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 Version 5.0 very positively received by legal sector, shipping to commence in October 2008

nFlow, a leading supplier of digital dictation solutions today announced that nFlow Version 5.0, its second generation Digital Dictation System (DDS), has received an overwhelmingly positive response from the legal sector. Shipping of the product will commence in October this year.

nFlow is already in discussions with a number of law firms currently using competing solutions, who are considering migrating to nFlow Version 5.0. In fact, one such leading UK law firm has already signed an agreement with nFlow for this new solution.

Through beta tests and road shows, nFlow has successfully demonstrated the business benefits of this solution for law firms including reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), enhanced mobility and a future-proof technology.

Since August this year, nFlow Version 5.0 is being beta tested by a number of leading UK law firms, including Burges Salmon. In addition, nFlow is currently conducting a series of road shows across 13 cities in the UK, which are being very well attended by both customers and prospects.

nFlow Version 5.0 has been completely re-designed based on Microsoft Best Practice and the .NET platform. It truly represents a new industry standard in DDS and is the only enterprise-class solution in the market today.

Rob Lancashire, nFlow Sales and Marketing Director, commented, "We are extremely pleased with the performance of this product. Unlike most new product releases, nFlow Version 5.0 has required very few major fixes during beta testing. This clearly shows that our solution is well designed and stable."

"Also, we have had very interesting discussions with law firms on what they consider to be a second generation solution. We are delighted that there has been an unequivocal agreement that nFlow Version 5.0’s functionality is far superior to what the industry is currently using. Despite the current economic uncertainty, firms are looking to invest in technology that will enhance productivity, reduce costs and equip them for future growth. We are very confident of a successful year ahead."

nFlow Strengthens Foothold in Accountancy Sector

nFlow, a leading supplier of digital dictation solutions, today announced that it has successfully implemented its nFlow Digital Dictation System (DDS) at two of the UK’s leading professional accountancy firms including – PKF LLP, which is ranked amongst the UK’s top 10 accountants and business advisors; and Scott-Moncrieff, one of the leading Scotland-based firms. Since deployment, fee-earners, secretaries and administrators at these firms are benefiting from significantly reduced transcription and document turnaround time, increased support when working offsite from client offices, better management and control, increased client confidentiality and improved disaster recovery.

nFlow is seeing a definite demand in the professional accountancy sector for its digital dictation workflow solution, which is primarily driven by the need for increased support of staff at client sites, greater business efficiency, delivery of superior customer service and reduced operational costs.

nFlow DDS is a work-flow based solution that includes microphone and headphone-based hardware, and offers an intuitive Microsoft Outlook-style interface. The solution can be deployed in both, Terminal Services or Citrix environments and utilises the industry standard Microsoft SQL Server. It also supports a wide range of mobile devices including BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.

Rob Lancashire, Sales and Marketing Director at nFlow, commented, “Closely following the legal profession where digital dictation workflow has gained tremendous success to rapidly become a fairly well established technology, the accountancy profession is awakening to its benefits. For any professional services consultancy, the strength of client relationships depends greatly on the level and quality of service delivered. And especially in economically challenging times, speed and cost of service delivery become critical. We are seeing a lot of interest in digital dictation technology from the accountancy sector as it looks to explore digital technologies with a view to adopting industry best practices for enhanced business efficiencies and brand reputation whilst reducing and controlling overheads to become more competitive.

“Our solution has been expressly designed for fee-earning environments where time quite literally is money. We understand the business challenges faced by the professional services sector and coupled with our proven technical expertise, we are very well placed to provide innovative solutions to the accountancy sector. We look forward to long and mutually satisfactory relationships with PKF and Scott-Moncrieff.”

PKF has implemented nFlow DDS to replace its previous analogue dictation system for 455 users across the firms network of 23 offices in the UK. Now fee-earners are able to send their dictation for immediate transcription with the click of a mouse to a designated secretary, irrespective of either party’s geographic location. On the other hand, secretaries are able to share work load and grade jobs in order of urgency. This has enabled the firm to create a single secretarial resource, radically simplifying the administrative structure and reducing overheads in a multi-site firm.

