Edinburgh Law Firm Adopts Dictation-as-a-Service

Franks Macadam Brown implements nFlowLive.com for better work management; solution deployed within a day

nFlow, a leading supplier of digital dictation and voice productivity solutions, 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.

Franks Macadam Brown chose nFlowLive.com based on peer recommendation for its superior Cloud-based Digital Dictation technology, ease of deployment and suitability for a growing practice. The solution was implemented at the firm within 24 hours.

Since implementation, nFlowLive.com has greatly enhanced work management and utilisation of administrative staff at the firm. Previously, while fee-earners dictated complex information, which often could take up to a couple of hours per dictation, the administrative staff had to wait until the dictation had been completed before they could access the tapes for transcription. As a result they received blocks of work, meaning that there were periods of high activity during some parts of the day and relatively less at other times, making staff utilisation inefficient. However today, the work is evenly spread, and the embedded workflow within the solution makes it easy to prioritise urgent tasks. Further, the solution has enabled improved workload sharing amongst administrative staff, especially during employee absences due to holidays or sickness. The risk of losing data due to inadvertent deletion of recordings or deterioration in tape quality has been eliminated too.

Clive Franks, Partner, Franks Macadam Brown, commented, “Digital Dictation is a requisite in the legal business. For our firm, adopting the hosted model makes economic sense. Not only is it the most cost-effective way of adopting this technology, but it also offers us the potential to scale its scope in line with future business requirements.”

Rob Lancashire, Managing Director, nFlow, added, “As the legal sector slowly emerges from the recessionary economic conditions, whilst firms need to continue to carefully review expenditure, they also need to invest in technologies that will facilitate business efficiency to free up capacity and enable them to take advantage of new business opportunities. Dictation-as-a-Service is one such tool. Practices are able to derive almost instantaneous return on investment and immediate productivity gains. We are seeing a definite trend towards its adoption, especially in growing practices.”

Through nFlowLive.com, customers have access to nFlow DDS Version 5.0, the second generation enterprise-class digital dictation system. It offers industry benchmark 99% service availability, a rich client install, secure data backup, disaster recovery and free online user training. Further, customers can designate nFlow to undertake the complete system administration for them on a day-to-day basis.

nFlow Digital Dictation Gaining Pace in Scotland

Mellicks Solicitors selects nFlow for ease of use and deployment and functionality for future business needs

nFlow, a leading supplier of digital dictation and voice productivity solutions, 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.

Mellicks chose nFlow for its ease of implementation and intuitive use. In addition, the solution has ample functionality that the firm will be able to gradually implement in the future, in line with new business requirements. For instance, nFlow offers the ability to remotely access the solution to facilitate mobile working.

nFlow has enabled better work management at the firm. Today, fee-earners are able to deliver specific instructions and guidance for every single dictation on a variety of client deliverables such as priority, urgency of task and type of documentation. Previously, a single tape often carried dictations pertaining to more than one client, making prioritisation and identification of urgent work difficult. Mellicks is also able to maximise resources as nFlow has enabled improved workload sharing amongst back-office staff, especially during employee absences due to holidays or sickness. The risk of losing data due to inadvertent deletion of recordings or deterioration in tape quality has been eliminated too.

Fiona Johnston, Partner, Mellicks Solicitors, commented, “In today’s business environment, firms have to strategically adopt technology systems for the day to day running of their business, if they are to deliver the high standard of customer care that clients expect of them. Digital Dictation is now indispensable in the legal business.

“We are delighted with our nFlow solution. It has been openly embraced by both fee-earners and administrative staff at our office not only because it is easy to use, but also because it delivers noticeable productivity benefits to individuals.”

Rob Lancashire, Managing Director, nFlow, added, “Digital Dictation represents an easy win towards firms’ drive for efficiency and productivity in the legal business. At a time when firms are carefully reviewing all forms of expenditure, the interest and investment in our DDS continues as it enhances their agility and response times to business situations cost-effectively. An enterprise-level, second generation DDS such as ours, not only enables them to overcome the intrinsic inefficiencies of a tape-based system, but also increases their competitiveness in a reduced market. In fact, it is now only a matter to time before firms are left with no option but to transition on to modern day DDSs – a number of the traditional dictation systems and tapes currently in use in the legal sector have come to the end of their lifecyle, with several manufacturers slowly ceasing production.”

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.

Growing Accountancy Practice Opts for Hosted Digital Dictation

James & Co selects nFlow solution for flexibility, mobility and customer service

nFlow, a leading supplier of digital dictation and voice productivity solutions to the accountancy sector, today announced that James & Co, a Kent-based accountancy practice, has implemented nFlowLive.com, a Cloud-based Dictation-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution. nFlowLive.com has replaced the incumbent analogue tape-based dictation system at the firm. James & Co chose nFlowLive.com for its superior Cloud-based Digital Dictation technology, ease of deployment, intuitive use and customer support. The firm undertook a rigorous trial of the solution prior to selecting nFlowLive.com.

