IT infrastructure. In the end, we opted for BigHand because of its advanced BigHand mobile software for our BlackBerry users (over 100 units), the BigHand System Administration and the intuitive and easy-to-understand user interface. We felt these attributes and system features would help BS&K move toward a centralized and uniform digital dictation solution, greatly ease the administrative burden, and most importantly, truly enable our mobile workforce to dictate on-the-go and increase productivity and client service.

Getting Up and Running

Once the selection was made, the installation and implementation went off without a hitch and was completed in three weeks ' including hardware upgrades and configuration, testing and training. The firm's IT team initially installed and tested BigHand for a few weeks, fine tuning options and finalizing the configuration. As with all of the firm's new technology rollouts, we started with a small pilot group, including several BlackBerry users, while communicating the changeover across the firm. The IT team and the pilot group were quite diligent in their testing and the team was very pleased with BigHand's installation process. During this time, we let users know that their old dictation hardware would still work with the new BigHand technology. As one might imagine, this provided additional comfort and greatly eased the transition and potential pain associated with adopting new gear. In fact, we gave our BS&K users 30 days to try BigHand on their BlackBerry mobile units while still holding onto their existing dictation devices. In the end, over 50% chose BigHand on the BlackBerry. A handful opted to keep both.

What was remarkable from an IT standpoint was how smoothly the installation and switch-over progressed. Users easily made the switch and were impressed with the new interface and additional functionality, i.e., the ability to select the recipient of their dictation and track the process of the transcription. A total of 75 transcriptionists and over 200 authors, including over 100 BlackBerry mobile users, were up and running on BigHand by early August.

Benefiting from Technology

BS&K has truly celebrated the use of BigHand and documented various benefits since making the switch:

• Internal IT was able to fully implement BigHand software on its own including all user training;
• User adoption is up, especially among the use of BigHand for BlackBerry devices since the “go live” date;
• Cost containment goals have been met due to the firm's ability to replace antiquated dictation equipment with less new hardware and rely on existing BlackBerry devices;
• Efficiencies gained in BigHand workflows has led to more work sharing among support staff, increased team work and shortened document production turnaround; and
• Self-sufficient mobile lawyers who are now able to dictate on the fly and produce on-demand client work much faster.

Beyond the above-documented benefits, the most rewarding part for the IT group has been getting unsolicited feedback from attorneys and secretaries on their use of, and success with, BigHand mobile. For example, within a few days of being issued his BigHand for BlackBerry equipped smart phone, one BS&K attorney dictated while at the client site, sent off the file to his secretary who transcribed the dictation, sent it back, and the attorney had the client review and sign the document ' all within a few hours after the original dictation occurred. This is the perfect example of how BigHand mobile streamlines workflow and a prime scenario of how increased flexibility and dictation options can save time, administrative fees, and most importantly, how it will enable BS&K professionals to work more efficiently for their clients.

Conclusion

BS&K has always been a frontrunner when it comes to mobility and providing its staff and attorneys with the tools they need to better serve their clients. After using laptops for years, in 2004 we introduced BlackBerry smart phones firmwide, so users are very familiar with mobility tools. The key to user adoption with any new technology has always been accessibility, ease of use, and the ability to work more efficiently. The BigHand “experiment” has met all of those criteria, and primarily evidenced by new attorneys coming forward to try digital dictation for the first time.

Bond, Schoeneck & King (“BS&K”), a full-service, 400-user firm, has been a long-time user of digital dictation (since 2005), previously using Philips hardware and the standalone software exclusively. At the end of June 2009, our lease on dictation equipment was coming to an end, so the strategic decision was made to investigate other options before upgrading. The Philips system was showing signs of age and required an increasing amount of IT support to manipulate workflow, manage access to dictation, and assist with splitting up large dictations between transcriptionists. In addition, BS&K's Technology Committee wanted to explore alternatives that would be tightly integrated with other system applications and facilitate collaboration, providing more options and control once dictation is done.

