Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Shoosmiths Finds Flexible Working Saves Hours via BigHand

Partner saves 150 hours per year and maximises secretarial efficiency with digital dictation software.

London, UK (PRWEB) July 1, 2008 -- Top-30 law firm Shoosmiths today acclaimed BigHand's digital dictation software as having a profound impact on flexible working practices across the organisation, enabling lawyers and secretarial staff to collaborate seamlessly while on the move or at home, maximising efficiency and improving client service. The voice productivity solution allows users to dictate from many different locations and send dictations outlining document content and tasks as secure files using an intelligent workflow system.

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Partner and head of the national finance team at Shoosmiths, Sean Wright, estimates that the solution has saved him up to 4 hours per week, totalling over 150 hours per year, because he can use the system while travelling between six regional offices and working from home. The workflow system has helped both lawyers and secretaries to be more efficient through BigHand's easy-to-use interface.

Sean Wright comments: "The BigHand system is giving us significant commercial benefit by enabling us to communicate with our personal assistants instantly, wherever we are. Whether drafting memos, client correspondence or billing notes, working on general admin or carrying out management tasks, they all appear in our secretary's BigHand work in progress dashboard instantly allowing them to start work straight away. Even before we finish passing work to secretaries via BigHand, finished documents can be simultaneously arriving in our inboxes. We can now dedicate the extra time that we save to business development, client relations or simply to maintain a healthy work life balance. Over the course of a year those time savings add up and naturally I would expect there is an accumulative impact on profitability."

Jeanette Elderfield, personal assistant to Sean Wright at the firm, explains: "As a department head, Sean's workload is large and varied, and he can be working any time of the day or night. Rather than experience a major peak of work after he returns to the office, his work filters through immediately regardless of where he is at any particular moment, removing any time delay. Since the dictations arrive in regular intervals, the secretaries can stay on top of workloads more easily especially as many also support other fee earners. The solution enables us to better manage our time and clients are getting the most responsive service possible."

Shoosmiths has over 350 BigHand Digital Dictation users across offices in Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Nottingham, Reading and Solent.

About BigHand
A Microsoft Gold Partner and BlackBerry ISV Partner, BigHand is based out of London, Chicago, Sydney and Toronto. BigHand is the leading digital dictation vendor in the global professional services sector. BigHand3 was awarded "Best of Breed System of the Year" at the Legal Technology Awards for 2008, and nominated as 'New Product of the Year' at the LTN Awards 2008. BigHand was named as the fastest growing legal software developer in The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 league tables for both 2006 and 2005. BigHand was also recognised by Deloitte as one of the 500 fastest growing software vendors in Europe in 2006. Additionally BigHand was voted "Best Legal Office Technology System 2004" from votes from over 14,000 lawyers and IT managers across the legal sector at the LOTIE Awards. BigHand's leading product also won the Society for Computers & Law IT Award in 2003 for "the most outstanding application of information technology to the law". Further information is available at http://www.bighand.com.

About Shoosmiths
Shoosmiths is a UK top 30 national law firm with 114 partners and more than 1,500 personnel at offices in Basingstoke, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Nottingham, Reading and Solent. Clients include household name Blue Chip companies, leading financial institutions, public and private sector organisations, and foreign-owned corporates. Recognition includes Best Brand in Practice at the MPF 2007 European Practice Management Awards. Shoosmiths is a member of the World Services Group - a global association of leading legal and service professionals - and an Equal Opportunities Employer, coming top of a diversity survey conducted by the Black Solicitors' Network. Its national charity partner for 2008 - 2010 is Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity. Shoosmiths was voted "Corporate Law Firm of the Year" in the Solent Deals Awards 2008. www.shoosmiths.co.uk

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