Small business digital dictation solution?

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sxz

663 posts

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Topic # 173355 20-May-2015 15:04

We are looking for alternatives for our small business digital dictation. At the moment we use Winscribe, proprietary tech with USB wired microphones / controllers, and (I think) a virtual machine running on our server. Licences are expensive. The USB microphones are expensive. The software is mediocre. I want to use my phone, but that costs an additional $100 odd per licence that I already pay for.

I would like to see a much simpler approach where:
(a) we can record on our phones (android + Iphone)
(b) those files then sync to our secretaries, so they get instant alerts & can see each other's queues.
(c) they can then type away while listening to those audio files, preferably controlling them via foot pedal.

You wouldn't believe how difficult I've found this process. I would have thought there would be something open source for everything except perhaps the sync side of things which I would expect would have a monthly charge or something.

What do you use? is it easy?

mmlakeman

100 posts

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Reply # 1308567 20-May-2015 15:41

One person supports this post

Philips and Olympus are the main players from my experience - both have pros and cons but do pretty much everything you asked for... try http://www.soundbusiness.co.nz/ or www.dictation.co.nz

cyberhub

224 posts

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Reply # 1308568 20-May-2015 15:43

Hi,
Ok you can use an app called dropvox on your iPhone, this app syncs the audio via dropbox. You have that folder shared with your receptionist in the office who then immediately gets a copy of the audio on their dropbox account.

You can use software such as Dragon Nuance software to automatically transcribe your audio, then you or your receptionist can just check it for mistakes.

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lxsw20

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Reply # 1308580 20-May-2015 15:52

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We are a mid size firm and use Winscribe it works well. Authors and Secretaries find it easy to use, i find it easy to administrate on the rare occasion we need something fixed,there is good support in NZ and the iPhone app is pretty good so we will be sticking with it for the foreseeable future.

The only other one I know of is BigHand but don't know a lot about it.

You're right, doing dictation properly is not a cheap business. We use dicaphones rather than the plug in SpeechMike products and they are about $700 a pop, plus licence for WS, plus the headsets and foot peddles for secretaries.

raytaylor

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Reply # 1310242 23-May-2015 02:40

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All the lawyers in hawkes bay seem to use olympus units. They come in a pack that includes software to load onto the computer, and a usb/serial pedal for the secretary.

We set them up so the lawyer docks the dictator, and drag the recordings into a folder within the olympus software mapped to a folder on the office file server. Their secretary uses the player software and pedal control on her computer to transcribe the audio.

Works well.

Ray Taylor
Taylor Broadband (rural hawkes bay)
www.ruralkiwi.com

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1101

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Reply # 1311136 25-May-2015 10:54

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raytaylor:

We set them up so the lawyer docks the dictator, and drag the recordings into a folder within the olympus software mapped to a folder on the office file server. +

You can setup the Olympus software to do that automatically , ie when docked, the recording is automatically moved to a share on the server . A popup then pops up at the secretaries PC to notify them of a new dictation .
You can also set it to auto send via email - for laptops etc , unfortunately auto email didnt work on the very old version I was setting up (SSL & port issues). May be better on new versions?

Im pretty sure Olympus, Phillips have phone apps to use phones as dictation devices , not just voice to txt .

http://www.soundbusiness.co.nz/ are very good. They can setup, test & tweek the software as part of their service (there will be a cost involved) .
That saves alot of time, as they really know their way around the software .

billgates

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Reply # 1311162 25-May-2015 11:20

raytaylor: All the lawyers in hawkes bay seem to use olympus units. They come in a pack that includes software to load onto the computer, and a usb/serial pedal for the secretary.

We set them up so the lawyer docks the dictator, and drag the recordings into a folder within the olympus software mapped to a folder on the office file server. Their secretary uses the player software and pedal control on her computer to transcribe the audio.

Works well.

This! We have setup one of the law firms with same exact Olympus setup.

Do whatever you want to do man.

lxsw20

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Reply # 1311181 25-May-2015 11:23

How well does the Olympus software scale? Agree on having a chat with Sound Business, they are great to deal with.