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Say what? Three ways using a mobile voice app and workflow can save you time and money

July 31, 2013, 1:33 pm CDT

“Talking is faster than typing.”
“We all dictate, we just call it voicemail.”
“Two hours in traffic and I was able to verbally delegate all of my tasks via my smartphone.”
- Users of BigHand, a voice productivity and dictation provider

Time is money. Regardless of the ever-changing landscape of the legal marketplace, this fact remains. As the industry faces reductions in back-end support staff to cope with ever-diminishing budgets, as covered by the Wall Street Journal, lawyers (possibly you!) and firms are doing more with less. More time is now spent on administrative tasks like typing up standard letters and memos, emailing, adding in billable time or data into CRM systems. These tasks are draining time that could be better spent on business development and the actual practice of law.

Though dictation is often viewed as an antiquated practice, the technology is no longer just used for long documents and the more seasoned lawyer. As we move into a voice-activated app world, we are doing more with our voice to get things done: Voice Productivity Technology (VPT). So how in the world can using your voice combined with advanced workflow software actually save you and your firm time and money?

I thought you’d never ask. Read on.

1.) Gaining back lost billable hours. One law firm recently reported that attorneys who reconstruct their time once a week lost between 25 and 30 percent of their billable hours. In a 40-hour work week, that’s a loss of 12 billable hours per week. Thousands of lawyers are using BigHand’s mobile voice dictation app to record their time throughout the day, after each task, so no billable hour need ever be lost. If an attorney’s billable rate is $250 per hour, that loss equates to $3,000 per week, or $150,000 per year.

2.) Control overhead and equipment costs. Costly or antiquated dictation equipment can drain a firm’s expense budget. Tape and basic digital devices cost an average of $500 each, which need to be replaced over time. If a firm replaces 20 per year, their budget would run $10,000. Instead, with a BigHand dictation app and our voice productivity technology, that budget can be reduced to less than half.

Add in sophisticated workflows and you can re-distribute submitted work to existing support staff, addressing a growing trend of reducing back-end support staff. One mid-sized South Carolina firm added 35 new timekeepers and only needed two new support staff, reducing overhead costs by $250,000 annually after they implemented BigHand. Add-in automatic transcription via speech recognition and time savings multiplies.

3.) Verbal delegation. Attorneys use the BigHand app to communicate with support staff and off-load administrative tasks. One Arizona law firm noted that instead of attorneys spending 20 to 30 minutes typing up their own documents, they spent 30 seconds recording instructions to their assistants via BigHand. The result? Significant time freed up for client-focused tasks.

Curious how law firms are using voice productivity technology (VPT)? Visit our Unleash Your Voice Resource Center where you can download our whitepaper, view our YouTube video or request a short demo.

For immediate contact, please email.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 312.893.5906.

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