About Quantrills Solicitors

This Ipswich firm has been in business for over 21 years. Specialising in Employment Law and HR, they have earned an excellent reputation amongst employers and employees.

Their approach to professional, personal and results-driven service has proven very satisfactory to their clients and even won them a place in the Legal 500.

Having worked together since 2020, we caught up with the Principal Solicitor at Quantrills, Simon Quantrills, to get his feedback on working with VoicePower and embracing speech recognition.

Cloud is Key

Quantrills Solicitors have always appreciated the importance of technology and have a forward-thinking approach when it comes to using it to enhance their service. A great example of this is the firm’s adoption of and faith in cloud technologies, as Simon explains:

“We have always used the best IT systems which allowed us to be a business capable of acting for clients right across the UK long before COVID-19 made homeworking and cloud-based systems popular.” – Simon Quantrills, Principal Solicitor

However, it was this same appreciation for cloud technology that led to the realisation that their old dictation system was no longer meeting their requirements.

Simon and his team were previously using BigHand, a traditional dictation method of reporting, and the system was unable to offer the cloud flexibility that they love.

“With BigHand we had to have a separate server and our dictation had to be transcribed by the server before being returned for proofreading either by the fee earner or by the relevant PA/Sec. It proved to be a cumbersome way of working.” – Simon Quantrills, Principal Solicitor

The team then decided that an alternative way to do their reporting was needed:

“We decided to look for a replacement to BigHand after they were unable to provide a solution that would be cloud-based to work with our cloud-based servers.” – Simon Quantrills, Principal Solicitors

It was at this point in 2020 that Simon reached out to VoicePower Ltd, also known as The Speech Recognition People, who have 25+ years of experience in workflow solutions.

Embracing Speech Recognition

When meeting with the VoicePower team, Simon explained his desire for a new documentation solution, he highlighted the importance of the cloud and the requirements this new technology must meet.

After listening to Simon, VoicePower knew exactly what software would tick all of the boxes and then some for Quantrills: Dragon Professional Anywhere.

Dragon Anywhere is a speech recognition solution that is hosted securely in the cloud on the Microsoft Azure servers in the UK. It is the most accurate and quickest version of speech recognition yet and it also has a mobile app.

“VoicePower provided a demonstration, and we were impressed with the voice-to-screen functionality and accuracy that Dragon Anywhere provides.” – Simon Quantrills, Principal Solicitor

Now the decision was made, it was time to get the firm set up. VoicePower assisted with all of the installation and set-up for the users, Simon confirms “both our solicitors and PA use the new system.”

Fast-forward to the present day and the team are flying with their new workflow:

“We use Dragon Anywhere for almost all of our document production including emails, letters, draft documents, file notes and form filling. On occasions we’ll use a blended approach where we will type in draft text and then dictate the next bit.” – Simon Quantrills, Principal Solicitor

When chatting with Simon, we wanted to find out what their favourite part about Dragon speech recognition is, especially given their experience in using the product.

Simon explained:

“The accuracy is very high, provided the dictation is clear and not garbled! We like how it can learn as you dictate. It’s also easy to insert special rules/words. It’s also possible to insert full paragraphs by using only one command word. I would never go back to any other form of dictation or touch typing.” – Simon Quantrills, Principal Solicitor

Expert Support

Given their enthusiasm for technology, it was no surprise that Quantrills Solicitors also appreciated the importance of expert support as well.

When the time came for the roll-out of Dragon Anywhere, Simon understood that training on the software and technical support were non-negotiable. Therefore, all of the users had specialist Dragon training which taught them how to use it, how to integrate it with other applications and assisted them in personalising their licenses to suit their workflow.

“We have always found training and support well delivered and on time by friendly people. Nothing ever seems too much trouble. The response times are also impressive.” – Simon Quantrills, Principal Solicitor

As for many of VoicePower’s clients, the support in the early stages of use is essential to ensuring the absolute maximum return on investment and increase in productivity.

Sometimes just having someone to call, even for the smallest of queries, can do the world of good and that is what VoicePower is there for.

Reflecting on their experience working with VoicePower and embracing speech recognition, Simon expresses:

“From start to finish the whole experience was quick and easy with no problems and we are much more efficient now being able to dictate. Dragon Professional Anywhere is simply a great, cost-effective solution that we love using. I could not work now without it.” – Simon Quantrills, Principal Solicitor