BigHand has today announced its plan for the convergence of the BigHand and nFlow technologies. A new converged product; BigHand v4, will be launched on Nov 4^th 2010 at the BigHand Annual User Conference and will combine the best features of both technologies in a new BigHand product. BigHand v4 will enable all customers within the BigHand Group to access an unrivalled voice productivity toolkit and will enhance their document production and mobile efficiency even further.

 

Rob Lancashire, BigHand Managing Director for UK Legal & Professional Services commented:

 

“Since the acquisition of nFlow I have spoken with customers about the best way forward and there has been overwhelming support for the convergence of the product streams as it offers both nFlow & BigHand customers the best of both worlds. Equally we acknowledge a customer desire for flexibility and a caveat to the convergence plan is that we intend to allow firms to do this at their own speed and not be forced to upgrade by any set deadline. I believe the plan we have in place delivers BigHand and nFlow end-users a combination of product improvements and technical consistency, and is a result of engaging quickly and directly with the customer base post-acquisition. We will continue to evolve the plan to ensure a seamless migration path to the converged version, and an upgrade that delivers significant value.”

 

Asif Ali, BigHand Head of Products, commented:

 

“The BigHand Group is committed to the long term support of users on current versions 4 and 5 of the nFlow system, including the nFlow mobility apps, and there are no plans to discontinue either product. As testament to our support, BigHand’s Analytics package comprising a suite of Crystal reports will be integrated with nFlow software, and be made available this summer. However, following the next service release for nFlow v5, nFlow development resource will then be concentrated on the converged product which will effectively become the next major release for the nFlow product stream. This will also mean that a number of the innovative nFlow functions will be available to BigHand users as part of their upgrade to BigHand v4.’’

 

BigHand will honour all existing nFlow Annual Maintenance and Support contracts for all firms including those wanting to migrate to BigHand v3.4 or future v4 products. Furthermore, the migration will replicate the existing nFlow configuration as closely as possible making the process simple and straightforward, but give access to significantly enhanced mobility, workflow and voice-to-text functionality including:

 

·         BigHand for BlackBerry® v4

·         BigHand for iPhone™

·         BigHand Integration with Microsoft® Office

·         Email Notification + Document Return

·         Advanced Reporting + Analytics

·         Server-based Speech Recognition

Existing BigHand v3 users will be able to seamlessly upgrade to BigHand v4 as per their standard process to date and with little or no change to their existing infrastructure or system set-up.

 

More information is available at a series of breakfast briefings being held at the following locations:

 

Weds 23rd June            8am-10am         Liverpool

Thurs 24th June 8am-10am         Leeds

Fri 25th June                 8am-10am         Newcastle

Thurs 1st July                8am-10am         Edinburgh

BigHand, has today announced that Winn Solicitors have upgraded their incumbent standalone dictation system to BigHand digital dictation workflow software. BigHand has been deployed firm-wide in order to increase productivity and alleviate the day to day administrative pressures caused by standalone systems. More...

BigHand have announced that it has wholly acquired nFlow Software Ltd, a leading innovator in the provision of digital dictation technology. This takes the BigHand international client base to 1,250 organisations and 117,000 users worldwide.More...

nFlow  today announced that Franks Macadam Brown, a growing Edinburgh-based law firm, has implemented nFlowLive.com, a Cloud-based Dictation-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution. The firm has replaced the incumbent analogue tape-based dictation system in favour of a more efficient workflow and cost-effective hosted solution. More...

nFlow today announced that Mellicks Solicitors, a Scottish legal practice, has implemented nFlow Version 5.0, a second generation, Microsoft .NET platform-based Digital Dictation System (DDS). The firm has replaced its traditional analogue dictation system in favour of the latest workflow-based Digital Dictation technology to increase operational efficiency and enhance customer service. More...

BigHan has today announced that Halliwells LLP, ranked within the top 40 UK law firms in terms of number of fee earners, has signed up to switch from their current Winscribe dictation system supplied by SRC, to BigHand voice productivity technology across the firm. The 700+ user software changeover will take place early this year.

 

Dene Rowe, Partner & IT Director at Halliwells commented:

 

“As a Firm we have been established users of digital dictation technology for a number of years now. In line with our annual review and following an appraisal of the technology and opportunities available we have chosen to move our digital dictation platform to BigHand. As in all technology changes we had to review a number of factors such as business and technological fit, strategic direction, the ease of change and commercial return on investment. Put simply, we felt that the BigHand solution suited our needs now and in the future and we look forward to working with them as a strategic provider to the Firm.”

