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Legal Transcription Companies: White-Glove Services for Your Legal Needs

legal transcription companies

Legal transcription companies deliver better legal services, how so? Legal transcription companies are transcription service providers that specifically deliver white-glove legal and business transcription services.  Oftentimes, this service provider caters to such parties as, but not limited to, law firms, paralegals, court reporters, attorneys, and other legal professionals. Logically speaking, the independent establishment of such transcription services in this specific field must come with a rational reasoning.  That being said, why should customers bother with using services specifically from legal transcription companies? Wouldn’t it be better, perhaps more affordable, if customers simply trust general transcription companies to do the job? The answer is no.  Here’s why.   Legal Transcription Companies Compared to General Transcription To transcribe legal documents, a legal transcription service provider must go the extra miles to meet certain standards.  The most common ones are as follows.   Efficiency Compared to other transcription services, legal transcription companies should work faster, smarter, and harder.  Accordingly, a legal project often incorporates a comparably higher quantity of files to transcript under strict deadlines and specific skill requirements, in contrast to general transcription.  Not to mention, each of the transcripts must meet quality standards required by the customers, which may differ from one another. Therefore, it’s extremely necessary for a team of legal transcriptionists to be highly efficient.  Additionally, it is the duty of a project manager to ensure that the team will be able to deliver the final results to the customer with the aforementioned needs and limitations.   Confidentiality Legal transcription companies deal with sensitive information on a daily basis.  This information prospectively impacts on how a legal case will pan out. For instance, information like investigation recording or crime scene recording are of high importance and confidentiality. For that reason, such service providers must have and exhaustively practice information security protocols. Among the protocols are the compliance and careful practice of both operational and administrative securities.   Accuracy Another key characteristic that differs legal transcription services from general transcription is the accuracy. Details truly matter in working on a legal transcription project. Moreover, what’s transcribed must be the exact written copy of what’s audible.  This is one of the strengths only legal transcription companies possess for they have personnel that not only understand legal terminologies and jargons, but also have exemplary listening skills. The skills, additionally, are very useful to detect and transcript any sounds other than voices or spoken language.  For instance, besides spoken language, the slightest noise should also be transcribed to maintain context within the information.  This is so for each pause or noise present within a recording helps legal professionals understand what happened during a case and, therefore, make a sound decision.   Legal Transcription Companies’ Way to Help You One of the true stories of how legal transcription comes in handy revolves around city law enforcement.  More specifically, a team of transcriptionists must work on a huge number of different audio and video files. Some of the files were even recorded live at a police scene.  Consequently, it is no surprise that the lengthy files might contain a lot of hard-to-comprehend voices that sometimes blend in with surrounding noises. To do so, reliable legal transcription companies will assign personnel that understands well legal jargons, common terms used in legal context such as annulment, appeal, and so on, and is able to work efficiently.  To maintain strict quality control, a project manager will then regularly send transcribed files to the related institutions for a review. The whole process, which normally repeats quite frequently, must be conducted under high-level security standards.  Some protocols that the team should follow normally include secure data transfer and encryption to meet information security standards.  However, the projects sometimes require a far higher security standard, depending on what the customers need for each different file. Having a reliable legal transcription company to completely transcribe all the audible sounds in a file will surely help courts, attorneys, and investigators work more accurately.  Well-transcribed documents will help law enforcement departments maintain justice and do what is right to optimize the best public services that people deserve.   Legal Transcription Companies: The Bottom Line To sum up, legal transcription companies specifically work on legal projects that are useful to parties such as law firms, attorneys, court reporters, and so on.  Accordingly, their line of work intersects with those of court transcription companies.  In addition, due to strict demands, contextual understanding, and high-level standards required in this field, legal transcription projects require the expertise of white-glove services. Despite everything, there are numerous legal transcription providers out there to choose from. One rule of thumb that you can do to choose the best among the best is by backtracking on the provider’s efficiency, confidentiality, and the accuracy.  To add up, you can also research further on a provider’s portfolio, for example by looking at one’s client section.

