Legal Transcription Outsourcing - Reduces Overall Transcription Costs

Legal transcription outsourcing reduces your overall transcription costs. Outsourcing legal transcription work is the best option for legal professionals who want to concentrate on their core competencies.

Legal transcription outsourcinghas proved to be very beneficial for legal entities including lawyers, attorneys, paralegals, courts, law firms and business firms. You can hand over your complex transcription tasks to a qualified legal transcription outsourcing company. Legal transcription outsourcing services cover all areas of law including criminal, business, trial, real estate, family, patent, corporate and personal injury law.

Legal transcription outsourcing has reduced the workload of legal personnel who are usually under great work pressure with a large amount of legal proceedings to transcribe together with their daily hectic work schedule. The services are available for court proceedings, reports, legal letters, court transcripts, general correspondence, wire tap, briefs, client letters, trials, judgments, law office recordings, minutes of seminars and conferences, interrogations, memorandums, regular recordings, and more.

With the help of trained and highly skilled transcriptionists, proofreaders, experienced editors and legal experts, legal transcription outsourcing companies provide timely, accurate and cost-effective transcribed reports in the form of well-cataloged files.Benefits of Legal Transcription Outsourcing

* Reduces transcription costs
* Reduces infrastructure investment
* Excellent saving on money as well as resources
* Shortens turnaround time
* Greater flexibility
* Greater productivity
* Saves your valuable time as well as effort
* 3 levels of quality control
* 100% data security and confidentiality
* High quality and accurate legal documents
* Encrypted and secure file transfers
* Eliminates the need for recruiting workforce in your office to carry out transcription processes
* Delivers legal documents in the format of your choice

Through efficient, secure and prompt legal transcription services, your legal transcription work will be done on time without any backlog.Author:Bob KruseSource:http://www.articlesbase.com/

Outsourcing Transcription Services Will Save You Time and Money

The benefits of outsourcing are well documented across many industries. Outsourcing has become the hot, creative solution that is helping more and more professionals do more with less, especially where transcription is concerned. It saves money, time and resources if transcription services are outsourced.

While personally working for a large corporation, I was managing our growing transcription needs.

I was finding it difficult to utilize our staff for the tasks, because we had so much else to do in our busy office.

There were transcribing services available... but I could not believe how much they charged.

Finally, I decided put together a network of carefully screened transcriptionists that today deliver perfect work at huge savings to businesses in Australia, New Zealand and beyond. In the end I ended up saving my company thousands of dollars per month.

You can count on outsourcing transcription services because of the processes put in place to test the audio quality of all files... double check proofing of all projects... and strategic placement of transcriptionists in many time zones.

A simple search for terms like 'transcription service' or 'transcriptionist' on Google, Twitter or Facebook will throw up several pages worth of information.

But how do you decide which is the right service for you? What questions should you ask? What instructions should you provide? How do you decide what you need?

The answer is do research and ask questions.

You have to be overly careful when hiring a transcription outsource company. Make sure they do not outsource your work to low paid and low quality providers in non-English speaking countries. The last thing you want is to receive your transcript to find it full of errors, which in turn means you have to re-do the whole transcript again. It will ultimately cost you time and money, as well as you organisation.

The types of transcription services generally provided are:

• Medical transcription

• Typing services

• Digital dictation

• Legal transcription

• Audio transcription

• Online transcription

• All transcription services

Remember one of the easiest ways to shorten the accounts receivable cycle is to streamline your transcription process. If you manage your own transcription, you are managing people, technology, turnaround time, and all the possible variables that come with it. By outsourcing your transcription, you are simplifying workflow. A process that was so complicated can easily be turnaround to something so easy to maintain.

IT will allow your company to meet 24, 12, 6, or 3 hour turnaround times with your transcriptions but remember there are real cost savings involved.
enquiries@transcriptionservices.net.au
http://www.transcriptionservices.net.auAuthor:Mel K MSource: http://EzineArticles.com/

Secure And Confidential Online Audio Transcription

Nowadays, many organizations rely on secure and confidential online audio transcription of their audio recordings. The industries that most commonly rely on these services are medical institutions, dental firms, legal and law firms, academic institutions, publishing organizations, police departments, and inventory companies.