In addition, users of the nFlow DDS are greatly benefiting from the mobility offered by the solution. They can easily submit dictations from anywhere, giving them tremendous flexibility whilst at the same time enabling them to speedily expedite client deliverables.

Scott-Moncrieff was previously using traditional analogue dictation systems. Faced with inefficiencies in the transcription process and the growth of flexible and mobile working practices within the firm, Scott-Moncrieff has implemented nFlow DDS. The most visible benefits of the solution are accuracy of transcription as a result of superior audio quality of dictation recordings, greatly improved secretarial efficiency, and fast turnaround of client documentation and correspondence. This is enabling more efficient utilisation of fee-earners’ chargeable time, whilst delivering more value for the money for its clients.

These firms chose nFlow DDS for its rich functionality, ease of use, scalability, ease of integration in thin client environments, robustness, nFlow’s reputation for service excellence and the solution’s affordability.

nFlow wins on functionality, customer focus and affordability

J.A. Kemp & Co, a leading firm of European and UK Patent Attorneys, has selected nFlow’s Digital Dictation System, to improve accuracy of dictation transcripts and streamline internal work flows in order to increase business efficiencies and deliver enhanced customer service to its clients. When fully deployed, the solution will be used by over 100 users including fee-earners, secretaries and workflow managers, across the firm’s offices in London, Oxford and Munich.

The nFlow DDS is a work-flow based solution that includes microphone and headphone-based hardware, and offers an intuitive Microsoft Outlook-style interface. The solution can be deployed in both, Terminal Services or Citrix environments and utilises the industry standard Microsoft SQL Server. It also supports a wide range of mobile devices including BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.

Philip Hall, Chief Operating Officer, J. A. Kemp & Co., commented, “We work with companies in hi-tech industry sectors including electronics & engineering and biotechnology. As patent attorneys, given the sensitive nature and the high level technical information we need to routinely record, it is imperative that not only are we able to transcribe dictations with speed and accuracy, but also that we have processes in place to ensure complete client confidentiality. nFlow’s solution will enable us to achieve this with ease. In addition, by using nFlow, we will be able to better manage internal workloads so that client commitments are always met and to the highest standard.

“We selected nFlow for its rich functionality and affordability, compared to other similar products. We were very impressed by the company’s approach to customer service too. As a client-led organisation ourselves, we felt nFlow would be a good cultural fit for us.”

J. A. Kemp & Co. will derive benefits from the solution in terms of reduced turnaround time of documents, geographical flexibility for fee-earners, improved secretarial efficiency, better management of internal workloads, and increased accuracy of transcription due to superior audio quality of dictation recordings. This will enable the firm to reduce costs by minimising the need for temporary staff. Additionally, the solution will enable more efficient utilisation of fee-earners’ chargeable time, delivering more value for money to its clients.

Rob Lancashire, Sales and Marketing Director at nFlow, added, “Our solution has been expressly designed for fee-earning environments within the professional services sector. As a customer-driven organisation, we are proud of the fact that our technical innovation has been led primarily by customer requirements. We are continuously evolving our product to meet the rapidly changing needs of our customers. In fact, our latest version, nFlow DDS Version 5, which we have recently announced, is evidence of this business philosophy. We are poised to change the definition of digital dictation and what customers come to expect of such solutions.

“We are delighted to have J. A. Kemp & Co as a customer and look forward to a successful and mutually beneficial partnership.”

Mullis & Peake Selects nFlow’s DDS for Functionality, Citrix Support and Affordability

nFlow, a leading supplier of digital dictation solutions today announced that it has successfully deployed its Digital Dictation (DD) system at Mullis & Peake, a well known Essex-based law firm. Mullis & Peake chose nFlow’s solution based on its rich functionality, ease of integration, exceptional performance in both standard PC and thin client environments, and affordability. This solution is currently being used by 45 users in Mullis & Peake’s Romford site on standard Windows PCs. The next phase will be to extend the implementation to the firm’s Chadwell Heath site, this will be deployed in a Citrix environment with a further 7 users who will benefit from the solution. Whilst rumours of a slowdown in new sales for DD workflow systems are rife nFlow is continuing to win new customers at a significant rate.