Legal Audio Transcription: Common Confidential Files in a Project

Legal transcription, although considered as a common job for professional transcribers, what is actually inside its ‘suitcase’? Legal audio transcription, as its name suggests, refers to transcription projects and services focusing on legal needs. Commonly, the transcribed documents are used and come from courts or other legal firms. Sometimes, other industrial sectors also require this service. Additionally, it becomes a standalone transcription service due to its more specific purpose and treatment, such as the use of legal terminologies and so on. That being said, what makes legal audio transcription different from the general forms of transcription may also depend on the files or purposes. To understand better, here are the common files and projects of legal audio transcription services.   Legal Audio Transcription: Common Projects In actuality, there are various types of projects within legal transcription services—each has its own distinct treatments. Just like treating friends, family members, or even work colleagues, who has different traits from one another, the treatment also differ, depending on the needs and characteristics. Some of those treatments, additionally, are pretty common while others are less common. This article, additionally, will explain the common projects legal transcription companies work on. Memorandum Memorandum or memo transcription refers to both dictation and recordings of internal communications within law offices. Most of the time, this is part of legal secretaries or paralegals’ jobs. However, since most of the time there are too many things to work on, it has no longer become a new thing to outsource a third party to do the job. This type of files requires a basic level of understanding of legal terminologies. Depositions Deposition transcription is highly crucial to support a motion during a court case. The transcription services might cover audio visual CCTV recordings, specific videos, or any files that act as evidence during a trial. For that reason, a high level of accuracy and context are extremely essential in the service. Court Tapes and Hearings As the name suggests, court tapes or hearings transcription deals with all the communication in a legal process, usually a trial. Besides being a long file to transcribe, most court tapes and hearings consist of a lot of legal jargons and terminologies. Understanding the context of the trial is also a crux in such service, thus expert legal transcription skills are necessary. Verbatim Unlike other services within legal audio transcription, verbatim transcription mostly does not have a very specific file or purpose. Basically, anything legal can be part of verbatim transcription. However, what differs verbatim transcription from the others is the treatment. Similar to its name, verbatim transcription literally transcribes words by words, including conversation, onomatopoeia, and so on. It has to be as original as possible, documenting every single audible noise in the source material. In other words, the final product of this service will have a similarity with a detailed movie script. Wiretap Wiretap transcription belongs to the process of wiretapping or lawful interception. Accordingly, the final product of wiretap transcription acts as evidence in a court trial, mostly pertaining to money laundering, mail fraud, scams, and other crime activities. Legal transcription companies can only transcribe wiretap audios after meeting specific regulations or trust standards. This is because those companies will work closely with law enforcement bodies in a crime investigation. Automatically, the confidentiality level is very high. Meeting and Conferences Among the legal audio transcription services, meeting and conference transcription is one of the kinds that does not only involve legal firms and law. What can be transcribed varies, ranging from minute-of-meetings to conference presentation or hearings. Other industrial sectors, such as medicine and academics, can use this service although most of the customers are government and law firms. Interrogations Transcribing interrogation process, mostly between the police investigators and the alleged offenders, shares some similarities with verbatim transcription. This is because a transcriptionist has to jot down every single audible noise or sound during the interrogation process to provide an attestation to the originality and truths. In a way, it testifies whether the police investigators have followed the right protocols during the interrogations. On the other hand, it also helps courts determine how alleged offenders cooperate during the interrogation process.   The Bottom Line: Legal Audio Transcription Legal audio transcription is a transcription service that requires a high level of confidentiality. Accordingly, most of its transcription works, court tapes, hearings, wiretap, depositions, memorandum, verbatim, and so forth, help various law-related institutions conduct their work with the most accurate documentation as possible. Due to containing a lot of legal terminologies and contexts, this type of transcription requires trusted transcription experts and service providers to work on it. We could write additional questions like “What kind of treatments do you think?” Or make it as if it was parable. “Just like parents who owned children with many kinds of different traits in them, this legal translation is also……” to make it more attractive. Can add ‘Memorandom or memo transcription….’ to share knowledge that both are the same.

