Cobbetts

When considering digital dictation in a firm the size of Cobbetts it is imperative to involve the secretaries in the selection and design of the system. The secretaries will experience most change and realise most of the benefits. Because of the way the system works, fee earners and partners do not have to change their working practises at all if they do not want to. However, typically, they do make some changes because they wish to benefit as well.

Secretaries are the ones who have most to gain, day to day, from digital dictation. But, before the system is implemented it is often difficult to persuade them they will not become members of a typing pool. By involving senior secretaries in the product selection phase (and listening to their views) we were able to convince them that working as part of a team-based typing resource actually made it easier for them to share work between themselves when they were busy. It is true to say that the pilot team secretaries were not fully convinced before the pilot began.

However, within a week of the pilot they were - and still are - convinced they are members of a secretarial team that can work even more efficiently to service their fee earners - and they can still go home on time. When talking to teams now about the deployment of digital dictation I let the system sell itself. By encouraging fee earners and secretaries to speak to their peers in teams that already use the system, the new team is much more enthusiastic about the change.

Following a successful pilot scheme beginning in March 2003, a phased roll-out across the firm has taken place since May and is due for completion by the end of 2003. This month there will be approximately 37 partners, 63 other fee earners and 50 secretaries using digital dictation.

Return on Investment
On the face of it, Cobbetts has not measured return on investment. However, the teams that currently have digital dictation rarely have work outstanding at the end of the day, which was not the case when they used tapes. This is yet another improvement to client service for the firm. Secondly, all teams using the technology agree that the system reduces the stress of their day-to-day work and makes their job easier - this is from partners, fee earners and secretaries. For a firm such as Cobbetts, which takes its responsibility as a good employer very seriously, this is a significant return on investment. Indeed, with the recent actions taken by the Health and Safety Executive regarding stress in the workplace, this further enhances the payback for the firm.

Improved client service and reduced stress levels are the two main 'payback' characteristics in addition to the process efficiencies identified by the pilot scheme mentioned above.

Every team using digital dictation has commented that documents are returned quicker and more accurately than before. This is largely because the secretary can undertake the urgent work first and because digital dictations are clearer to listen to and, therefore, easier to transcribe correctly.

Expectations have been exceeded. Teams split across the two sites now share the secretarial resource making it very easy to deal with holidays and sickness etc. The technology has proved to be a viable option for home-workers and remote working generally. One partner informed me that he gave dictation, using the telephone input, while at a seminar in Austria at 4pm - by 9am the next day the typed document had been e-mailed to him.

IT Infrastructure
At a technical level, I would give one word of warning to any firms still wondering whether to deploy digital dictation. If you have any concerns about the stability of your IT system, address this first. At Cobbetts the infrastructure is very reliable and stable. The majority of PCs run Windows 2000 Pro and are very stable. Digital dictation does not put a significant load on your PC or your network, but if every time you open Word, the PC hangs, this will also stop you dictating or transcribing. The handful of technical problems experienced at Cobbetts have been largely down to PC build issues not digital dictation. However, dictation and transcription are business critical activities for any law firm. This demands that the PCs and the network on which they operate be as stable as possible.

There have been no real technical issues other than familiarity with the system. Functional enhancements have been requested by the users at Cobbetts. Most of these were already under development and will be delivered in the next version of the system due in September 2003.

Word-of-Mouth
The only significant human issue has been controlling demand. Word of mouth has proved to be a powerful marketing tool. Interest in the system has been steadily growing since the pilot began. It has been quite a challenge to ensure that, once requested, delivery timescales are realistic and adhered to.

Before people use the system they feel that there will be a problem with the dictation being separated from the paper file. However, the benefits of using the system are so obvious that the minor change in working practise - the secretary retrieving the file rather than the fee earner delivering it - is readily accepted.

Digital dictation is a simple technology that delivers efficiency and flexibility to an age-old working practice. With sensible planning, the deployment will be a win for the users and a win for the firm. With the experience of deploying many firm-wide IT systems over my years at Cobbetts, this is the only system that people have been asking me to install for them. Indeed, when installed, nobody - partners, fee earners or secretaries - wants to go back to the old system. Compare that with the move from WordPerfect to Word or GroupWise to Exchange.

The introduction of digital dictation to Cobbetts has been very successful. The technology will be of great benefit to any firm and I am sure that it will completely replace tape-based dictation within law firms in a very short space of time.

Case study written by Neil Davies. Neil was IT Manager at Cobbetts for seven years before setting up an independent legal IT consultancy business, NLD Consultancy..