Michael Lambert, CEO, Mullis & Peake, commented, “Given our size and the broad range of expertise we have long provided to both the private and commercial sectors, deploying a digital dictation solution has been under repeated consideration as a means of further advancing our client service. When it came to making a selection, nFlow was at the top our list – it is undoubtedly the best solution available on the market. After discussions with the nFlow team, their experience and expertise became clearly evident. We felt confident that the deployment would be undertaken in a highly organised fashion backed by the necessary support and training. Whilst we had high expectations at the outset, the ease with which the solution was implemented surprised us all. It went exactly to plan, without a single hiccup – quite unusual for IT deployments. We just wish we had done it earlier.”

“In addition, the fact that nFlow was clearly able to demonstrate to us how it could easily integrate its DD with other systems gave us confidence that nFlow had the right approach. Also, nFlow doesn’t charge for its software developers’ kit, which speaks volumes in terms of the company’s attitude towards looking after the interests of its customers. We now intend to start looking at fully leveraging the solution’s features and functionality for maximum productivity and efficiency gains.”

Rob Lancashire, nFlow Sales and Marketing Director, added, “Customer focus is our key differentiator in what is a very competitive market place. Whilst competitors are reporting a slow down we are still implementing a growing number of solutions on-time, every time, ensuring zero disruption for clients. This is indicative of our pragmatic approach to delivering innovative technology in the most cost-effective manner, which is proving to be very attractive for prospective customers.

“Increasingly, we are finding that customers are still struggling to find digital dictation solutions that they can be certain will work in their thin client environment. The fact that our solution is proven, can be scaled and tailored to meet customer needs in Citrix environments is very appealing to law firms.”

Uks largest ever Microsoft digital dictation installation

nFlow, a leading supplier of digital dictation solutions today announced that Ashfords, one of the UK’s Top 100 law firms, has completed the roll out of nFlow digital dictation to 350 users throughout its 6 offices in the South West. The decision to select nFlow was largely based on the software’s unique ability to use distributed audio stores and localised caching in a thin client environment. This allowed Ashfords to run their digital dictation software solution entirely in a Terminal Services environment on link speeds that called in to question the viability of competing solutions. The installation is believed to be biggest Terminal Services installation of its kind and once again reinforces the unique strength nFlow have in enabling digital dictation to work in a thin client environment without requiring upgrades or affecting user experience.

Mike West, Ashfords IT Manager, stated “We evaluated all the leading suppliers on the market comparing functionality, cost, service and support. Ultimately nFlow were deemed the strongest supplier across many fronts but it was their unique ability and understanding in the thin client environment that swayed our decision. The distributed audio stores allowed us to centralise the application on our Terminal Servers without streamed audio data clogging up the bandwidth between the servers and remote sites. In addition the systems local caching technology means the user experience in terms response to handset or footpedal operation is unaffected by the loads on the links. In practice this means I don’t have users complaining about the reaction times of the system or the audio quality just because the link had been temporarily loaded with extra data. With all that said, nFlow’s reputation for customer focus also came out in selection and I have to say that we enjoy an excellent working relationship with them.”

Phase one of the project involved full roll out to 240 users with phase two then rolling out to a further 110 users. Prior to reviewing nFlow Ashfords believed they would need to install a digital dictation solution in their Tiverton office on the standard Windows desktop because of the available bandwidth or incur more cost by upgrading the link. nFlow digital dictation's ability to have distributed audio stores in the thin client environment gave the firm the option to run a rich application in their Terminal Services environment without incurring link upgrade costs. It has also demonstrated that the bandwidth availability, in the case of sudden peak loads on the link, does not impact user experience by introducing latency or audio degradation.
Ashfords have also installed the telephony dictation interface (TDI) component of the nFlow Mobile Suite for remote workers. This allows them to use any phone to call in and record dictations that get routed immediately for typing as soon as complete. Wendy Clarke, Ashfords Product Development Manager added, “The response from users has been very positive and application performance in the Terminal Services environment high quality and consistent. We have asked for tweaks to the system and found nFlow extremely flexible, friendly and cooperative.”