Interview Transcription: A Guide into Providing Legal Transcription

interview transcription

Interview Transcription Services Vary, and One of Them Deals with Legal Transcriptions   Starting your own career as a transcriptionist might actually be a worthwhile business. Transcription service is unexpectedly needed in a lot of fields of work. To cater to different needs in different fields of work, transcription services are divided into several types of services. One of the services that we will get to know better in this article is interview transcription found in the discipline of law: legal transcription. Yes, people working in the law field of work also need transcription service. How so? Legal professionals involve a lot of interviewing than we thought. Pleadings, subpoenas, summonses, sworn statements, interrogations, hearings, and more occurrences happening in the court entail a lot of conversation and questioning that need to be documented. With the help of transcription, it helps legal professionals capture each detail to review later so allows them to focus to the interview, save their valuable time, and provide the documentation Furthermore, the documentation of these legal transcripts needs to follow specific requirements, especially when it comes to evidence for an ongoing case. Different districts, clients, and types of transcript may require different transcription formats. Thus, sorting the transcription documents could end up time-consuming. For much more effective work, it’s not uncommon to outsource a transcriptionist for the task. That way, those in law enforcement could save time and focus on other tasks needing immediate attention.   Interview Transcription Service for Legal Documents: A Standard to Follow Legal documents, which closely relate to legal procedures, are tied to a strict standard for transcription. Hence, the interview transcription service for legal documents must also follow a set of rules and guidelines. There are at least five important points to note in transcribing legal documents.   1. Mastering the art of verbatim transcription The transcription for legal documents is in the form of verbatim transcription as the final documents of the transcription are exactly the same as the audio file. This includes mutters, speech errors, filler words, stutters, long pauses, and other sound heard in the audio file. Some even ask to include non-verbal signals or body languages written in the final transcription document. While such sounds are less necessary and often omitted in other types of interview transcription, they hold a significant difference in the law field.   2. Highlighting accuracy in noting who speaks what When it comes to an interview with more than two people, some speeches may overlap. As a transcriptionist, it is important to recognize the voices and precisely write who said what. Though it could sound like a simple mistake, writing the wrong person could really change the whole interview’s nuance.   3. Having legal terminology knowledge Transcribing legal documents, obviously, requires someone who is expert in legal terminology. The discipline of law comes with various terms that are only used by people working in the field. It is not enough to have a good ear but it is equally important that a legal transcriptionist is fairly aware of legal terminologies. Not to mention, several Latin phrases used to explain the testimony.  If you have no background knowledge on legal terminology, you will find it difficult to write down “affidavit”, “subpoena”, “nolo contendere”.   4. Getting certified The needs for certification may differ from state to state. This goes the same for the requirements to pass the certification. The major pro from having a hold of the certification is the reassurance you can give your clients over how professional your service is. Clients can also know how much the transcriptionists they choose in understanding legal terminology.   5. Ensuring confidentiality Confidentiality is pretty much a basic rule in transcription service. Additionally, it is essential to assure all parties involved in the project can guarantee confidentiality by themselves. To realize it, professional transcriptionists are trained to understand the ethics of the business that they will not share files and documents inappropriately.   The Bottom Line: Interview Transcription Service Leads Interview transcription service could be helpful for people working in the field of law. By outsourcing for transcribing audio files, professionals and employees involved in the work field can maintain their focus on other tasks with more urgency to finish. However, being interview transcriptionists for legal documents need to pay attention to a set of strict rules and guidelines. Appealing yourself as a legal transcriptionist might be a challenging, yet worthwhile career to choose!

