Advancing efficiencies: tech-savvy law firm see reduced task turnaround times with the integration of two leading software technologies.

Hunt & Coombs Solicitors implement BigHand Digital Dictation, and integrated solution Tikit P4W case management.

Award winning law firm, Hunt & Coombs, offer a range of comprehensive legal services to Peterborough and the surrounding region. With four offices and over 100 staff, the firm recently set about a review of their internal processes with the aim of driving increased efficiencies. As part of this review, BigHand Digital Dictation was selected along with Tikit’s P4W case management system, to optimise internal document production through the seamless integration of both technologies.

Hunt & Coomb’s legacy case management system was time-consuming to use, with the legal secretaries having to copy and paste case numbers from one system into another in order to complete transcriptions effectively, and therefore delaying the process. The decision was made to review the technology and explore other ways of streamlining their processes to ensure optimum efficiency within their secretarial teams.

Tracey Thorpe, IT Training and Systems Development Manager at Hunt & Coombs explains the reasons for choosing Tikit and BigHand. “We selected Tikit’s P4W system for its ease of use and impressive array of integrations available. We then looked into BigHand’s Digital Dictation, and were very impressed with how intuitive the system was and how well the integration between the two systems had been built. We knew that being able to access a BigHand dictation for a specific case number, from within the case management system, would make our secretaries jobs much simpler and save them a lot of time when transcribing. Fee earners can also dictate from within P4W, using BigHand, which maximises these time savings even further.”

The firm has fully rolled out BigHand to all users ahead of implementing Tikit P4W in October. The timeline was agreed in order to ensure users were familiar with BigHand Digital Dictation before the P4W is in place. Tracey continues, “Our users took to BigHand very well, with one fee earner commenting that they had never dictated so much, thanks to how user-friendly the system is. BigHand’s project management was also superb, giving me the confidence I needed to ensure the project’s tight deadlines would be met.”

Hunt & Coombs are also using BigHand Go to enable dictations to be sent whilst fee earners are on the move. Tracey explains, “With BigHand Go, we don’t have to worry about work being delayed due to fee earners having to wait until they are in the office to send dictations. Moreover, the fee earners love being able to check the progress of the work they have submitted to their secretaries whilst they are out of the office. The increased visibility has been a big plus for them.”

The increased visibility also continues into the BigHand reporting capabilities. Tracey explains, “We find the reporting in BigHand really easy and useful. The fact that you can look at historical and live data to find out how much is being dictated, and how quickly it’s getting done is useful not only for IT, but HR too.”

Looking to the future, Hunt & Coombs will roll out BigHand Speech Recognition, which will increase internal efficiencies even more. Tracey concludes, “We are very happy to be seeing improved transcription and document turnaround times in the firm, assisted by BigHand Digital Dictation. Our users find it very easy to use and are already making time savings, which will only increase once we have implemented P4W and users have less clicks to get what they need to complete a dictation or task.”

About BigHand

BigHand are a leading technology business with a difference. BigHand have developed a range of speech, task delegation, document creation and workflow tools that help busy people achieve more in less time and organisations become more efficient and effective. They currently have over 545,000 software licenses in use across 3,000 global organisations.

About Tikit

Tikit is a leading provider of innovative and specialist technology to the Legal and Professional services sector with over 1500 law firm clients globally and is part of BT Group. Tikit develops its own software including Partner for Windows (P4W), Carpe Diem, Template Management System (TMS) and eMarketing. This is complemented by long-standing partner relationships with other top best-of-breed providers to create innovative and complete solutions for its clients. This is matched with a commitment to and reputation for excellent customer service across consulting, implementation and support. Find out more at www.tikit.com