The other desired business benefit was seamlessness; we wanted to be able to share work across the network of offices. This would be especially critical in those instances where an attorney might be working in a different office but wanting to easily access their secretary back at the home office. Here, the flexibility and scalability of a digital voice platform designed to work in a multi-site environment was a key requirement. Beyond more workflow and increased work sharing among support staff, BS&K was intent on finding a solution that would enable the firm to take full advantage of its mobile workforce and ideally, leverage its existing investment in smartphone technologies.

Beyond Digital Dictation

We wasted no time in sizing up the market and began evaluating several top-tier digital dictation vendors. During demonstrations, it became clear to us that the BlackBerry component and mobility options provided by BigHand would be a key point in our decision-making process. In addition, the BigHand team clearly articulated the vision of “voice productivity” and how the staff could dramatically increase its document production capabilities without completely revamping the firm's technology and IT infrastructure. In the end, we opted for BigHand because of its advanced BigHand mobile software for our BlackBerry users (over 100 units), the BigHand System Administration and the intuitive and easy-to-understand user interface. We felt these attributes and system features would help BS&K move toward a centralized and uniform digital dictation solution, greatly ease the administrative burden, and most importantly, truly enable our mobile workforce to dictate on-the-go and increase productivity and client service.

Getting Up and Running

Once the selection was made, the installation and implementation went off without a hitch and was completed in three weeks ' including hardware upgrades and configuration, testing and training. The firm's IT team initially installed and tested BigHand for a few weeks, fine tuning options and finalizing the configuration. As with all of the firm's new technology rollouts, we started with a small pilot group, including several BlackBerry users, while communicating the changeover across the firm. The IT team and the pilot group were quite diligent in their testing and the team was very pleased with BigHand's installation process. During this time, we let users know that their old dictation hardware would still work with the new BigHand technology. As one might imagine, this provided additional comfort and greatly eased the transition and potential pain associated with adopting new gear. In fact, we gave our BS&K users 30 days to try BigHand on their BlackBerry mobile units while still holding onto their existing dictation devices. In the end, over 50% chose BigHand on the BlackBerry. A handful opted to keep both.

What was remarkable from an IT standpoint was how smoothly the installation and switch-over progressed. Users easily made the switch and were impressed with the new interface and additional functionality, i.e., the ability to select the recipient of their dictation and track the process of the transcription. A total of 75 transcriptionists and over 200 authors, including over 100 BlackBerry mobile users, were up and running on BigHand by early August.

Benefiting from Technology

BS&K has truly celebrated the use of BigHand and documented various benefits since making the switch:

• Internal IT was able to fully implement BigHand software on its own including all user training;
• User adoption is up, especially among the use of BigHand for BlackBerry devices since the “go live” date;
• Cost containment goals have been met due to the firm's ability to replace antiquated dictation equipment with less new hardware and rely on existing BlackBerry devices;
• Efficiencies gained in BigHand workflows has led to more work sharing among support staff, increased team work and shortened document production turnaround; and
• Self-sufficient mobile lawyers who are now able to dictate on the fly and produce on-demand client work much faster.

Beyond the above-documented benefits, the most rewarding part for the IT group has been getting unsolicited feedback from attorneys and secretaries on their use of, and success with, BigHand mobile. For example, within a few days of being issued his BigHand for BlackBerry equipped smart phone, one BS&K attorney dictated while at the client site, sent off the file to his secretary who transcribed the dictation, sent it back, and the attorney had the client review and sign the document ' all within a few hours after the original dictation occurred. This is the perfect example of how BigHand mobile streamlines workflow and a prime scenario of how increased flexibility and dictation options can save time, administrative fees, and most importantly, how it will enable BS&K professionals to work more efficiently for their clients.

Conclusion

BS&K has always been a frontrunner when it comes to mobility and providing its staff and attorneys with the tools they need to better serve their clients. After using laptops for years, in 2004 we introduced BlackBerry smart phones firmwide, so users are very familiar with mobility tools. The key to user adoption with any new technology has always been accessibility, ease of use, and the ability to work more efficiently. The BigHand “experiment” has met all of those criteria, and primarily evidenced by new attorneys coming forward to try digital dictation for the first time.