Rob Lancashire, nFlow Sales & Marketing Director commented “It has become evident that with little differential in the basic digital dictation functionality firm’s are now basing their digital dictation purchasing decisions on a few key areas including technology and reputation for customer service. Our ability to deliver an advanced and innovative solution in a thin client environment is unrivalled and is currently the reason behind a number of firm’s decisions. Head to head testing against a competitive solution in a virtual environment at accountancy practice PKF demonstrated nFlow’s ability to perform perfectly despite extreme network loading conditions and seamlessly recover when the link was purposefully broken. Ashfords joins a growing community of large Terminal Services sites who have chosen nFlow for the scalable and resilient way it can deploy in the thin client environment. Furthermore with a 100% client retention rate, excellent references, a demonstrable investment in new .Net technology, award winning customer support and most of all a straight forward, no nonsense approach, more and more firms are rejecting alternatives and choosing to join the nFlow user community.”

nFlow Launch 2008 Digital Dictation Conference

nFlow, one of the UK’s leading digital dictation suppliers today announced the launch of the nFlow Annual Conference kindly hosted by Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP, London. The conference is set to take place over the 4th & 5th June, with nFlow opening up the wide range of sessions and content to existing customers as well as law firms and those interested in understanding more about digital dictation, a unique stance for a software vendor. nFlow technology partners, independent industry consultants and journalists will also be participating in the event to ensure well rounded and unbiased content.



Central to the conference will be the launch of nFlow Version 5, the latest digital dictation offering from nFlow. Version 5, nFlow believe, is the future of digital dictation or ‘DDS2’ a phrase they have coined. Designed and developed in conjunction with consultants from Microsoft, Version 5 is an entirely new service orientated architecture built from the ground up utilising the latest best practice for .net, Neil Cameron, keynote speaker at the conference commented, “I am delighted to be hosting a keynote session on the future of digital dictation and looking forward to facilitating some interesting panel sessions on dictation mobility and the role digital dictation plays in disaster recovery. nFlow are a key player in the digital dictation space and the conference promises to be an excellent event for both existing and potential customers.”

Rob Lancashire, nFlow Sales & Marketing Director commented “This year’s conference is building on the success of our inaugural event last year. We have opened the event up to anyone interested in digital dictation as we want to share knowledge and expertise. Customers will have a separate user group session at the start of the conference and then mix in with the remainder of the conference delegates on day 2. I would urge anyone, regardless of existing digital dictation system, to come along as the conference is going to be a great opportunity to gain information and feedback from Microsoft and RIM, leading independent consultants and nFlow staff and user base. The conference also offers excellent networking opportunities, interactive sessions and the opportunity to talk to suppliers of complimentary solutions.”

Delegates can also take advantage of the excellent networking opportunities whilst enjoying an evening champagne reception and dinner cruise along the Thames setting the scene for what promises to be an excellent conference.

The conference will take place at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP, London on the 4th-5th June 2008.

nFlow Digital Dictation Chosen Firmwide By Dickinson Manser

nFlow, a leading supplier of digital dictation solutions today announced that Dickinson Manser, a leading South Coast law firm and a member of the Law Group UK, has completed the rollout of nFlow Digital Dictation System (DDS) as their solution of choice. nFlow was selected following a review of the market, leading its rivals on cost, functionality and all round approach, particularly in a thin client environment. The project involved nFlow working with a number of 3rd parties including Tikit who provide Dickinson Manser with infrastructure support and Lexis Nexis Axxia, where a joint development project provided a live matter look up integration.

The nFlow project saw the installation of nFlow DDS to 61 users over 2 sites, Poole and Broadstone, with the former requiring installation on standard Windows PCs. The Broadstone site required installation on Citrix with nFlow’s unique local audio repository technology once again demonstrating the systems strength in thin client environments where limited link capacity between offices is an issue. This has resulted in users finding the performance of nFlow DDS in the remote office running on Citrix, to be equally as good as the performance on the PCs in the main office.

The Lexis Nexis Axxia integration provides a live matter look up with the Unix version of Axxia DES using the nFlow universal PMS look up module. This allows fee earners to simply but accurately attach live and validated matter information to each dictation.

Management information and reporting was of importance to the firm so enabling this was an important element of the project. nFlow’s unique reporting data warehouse technology allows Dickinson Manser to store unlimited job data and to interrogate it to gain access to information by any means and at any time.

