Quick productivity gains through new age dictation product - Winscribe

A New Zealand-made product is taking digital dictation technology to new heights around the world.

Winscribe is a new generation of dictation automation technology and is already being used by all of the largest district health boards in New Zealand – bar one - as well as many major law firms and other key businesses. It was founded in 1995 by Amtel Communications, a privately owned New Zealand-based company.

In fact Winscribe has become the largest supplier of digital dictation technology in the world with installations in 25 countries and one of the largest companies in terms of number of users (300,000).

In New Zealand it has become a popular tool for quick and easy dictation use for many key professionals.

In the current economic climate it makes sense for businesses to rely on technology of one sort or another to make productivity gains. Information technology, in particular, provides the vehicle for massive productivity improvement. Each new generation of hardware boasts performance improvements over the previous generation. Each new edition of software provides new functionality over the previous edition. And each new technology idea provides the platform for big productivity improvements.

Think of the days before spreadsheets. Or the internet.

Most people generally can talk five times faster than they can type or write (and I have been assured on good authority that this is irrespective of whether they are male or female!) Thus it makes sense that if you can harness the power of your speech, then you can get greater productivity.

The most commonly used method of data entry is typing with a keyboard. However, the speed and ease by which we can enter data into our computers can be a major hurdle. You can have the fastest computer in the world but if your data entry speed is sluggish, you are unlikely to be able to maximise your productivity. Many users are unable to type quickly or accurately and some may not have convenient access to a keyboard. For instance, a veterinarian operating on an animal out at a farm may find it hard to place a keyboard within close range let alone use one.

On the other hand Winscribe is very accessible and has powerful tools which enable the author to reduce the effort required to write notes, reports or produce correspondence.

For instance the author can input a short client code and the system will automatically populate the report or letter with the client’s full contact details.

Thus taking the example of a veterinarian, all they need is a small digital dictation recorder coupled to say a Bluetooth microphone and they can record notes on anything at anytime, anywhere.

This ability to dictate anytime, anywhere means that the veterinarian does not have to enter their notes when they get back to their car or when they return to the office, by which time they would have forgotten half of what they had wanted to enter. It also means that they can record while they are operating on the animal or when they are driving and the note taking now does not eat into their productive time.

Of course the notes then have to be typed into the system but this can be done by specialist typists who normally can type many times faster than the author can and who may cost a lot less to employ. These typists can be an in-house person or persons. Or they can be typists based elsewhere (at home for instance) or even a typing bureau in another city or a combination of some or all of the above.

A further attribute of a dictation product to veterinarians such as Winscribe is the potential to prevent "leakage" of product or service at the point of sale, through the increased ease of immediate notation on the run. This represents a potentially enormous saving to any business which supplies product or service outside of the office or shop environment.

Instantaneous , on the spot recording of sales and billing which Winscribe provides is more widely applicable to salesmen, tradesmen and professionals on the go, than the more basic ability to record reports.

Hamilton Veterinary Services partner Noel Power commented on Winscribe: “This product can save large amounts of time. Writing and typing are tedious, laborious, time-consuming affairs. Dictation, on the other hand is a liberating experience- freeing not only my hands, but my ties to a workstation or vehicle”.

Additionally Winscribe comes with SpeechForms which is a tool that enables the author to dictate by responding to prompts. Thus for a house inspection, the system may start by asking for the street address. Once that is dictated, the system may move to asking the owner’s name. This ensures that no information is left out and the reports so dictated are complete and consistent.

Finally, Winscribe includes a very powerful job management system that enables the business to maximise the productivity of its authors as well as typists which ultimately leads to greater profits.

By Alan Chew

Managing Director of the Houston Technology Group

This article appeared in the March 2009 edition of the Waikato Business News, for which Alan writes a regular column as "Your IT Adviser".