For those in the legal industry, dictation has long been an effective means of note-taking. But using analog tapes is no longer the best practice. Instead, digital dictation is now the ultimate solution for greater efficiency in the workplace. By adopting these modern dictation solutions into your legal practice, you can better manage your workflow and improve your overall productivity.

Better Quality and Usability

Making the transition from analog to digital dictation can seem intimidating, but Philips digital dictation solutions offer an interface that is clear and easy to use. And you won’t have to worry about voice recordings getting lost when uploading to the computer. 

Unlike analog recordings, you can go back and edit your digital recordings after dictation. Pause and rewind at will to pinpoint a precise moment in your recording and add new information if desired. Then, simply upload to the software for transcription. 

When it comes to sound quality, there is no contest between digital dictation’s sophisticated devices and analog’s cassette tapes. The modern microphones on a Philips digital dictation device eliminate any intrusion of background noise. This makes it easier — and faster — for transcriptionists to accurately complete their work.

Greater Accessibility

Using digital dictation improves your efficiency by offering easier accessibility. Manage your digital recordings with SpeechExec Software, the Philips’ recorder app, and/or SpeechLive.

SpeechExec: Philips’ easy-to-use SpeechExec software integrates seamlessly with your practice’s current software. Use this tool to securely share recordings between author(s) and transcriptionist(s). 

Rather than manually delivering a cassette tape to a transcriptionist, SpeechExec allows you to immediately download and send a voice recording upon completion. This means that the transcriptionist can begin his/her work faster and you spend less time delivering files. 

The recorder app: As a supplement to SpeechExec, Philips offers a recorder app for use on the iPhone, Blackberry, or Android. With this application, you can easily continue your work on the go. Simply use the app to record notes on your smartphone and then send them to your server via email or the securely encrypted SpeechLive. 

With the Philips’ recorder app, you also have the ability to attach a photo to any voice recording.

SpeechLive: This cloud-based dictation workflow service allows you to access your files anytime and anywhere you have an Internet connection. But you don’t have to sacrifice security for accessibility; all files are automatically doubly encrypted during both the recording and transmission processes. Files are also securely backed-up in the cloud to safeguard against accidental deletions.

Furthermore, SpeechLive’s flexible subscription service gives you the control to add or remove authorized users as needed. 

Options for Transcription

With SpeechLive, there are many different ways for you to get your recordings transcribed. 

After recording, you can:

• Send the recording file to your assistant or in-house transcriptionist. 
• Use SpeechLive speech recognition service. With this service, the software does the typing for you. It recognizes twenty-one different languages and guarantees instant delivery of a text document. 
• Use SpeechLive transcription service. If you don’t have an in-house transcriptionist, let an external staff do the job. Professional transcriptionists deliver you the most accurate documents in English, French, or German. 

Improved Security

In the legal industry, the accuracy and security of recordings are serious priorities. Certain legal documentation may need to be retained for years — and its confidentiality must be thoroughly protected. Do not entrust the sensitive content of your voice recordings to analog which can degrade or be lost. Instead, secure their integrity with digital dictation.

With digital dictation, all recordings can be encrypted with 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). They are also automatically backed-up and archived. This means that, unlike with analog tapes, your recordings can never be accidentally deleted or damaged. 

Moreover, recordings produced by digital dictation device will not deteriorate over time. This affords you two benefits: 1) you may continuously replay a recording for reference without fear of compromising quality; 2) you will not need to replace old, depreciated analog tapes.

Finally, as an added safeguard for you and your legal practice, you can assign a PIN code to your Philips digital dictation device to ensure only authorized users obtain access to your recordings. 

Increased Productivity

In a legal practice, one can easily become buried in never-ending to-do lists. But Philips digital dictation solutions allow you to create a file-sharing schedule to easily distribute the transcription workload among staff. 

First, you can assign priorities to urgent files that must be transcribed immediately. Transcriptionists can then monitor the status of their assigned workload as files pending, in progress, and complete. Most importantly, because voice recordings are transferred seamlessly to the computer, transcriptionists can complete their work more quickly and with less effort, thus, enabling them to spend their valuable time on more pressing projects. 

Consequently, because the process of transcription is vastly accelerated, you spend less time waiting for the documents you need and more time working on what’s important.