Today, fee-earners and administrative staff at the firm are able to access transcriptions and dictations from any geographic location, greatly facilitating flexible and mobile working. The fee-earners are also able to use nFlowLive.com as an instructional messaging tool. For instance, dictations can be accompanied with express guidance on a variety of client deliverables. This, combined with the better workload sharing and work management capability offered by the solution, is contributing towards an enhanced customer service. Previously, all dictation tapes had to be brought in to the office for transcription and a single tape often carried dictations pertaining to more than one client, making prioritisation of work difficult. The possibility of inadvertently deleting recordings along with deterioration in the quality of tapes overtime meant that the firm ran the risk of losing important client records.

James Halligan, Accountant and Tax Specialist at James & Co, commented, “Cloud Computing-based Digital Dictation makes business sense for us. We now have a second generation, enterprise-class Digital Dictation solution, which has required practically no investment to implement. We simply needed a PC and an internet connection to deploy the solution firm-wide. More importantly, it is available to us at a very cost-effective monthly subscription, and we have the opportunity to easily scale the solution in tune with business requirements.

“nFlowLive.com has delivered almost immediate efficiency gains and overall operational flexibility to the business. We are very impressed by nFlow’s exceptional approach to customer service. nFlow treats all its customers alike, irrespective of size, which is refreshing.” Rob Lancashire, Managing Director, nFlow, added, “The accountancy sector has awakened to the benefits of Digital Dictation and opting for the hosted route is perhaps the fastest and most economical implementation for growing practices. nFlowLive.com can be up and running within 24 hours. Especially for fixed-fee businesses, the increased efficiency that it delivers almost instantaneously, positively impacts on their profitability. In addition, we are extending this offering by introducing a Speech Recognition solution within nFlowLive.com, later this year. This will give customers a very advanced Cloud-based Voice Productivity solutions suite, requiring minimal investment.”

Through nFlowLive.com, customers have access to nFlow DDS Version 5.0, the second generation enterprise-class digital dictation system. It offers industry benchmark 99% service availability, a rich client install, secure data backup, disaster recovery and free online user training. Further, customers can designate nFlow to undertake the complete system administration for them on a day-to-day basis.

nFlow to Demo Speech Recognition Technology at its 2010 Annual Conference

Company to visit Bristol, Birmingham, Glasgow and London as part of Conference Tour

nFlow, a leading supplier of digital dictation and voice productivity solutions, today announced the dates for its Annual Conference 2010. Adopting a different format for the event this year, nFlow will visit Bristol (11th March), London (16th March), Glasgow (17th March) and Birmingham (26th March), as part of its conference tour.

It is open to both customers and prospects from any business sector.In keeping with the company’s philosophy of ‘customer-led innovation’, nFlow will exclusively preview its Speech Recognition solution, at each of the conference locations. This will enable organisations to get a first-hand feel for its ease of deployment, usability and business benefits.

The conference is designed to be an informative event, bringing together professional services firms and industry professionals to discuss the role Voice Productivity technology – including Speech Recognition and Digital Dictation – can play in helping organisations boost their profitability and take advantage of the new business opportunities that an improving economy presents to them in 2010. This issue will be debated within the context of mobile working and Cloud Computing, a technology that is forecast to reach critical mass this year. Rob Lancashire, Managing Director, nFlow, explains, “2010 is expected to be the year of renewed growth. We are already seeing a marked increase in business confidence in our market. Cloud-based Voice Productivity solutions can enable businesses to maximise their technology investments, increase their productivity and in turn do more with the same level of resources by releasing hidden capacity to exploit new business opportunities.

More importantly, they can give themselves the ability to adopt new technologies as and when they become available, with minimal new investment. “Our upcoming Conference is an opportunity for an informal, but constructive discussion on the current state of play and future of Voice Productivity technology, both from the technical and business perspectives. We are looking forward to it.”

Leading Scottish Law Firm Implements nFlow Digital Dictation For Citrix

Wright Johnston & Mackenzie chooses nFlow for easy integration in a Citrix environment, intuitive features; and to facilitate remote working

nFlow, a leading supplier of digital dictation and voice productivity solutions, announces that Wright Johnston & Mackenzie LLP (WJM), a leading Scotland-based independent law firm, has successfully implemented its Digital Dictation System (DDS), replacing the traditional analogue tape system for dictation. This solution has been rolled out across the firm’s offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh and is currently available to 80 users. The nFlow DDS is delivering significant efficiency and productivity gains to the firm.