No matter what the file type is – VHS, DVD, DV Tape, DVD – R, DVD + R, Betacam SP, Digibeta. Blu-ray, Quarter Inch Tape, Microcassette, Dictaphone, Audio Cassette, Minidisc, Compact Disc, or Voicemail files -- online transcription service providers can offer quality, secure and confidential online audio transcription services. They can transcribe your audio files including seminars, business meetings, webinars, lectures, interviews, teleconferences, radio shows, teleseminars, blogs, interviews, dictations, depositions, podcasts and more.In secure and confidential online audio transcription services,

• audio transcriptions are carried out by highly skilled transcribers
• the transcripts undergo multi-level checks by proofreaders and editors, to ensure accuracy
• the transcripts are edited to create well-cataloged files
• transcribed files are returned via email in the format of your choice

As a safety measure, most of the online audio transcription firms offer secure file transfer via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and make use of 128-bit /256-bit encryption technology to facilitate confidential and secure audio transcription services. Clients can be sure that their records are safe, and cannot be accessed, altered or deleted without proper authorization.

Simply upload your audio files via FTP or e-mail. Once you upload your audio files, the dictation will be transcribed accurately and quickly. Normally, the process is completed within 24 hours, depending on the size of the transcription project. Clients have the choice to specify their requirements, including the turnaround time.Benefits of secure and confidential outsourcing include:

• Eliminates transcription headaches
• Reduces infrastructure investment
• Reduces transcription costs
• Improves workflow
• Excellent saving on money as well as resources
• Greater flexibility
• Greater productivity
• Transcripts are delivered in the format of your choice
• Confidentiality of client filesAuthor: Bob KruseSource: http://www.articledashboard.com

Getting the Most from Your Audio Recording For Transcription

Whether you are recording dictation, interviews, conferences, focus groups or meetings, it is important to know how to get the best quality recording, how to find a competent transcriptionist, and what sort of costs you are looking at.

The type of transcription depends on the type of recording equipment you have. You can record on to standard audiotape, micro or mini tapes, mini-disks and digital files, which the transcriptionist plays back on a computer. If you don't already have recording equipment, bear in mind that while a mini tape Dictaphone, for instance, might be much cheaper then a fully functional digital conference recorder with several external microphones, the quality of the cheaper instrument makes it suitable only for basic dictation.

Some mini and micro tape recorders are powerful enough to be placed on a table between an interviewer and interviewee and pick up both voices, but we strongly recommend you carry out a test recording first to make sure. To record a focus group or conference you will need a good system of powerful microphones which will probably record into a video, digital audio or standard tape system. Digital systems are very variable and many are of good enough quality to record focus groups and conferences.

It is also worth bearing in mind that more and more transcribers no longer offer tape transcription, as digital is becoming so much more popular, and it is easier to work with and better quality.
On average it takes four hours to transcribe one hour of recording, but this varies considerably. It might be closer to three hours for one person speaking into a Dictaphone but could well be at least six to eight hours for a large focus-group.
This is because we speak much faster than even the fastest typist can type. Also, the transcriptionist doesn't just type what he or she hears - it has to make sense. Although your transcriptionist should only type what's being said (unless specifically requested to edit), it's not just a matter of the right words, but also the right punctuation and, of course, picking the correct homonym (e.g. there or their; two, to or too; pare, pear or pair; fair or fare; the list is almost endless).

You will also need to decide whether you want a 'verbatim' transcription with every um, er etc. transcribed and all interruptions etc. noted. This is necessary for some work, such as police transcription, but is completely pointless in, for example, conference transcription, as the important factors in the latter are readability as well as accuracy.