The nFlow system at Dickinson Manser has also been implemented with nFlow portable device downloader technology providing an effortless download process for all users and a common device independent interface.

The results of Dickinson Manser’s investment in nFlow DDS are already being observed with the firm reporting a 2-3 day backlog having been completely removed and the turnaround time on large documents such as leases being halved. The firm says the ability with nFlow DDS to see work prioritised by both time and document type has empowered secretaries to be a lot more effective with their time.

Jean Kendrick, Dickinson Manser Office Manager commented on the project;” “The project was an ‘unknown’ to my colleagues and I, but I have to say it has all gone very smoothly and we are already recognising the benefits. For example my secretaries will now pick up a short job just before lunch or the end of the day whereas before they would have avoided starting a tape as they just didn’t know what was on it.” Mrs Kendrick continued, “The nFlow team were consistently helpful and supportive throughout the entire implementation process. We are very pleased we installed nFlow, in fact I now don’t know what we would do without it now.’

Rob Lancashire, nFlow Sales & Marketing Director said “Dickinson Manser are another innovative and ambitious regional law firm to choose nFlow DDS. The project was really interesting for nFlow, the technical requirements for the project were high and they drew on our unique technical ability and functionality, particularly in the Citrix environment. The project is a great reflection of how nFlow DDS has been developed to the highest technical standards and ultimately possesses unique functionality that allows firms to fully utilise their Digital Dictation investment whilst maximising the overall benefits and scalability of their infrastructure.”

Digital Dictation Software from nFlow

What is nFlow Digital Dictation Workflow Software?

• A managed system
• Has a controller — often a database
• Handles flow of work to users without needing lots of administration — avoids duplication and conflicts
• Low maintenance
• Simple to run — fire and forget
• Collects data on business processes
• Safe and robust
• Scalable
• Often provided as part of the solution — recognises the importance of dictation as a critical process

Can firms of all sizes benefit from nFlow digital dictation workflow software?

Any firm can benefit from;

Physical process improvements

• No lost or wiped tapes — better security!
• Clear dictation — less errors!
• Dictation immediately available for typing

Business process improvements

• Increased work sharing
• Time management without the effort
• Smaller chunks of work
• Visibility of dictation content type
• Prioritisation
• Cross office resource utilisation

Psychological benefits

• Empowerment of users
• Better information
• Greater control
• Easy workload sharing
• Sense of security

Management benefits

• Indication of activity — Current and Historical
• Staff performance indicator
• Resource requirement indicator
• Client response indicator

I don’t need workflow software. My firm is too small. But does size matter?

• Workflow proven to deliver benefits for as little 5 users
• Cheap products not always as cheap as they seem
• Lack support
• Inflexible generic products
• Much higher administration costs - More hassle
• Beware the salesman spreading doom
• Workflow does not need expensive servers and powerful computers
• Any business of any size can benefit from the flow of information - We all use email!

The commercial arguments for migrating from tapes to digital

• 40% increase in productivity is common
• Save money on tapes and tape machines
• Reduce backlogs
• Increase author to secretary ratios — lower secretarial overheads & Increase profit per sq ft of office space
• Remove need for temps
• Reduce staff turnover / retain good staff
• Improved disaster recovery planning

Proven Results

• Family team in 90 user firm — 8 day backlog to surplus typing resource in just 2 weeks
• 30 user firm — payback in as little as 9 months
• 400 user firm — saving of £150k in overheads in first year
• 28 user firm — 20% reduction in full time secretarial resource overheads
• Litigation team in 65 user firm — removed need & cost of recruiting new secretary
• 22 user firm — now cover all transcription across 3 small offices
• Newly formed 5 user firm — are already growing!

Open up new options for your firm with nFlow digital dictation software

nFlow Digital dictation software is proven to empower a firm to do business more efficiently

• Remote working for Authors & Secretaries — PDAs, Telephones, Citrix, Terminal Services
• Differing secretarial skill levels — simple text typed by non specialist secretaries
• Outsourcing — 360 degree integration between systems
• Integration with other office systems — Microsoft Office & Business Productivity Software
• Management reporting
• Disaster recovery options
• Many more!