Based on a thorough investigation of other market leading solutions, WJM chose nFlow for its suitability in a Citrix environment, intuitive usability and ability to facilitate remote and mobile working. For example, one of the firm’s fee-earners is based in Stornoway in the Western Isles. Access to the nFlow DDS means that the fee-earner is now able to digitally send client-related dictations to office-based staff for instantaneous execution and document production.

nFlow is enabling better work sharing and utilisation of back office staff resources across both offices. Because the nFlow DDS is a workflow-based solution, now digital dictations sent by fee-earners are accessible to the entire administrative pool. This ensures that client work is executed in a timely manner. Also, the dictations carry express guidance on the type of documentation required, priorities and urgency for transcription. Previously, secretarial staff received dictations on audio tapes, with no idea of how long the transcripts were. In addition, quite often a single tape carried dictations pertaining to more than one client. This made work sharing difficult amongst administrative staff.

Angus MacLeod, Partner, Wright Johnston & Mackenzie LLP, commented, “Digital dictation is an important efficiency enabling tool and has become indispensable for any legal practice. It made business sense for us to adopt this technology. The feedback from users including fee-earners and secretarial staff has been very positive. Compared to the previous analogue tape system, digital dictation has enabled a completely new way of working in the firm.”
MacLeod added, “We found nFlow to be the best fit for us. The solution is technically very sound. In fact, there aren’t many digital dictation solutions on the market that are so well suited to a Citrix environment. Also, we were very impressed by the company’s approach to customer service.”

Rob Lancashire, Managing Director at nFlow said, “nFlow DDS' ability to easily integrate in a thin client environment is unique. We have designed our DDS for Citrix based on an in-depth understanding of the rationale for adoption of this environment by customers in the first place, and then developed the solution so that it complements the benefits that thin client technology offers. We look forward to a mutually beneficial partnership with WJM.”

Recently, nFlow was awarded a medal in the ‘Best Small IT Supplier of the Year’ category at the prestigious BCS & Computing UK IT Industry Awards 2009 – Organisational Excellence.

Leeds Law Firm Implements .NET-based Digital Dictation

Lee & Priestley selects nFlow for technical superiority, ease of use and integration capability

nFlow, a leading supplier of digital dictation solutions, 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.

nFlow Scoops Medal at the UK’s Most Influential IT Industry Awards

nFlow, a leading provider of voice productivity and digital dictation solutions, was presented with a Medal in the ‘Best Small IT Supplier of the Year’ category at the prestigious BCS & Computing UK IT Industry Awards 2009 – Organisational Excellence, held at a glittering event at the Battersea Parks Events Arena attended by over 1300 guests, last week. These Awards, the most highly celebrated and influential in the UK IT industry, are a platform for the entire IT profession to showcase best practice, innovation and excellence.

Rob Lancashire, Sales and Marketing Director at nFlow commented, “These awards are the epitome of recognition in the mainstream technology industry with the likes of IBM, Google and Rolls-Royce vying for the top position. For us to be recognised for innovation and excellence within our category at these awards is a very proud moment. We are truly honoured by this accolade.

“Our drive for customer-focussed technical innovation, which is undoubtedly the key to our success, will continue. We look forward to 2010 with renewed vigour. Based on our new product and service offerings introduced this year, we are well poised to take advantage of the opportunities that economic recovery will bring in the near future.”

David Clarke, Chief Executive Officer of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, said: “This year’s Awards have been exceptional. I was delighted to take part in the judging day and witness firsthand the quality of the winners and medallists. To qualify as a finalist is terrific. and I offer my heartfelt congratulations to all those who took part. They not only provide examples of best practice, but also demonstrate how IT is enabling today’s information society.

During 2009, nFlow has further strengthened its presence in the traditional legal market, established itself as the leading provider of digital dictation technology to the accounting, loss adjusting and financial investment sector; and achieved tremendous success in international markets.

Congratulating nFlow on its success at the Awards, one of its longest standing customers, Julie Berry, IT Director at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, added, “This is a very well deserved acknowledgement for nFlow. In our view, nFlow’s customer service focus and the quality and technical superiority of its products truly sets it apart in the industry.”

Customer-driven technical innovations this year from nFlow include its iPhone solution and nFlowLive.com, a Cloud-based Dictation-as-a-Service (DaaS) offering. Today, nFlow is the only voice productivity and digital dictation software vendor to offer organisations advanced integration of dictations recorded on iPhones into their systems’ workflows. Also, the company’s timely launch of its hosted solution nFlowLive.com, has been very well received by professional services organisations that recognise the business need for digital dictation technology, but are unable to incur capital expenditure on installing such a solution in the current economic climate.

nFlow Digital Dictation 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.