The time taken to transcribe a recording can vary according to a number of factors. These include:
*Clarity of speech - Strong or varied accents slow down the transcription.
*Clarity of recording - background hiss will make the speech more difficult to hear and therefore slow down the transcribing. Also, if a number of people are being recorded, the positioning and number of microphones can make an enormous difference to the quality of recording.
*Background noise - a recording in a pub or caf is likely to have significant background noise and deciphering the speech from the background noise can be difficult.
*Number of people talking - everyone talks at a different rate and pitch, and with a different accent. Having to 'tune in' to a number of different people slows down the speed of transcription. People also talk over each other and interrupt, and in order for the transcriptionist to transcribe two people talking over each other they will have to play back the section of recording several times to pick out the different voices.
*Speed of speech - as already mentioned, some people speak faster than others. Clearly a fast speaker will take longer to transcribe, as they will fit more words in to an hour than a slower speaker.
*Whether speaker speaks in coherent sentences - few people actually do speak in the same way as we write. There are usually multiple 'ums and ers' and people often speak in partial sentences. This can require the transcriber re-listening to a section several times to grasp the meaning and insert the relevant punctuation.
*Whether you are seeking an exact transcription or a transcription 'for meaning'. Our standard offering at Penguin Office Services is to transcribe word for word but to leave out 'ums and ers' and repeated meaningless phrases, such as 'you know', and 'know what I mean?' It is obviously quicker to leave out these parts, but we are happy to transcribe them if required. An example of when an exact transcription might be required is academic research interviews studying language use.
So if you want to make sure you get a good quality recording, what can you do? Firstly, use the best quality recording equipment you can afford. This really is a question of getting what you pay for. A low-cost recorder may seem economical but the quality will be comparatively poor and a poor recording will take longer to transcribe. Paying for more transcription time will probably work out more expensive than spending a few pounds extra on better recording equipment. Digital recording must be the way to go if you are starting from scratch. Minidisks make very good quality recordings but only a few transcriptionists can transcribe from them. At Penguin Office Services we can convert Sony Minidisk recording to computer-based audio and transcribe from that. If you are not going down the digital route then standard audio tapes make better quality recordings than mini tapes, though micro tapes are also good for interviews and one person dictations. If you are using tapes, by all means keep a back-up copy but do send your transcriptionist the originals, as back-ups may be reduced quality.

Secondly, record in a quiet environment such as a self-contained office. This will make an enormous difference to the quality of recording. If you need to record in an open-plan office or public space then try to ensure your microphone is placed close to the speakers you are recording, but as far as possible from other workers in the office and their phones, or other people in a public space. Recording in pubs, restaurants and cafes, trains etc. will greatly reduce the quality of recording. If the speaker has a very quiet voice the recorder will not pick it up. Although you don't want to remind people that the recording equipment is there, you may have to ask them to speak up or place the equipment closer to them.

Thirdly, bear in mind that most built-in microphones are of poor quality with limited control over volume levels. They are designed to pick up close speech such as someone speaking directly into a Dictaphone. Using a good quality microphone for interviews and other multiple speaker recordings will greatly improve quality and reduce transcription time.

It is essential to ensure that the speaker is close enough to the microphone. If there are several speakers, for example in a seminar or conference, ensure that there are sufficient microphones around the room to pick up ALL the participants clearly. If seated around a table use something like a Conference mixer, which links several microphones to one central unit that will pick up a discussion more clearly than one central microphone.

If you are chairing a focus group you should ensure that all participants know that they must speak clearly and one at a time or their words will not be clearly recorded. There will be times when participants get exited and interrupt each other. When this happens it may be sensible to interrupt and ask them to repeat, one at a time, so that all the words will be clearly recorded.

There are also a couple of things you really should avoid doing, and these usually apply to tapes, rather then digital. Some recorders can tape at slower speeds, extending the recording time and reducing the number of tapes used. However, there is a related loss in recording quality. We would recommend that you use only the fastest speed setting on your recording equipment. Also, some recorders have a voice-activation system so that you don't waste tape recording long pauses. However there are two serious problems when using this. The first is that a soft-voiced person might not activate the recorder at all, so that whole sentences might not be recorded. The second is that every time somebody does speak and activate the recorder there is a slight time delay before recording starts, so the first word or two will probably not be recorded.

Finally, where you have speakers at a podium or multiple speakers in a large room, it is advised that you seek professional help to ensure everything is clearly recorded. Most hotels and conference centres will have in-house experts, or a company specialising in audiovisual equipment should be able to help.

If you have decided to use digital recording, there are quite a number of things to bear in mind when choosing your recorder. Please see my separate article, 'Digital File Types for Transcription' for more information on this.Author:Anne HickleySource:http://goarticles.com/

Audio Transcription: Best Transcriber Qualities

Transcribing audio or video into text has been in the industry since the beginning of the computer age, it was not an industry back then but a common means to better profiling and recording. Hence the beginning of the industry of Audio Transcription.Transcripts are the results of media being converted into digital written text.