BigHand has today announced that Top-25 commercial law firm Hammonds LLP has improved its fee earner to secretary ratios from 3:1 to 4:1, and the BigHand digital dictation workflow technology has assisted the firm in achieving this objective. BigHand voice software has replaced outdated analogue tape dictation equipment for 700 users. The Hammonds team introduced new working practices whilst rolling out the system to improve efficiencies.

Issy Freeman, HR Manager at Hammonds commented:
‘’BigHand has been rolled out as a business task management system. We replaced our analogue tapes with the BigHand system, at the same time we took the opportunity to review and improve firm wide working practices. This has enabled us to improve the service we provide to clients, it has allowed our workforce to become more flexible, and improved document turnaround times. Overall the system has been received extremely positively by fee-earners and secretaries alike.

Hammonds has taken the opportunity to ensure that the right people are doing the right work, and that the correct secretarial structure is in place to support the fee earners. Since implementing BigHand we have improved our fee earner to secretary ratio from 3:1 to 4:1. Additionally we have developed a Secretarial Career Path for our secretarial workforce. Hammonds has high expectations of its secretaries and we encourage a mentality of wanting to make a difference and go the extra mile. The feedback from secretaries since we implemented BigHand has been extremely positive and they have felt it has enabled them to add more value than they were able to previously. We encourage our secretaries to take ownership and make the system work effectively. As a result turnaround times are much faster and we also have a great teamwork ethos not only within departments, but across locations as well. BigHand has given our secretaries greater autonomy and the above demonstrates that they are now able to support each other in a way that was simply not possible using tapes.’’

BigHand is now used at all Hammonds UK offices plus the firm’s Brussels office. In addition to the desktop software fee earners are able to submit dictation or delegate tasks via their BlackBerry, and then track progress also from their smartphone. BigHand software is now set to be rolled out to Hammonds offices in Spain, France and Germany. More...

nFlow today announced that Lee & Priestley LLP, a leading Leeds-based law firm, has successfully implemented nFlow Version 5.0, a second generation, Microsoft .NET platform-based Digital Dictation System (DDS). The firm has replaced its digital dictation software with a modern workflow-based DDS across 64 users.  

Following a detailed examination of solutions from the leading digital dictation suppliers, Lee & Priestley chose nFlow Version 5.0 for its .NET technology, ease of use and ability to integrate with third party applications. In the near future, the firm is looking to integrate nFlow Version 5.0 with its Arista Accounting Software. This will deliver additional time savings to fee earners as they will be able to get client and matter descriptions directly from the financial database, eliminating the need to manually input these details into their documentation.  

Since the solution’s deployment, Lee & Priestley has seen a distinct increase in productivity of fee earners and administrative staff.  With nFlow Version 5.0, Lee & Priestley has not only eliminated the need to employ temporary staff, but today 16 secretaries are able to service the 48 fee earners in the practice.

Craig Towers, IT & Telecoms Manager, Lee & Priestley LLP, said, “nFlow has made a huge difference to the way our staff works today. We now have a single platform for digital dictation, which is delivering tremendous efficiency gains to users. Also, we have installed a .NET technology, which is going to be around for the foreseeable future. No other digital dictation supplier was able to offer the level of technical sophistication that nFlow has.”

“nFlow’s approach to customer service is commendable. This came through in our very first meeting and based on our experience of working with them, we know that it was not a sales pitch”, Craig Towers added.

Rob Lancashire, Sales and Marketing Director at nFlow, commented, “.NET is definitely the preferred technology in the market today. Solutions based on the .NET framework are future-proof, offer richer functionality and a greater level of accessibility options and easily integrate with other IT systems deployed within organisations to deliver a consistent and seamless business environment. This reduces IT administration and lowers the total cost of ownership, crucial in today’s difficult economic environment.”

nFlow DDS Version 5.0 is the only enterprise-class digital dictation solution of its kind on the market today. It has been completely re-designed from the ground up based on the Microsoft .NET framework, to deliver an unrivalled low cost of ownership, exceptional functionality and benefits to users and customers alike.  

TFB has today announced that their  practice and case management system, Partner for Windows, now offers integration capability with one of the leading digital dictation solutions, nFlow DDS. The move to integrate with nFlow DDS is part of the wider project to promote a more efficient and integrated approach to managing dictations for both new and existing clients.

 

Sussex-based Rix & Kay Solicitors LLP have worked with TFB and nFlow in the development of the integration. The firm, who have over 100 users across 3 offices, are able to launch the nFlow DDS, which runs on their extensive Citrix network, from Case Manager, Partner for Windows’ case and document management system and via manual or auto time recording. The integration is being developed so that each dictation file will be auto-populated with the appropriate case details including entity, matter and progress file.  When the file is opened in nFlow by the transcriber, Case Manager will open automatically at the relevant entity or matter progress file. At each stage of the process, Partner for Windows captures the time spent, enhancing the firm’s ability to record and bill time associated with dictations.

 

John Kay, IT Partner at Rix & Kay comments, “We wanted to find a way in which we could merge these two leading technologies together and provide a more streamlined and efficient way of managing the dictation process. Following the integration, we hope to see a significant increase in the rate at which dictations are processed and transactional documentation is produced which will have a positive impact on our client service levels. From an operational level, we will no longer encounter the problems of data duplication or data errors in transferring information from one system to another because it all runs from the Partner for Windows database.

nFlow today announced that Devereaux Solicitors, a London-based specialist litigation law firm, has successfully implemented nFlowLive.com, its Cloud-based Dictation-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution. Replacing an analogue tape dictation system, Devereaux Solicitors chose nFlowLive.com for its rich functionality, ability to seamlessly connect with its South Africa-based transcription service provider and offline working facility.

Prior to selecting nFlow, working alongside Accesspoint Technologies, nFlow’s channel partner for nFlowLive.com, Devereaux Solicitors trialled nFlowLive.com and a hosted solution from another leading digital dictation solution provider. Accesspoint Technologies is an Application Service Provider specialising in facilitating the implementation of complete Cloud-based office solutions.

As a growing legal practice, Devereaux Solicitors has made a strategic decision to adopt enterprise Cloud technologies because they offer cost effective access to latest solutions, are easy to deploy and easily scale with business requirements. For instance, when implementing nFlowLive.com, the firm did not have to incur expenditure to purchase additional servers. All it needed was a PC and an internet connection to deploy the solution firm-wide.

Devereaux Solicitors has experienced significant time savings and efficiency gains since implementing nFlowLive.com. It is able to better manage workload due to its transcription service provider’s access to nFlowLive.com, especially during absences of back-office staff during holidays or sickness. The offline dictation facility allows users to dictate without an internet connection and upload when online. This feature was particularly appealing to Devereaux Solicitors as often fee-earners work remotely and on the ‘go’. Finally, logistically, the firm no longer needs to store tapes or risk losing records and notes due to tapes deteriorating in quality over time and use.

John Ioannou, Senior Partner at Devereaux Solicitors, said, “In a legal business, time is money and we recognise the importance of adopting systems that make us more efficient and ultimately enable us to deliver a further improved service. Given the volume of complex paperwork we deal with, a digital dictation system is now indispensable for us.

“nFlowLive.com is a perfect combination of simplicity and complexity – despite the underlying technical and workflow complexities, the speed and ease with which it was implemented was staggering. From the time we confirmed our order to nFlow, the solution was up and running in under 24 hours. For the user, it is very simple and intuitive to use requiring practically no training. It has delivered instantaneous productivity benefits and crucially has inbuilt, fail proof safeguards for security and disaster recovery.”

Based on nFlowLive.com’s initial success, Devereaux Solicitors is now looking to deploy the nFlow BlackBerry solution, which will further enhance the firm’s mobile working capability.  

BigHand has today announced that Legal 500 commercial law firm Muckle LLP has replaced its Dictaphone standalone digital dictation system with BigHand’s 3-tier digital dictation workflow technology. The switch to BigHand, incorporating 100 lawyers and personal assistants (PAs), has seen an increase in the firm’s productivity. More...

nFlow today announced that Wikborg Rein, one of Norway’s leading law firms, has selected nFlow Version 5.0, the second generation Digital Dictation System (DDS), along with nFlow Mobile for Windows, as its digital dictation solution of choice. Ranked number one in several business sectors in the Legal 500 EMEA listing, the firm has currently purchased licences for its Norwegian sites including Oslo and Bergen.  More...