As the industry boomed, transcriptions has been classified into different groups depending on the industry it actually served or came from. For courts and lawyers, it is termed as legal transcription, for doctors and other medical professionals, it is referred to as medical transcriptions. For everything else, we can refer to it now as general transcription.

General Transcription can range from business conference calls, to marketing research focus groups discussions, voice mails, and any other non-specialty industry.

Creating usable and effective transcripts, a person must have a complete trait set in order to cope up in the ever growing industry of transcriptions.Expert Listening

If pilots require keen eye sight, transcribers need more than just that. Each transcriber should have a good paid of ears to be able to catch the important sounds that may escape the naked ear. Voice recordings can be very tricky and it depends on what type of recording you are handling, and speech accents does not make the job any easier. On this industry, a good listener really pays.Internet Savvy

Be internet savvy and know how to utilize your resources. Sometimes words can be too confusing, but that does not give the transcriber an excuse to not key in the right term. There is always a way and Google is always your best friend.

Step 1: Know your account/client and what is he/she talking about

Step 2: Make basic searches on the topic and know a little more about what the client is talking about.

Step 3: Google is your friend, search with the words closest to the non-understandable termFast and Accurate Typing

Typing really fast is a skill on its own just make sure it is accurate. In transcriptions, time is always of the essence. You can have your files done in 3 business days, in 1 business day, and in 4 hours! Yes, we can't avoid rush works for some industries and the transcription service industry must be ready for it.Technically Equipped

It is important to have all the right tools in order to more effectively transcribe audio files to text. A workable headset is very important to make sure that the audio that comes in is as clear and modulated as it should. Another transcription only tool would be the pedal. There are some words that you really can't understand but if spoken slowly or at a specific moderation would sound more clear and sensible.

Transcribing media files is a challenge and a legit business industry which we only see growing as the business sector grows as well.Author: Ron Jacobsen writes for TranscriptioWing, a Civicom brand offering audio transcription services that is also integrated in the core business of Civicom in providing global marketing research services.Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Transcription services for MP3 digital audio recordings

The most popular audio file format that is widely used in all fields is MP3 format. The benefits of MP3 files are it can be easily compressed transferred, transported among users. When an audio file is in MP3 digital format, it is very easy for the transcription services to easily convert the audio file to text.

A number of digital transcription services provide cost effective transcription solutions for MP3 format audio recordings on lectures, spiritual discourses, public speeches etc. It takes a great deal of endeavor for an individual to prepare and render his speech, lecture etc. Some people may not be able to attend and hear a person’s sermon. However a text transcript of his talk will be of very useful for the absentees. Likewise the speaker need not deliver the speech once again as it involves physical and oral stress. The speaker can simply distribute the text transcript of his dialogue recordings to people interested in his speech. All these are feasible, if the audio recordings are in MP3 digital format.

Suppose if the audio recording is in analog format, it will be of poor quality, there will be distortions which will be intricate for the audio transcription service to transcribe. On the other hand, if the audio file is in MP3 digital format, all these distortions can be removed. This is feasible, in a MP3 digital recording; in this the sound’s physical properties are transformed into number sequences. These can be stored, and later retrieved according to one’s convenience. Moreover these digital recordings possess higher signal to noise ratio. The digital file condenses and sieves out the sound that cannot be heard by a human ear, thereby minimizing the file size. Another unique advantage of MP3 files is it is compatible with almost all DVD and digital audio players. This makes the task easier and quicker for the transcription service to transcribe the MP3 files to text.

Likewise another advantage in MP3 transcription is, if a customer wants only a particular portion, say a 25 minutes of his one hour audio file, the transcription service can simply remove the unwanted portion and transcribe only the 25 minute portion and deliver it to the customer at affordable rates.

A number of transcription services also accept audio recordings in analog format. With their state of art infrastructure, they easily convert the analog files using devices like an ADC convertor (Analog to Digital converter) into MP3 files; then transcribe them to text format and deliver it in a rapid turnaround time of within 12 hours.Author:susan1798Source: http://articlenexus.com