Transcription Tips: The 101 Guide to Transcribe Professionally

Transcription Tips

To Transcribe Professionally, A Transcriptionist Has to Know The Correct Ways to Complete A Project. However, A Transcription Project Has Difficulties That Pose Challenges, Especially for Beginners. Worry Not, There Are Transcription Tips to Solve Them. Transcription tips are highly useful especially for beginners. This is due to the difficulties that exist within a transcription project. Surprisingly, in contrast to what people believe, transcription does not simply require efforts and time to change audio text to a written form. It requires competencies, such as project management, and certain skills, such as listening, to get the job done. Accordingly, those skills and competencies are essential to bear with transcription challenges The common challenges are usually regarding project management, technical difficulties, and background knowledge. For beginner transcriptionists, these common challenges may hinder project progression to a significant degree. That being said, there are solutions to every problem, including these transcription challenges. But what are those solutions? Transcription Tips and Tricks: Solutions to Its Common Problems   For beginner transcriptionists, the most common challenges are usually about (1) project management, (2) technical difficulties, and (3) background knowledge. To get past those problems, here are tips that help.   1. Project Management Project management is arguably the most problematic challenge while working on a transcription project. This is because it affects the whole project flow, from start to finish. The challenges cover management, communication, workload adjustments, rework, and revision. Regarding challenges about project management, the key is to understand what the project is and how to execute it. For that reason, it is of importance for a project manager to know the concept, plans, and process of a certain project. To do so, a project manager can create a daily schedule and target to ensure that the whole team can keep up with deadlines. Furthermore, it is also critical to establish rules and guidelines. They should give clarity to how to complete tasks, rework, revision, project timeline, and collaboration between team members. Consequently, each transcriptionist in a team should work based on the guidelines in order to ace this project. More importantly, while setting up the guidelines, a project manager should also understand the diverse competencies of each member. This will help workload adjustments within a team. Also, in a project, there also exists communication problems, internally and externally. To solve the internal problem, it is grave for each transcriptionist to discuss project updates, progression, and difficulties on a daily basis. While working for clients, it is suggested to frequently update them about the progress. That way, clients will know what to expect about the project quality and when it will finish.   2. Technical Difficulties The second problem is pertinent to technical difficulties. This relates to the files and devices/equipment. Some problems, such as poor device quality, are controllable and others, such as inaudible files, are uncontrollable. There are also natural difficulties that may exist, for example lengthy files. Naturally, a team can avoid controllable problems. For example, preparing proper devices such as highly sensitive headphones will get rid of the problems. Next, upon encountering inaudible files, there are several tips that will help reduce the problems. For instance, adjusting audio volume via volume control and using audio-editing software to enhance voice and reduce noise are the easiest ways for beginners. However, if those solutions don’t work, you can always let your clients know that these problems exist. That way, should your clients have backup files, it probably can help lessen your challenges. Despite everything, this is the very last resort.   Also, to mitigate the risk of boredom and focus lost due to constantly listening to lengthy files, segmenting the files into several parts can help. A transcriptionist, then, can take a small break in between those segments.   3. Background knowledge Upon transcribing a file, it is necessary to understand what the file is about. That’s why, having a proper background knowledge about the topic will help a transcriptionist understand the context. Unfortunately, this sometimes also becomes a problem for beginners. Luckily, unlike the previous two categories, this one is easier to deal with. One way to handle the problem is to conduct a quick research about the topic. You can find reading resources available on the Internet, like the ones on online articles. Another way is to listen to the file at least once before transcribing it. This will, at the very least, give a rough sketch on what it talks about.   The Bottom Line: Transcription Tips to Every Common Problem   Transcription tips for beginners vary. Depending on the problem, there is always a solution a beginner transcriptionist can easily conduct. In addition, the general tips implementable to all transcription challenges are establishing guidelines, preparing devices and knowledge, as well as communicating frequently.

Data Transcription Challenges: The Overly Not-so-simple Obstacles

data transcription

Data Transcription Has Challenges That General Transcription May Not Possess despite Being Slightly Indifferent. Accordingly, What Are Those Challenges?     Data transcription is slightly indifferent from general transcription. Both transform information, either audiovisual or audio, into a written format. However, dissimilar to general transcription which basically produces a transcript, data transcription creates transcripts for research or business purposes, specifically case studies and white paper. Considering the difference between data transcription and general transcription, their challenges also vary. General transcription does not serve specific purposes, but data transcription does. As mentioned above, data transcription results in data for research or certain business use; thus increasing challenges a data transcriptionist face. What are those obstacles? To elaborate, here are data transcription’s biggest challenges.   Data Transcription and Its Biggest Challenges   Data transcription services pose challenges that can be classified into (1) workflow, (2) quality control, and (3) technical difficulties.   1. Workflow   Workflow, or work funnel, considerably becomes the first and foremost challenge due to diverse individual competencies and teamwork collaboration. To simplify, it consists of individual and collective challenges. Regarding each transcriptionist in a team, it is unlikely that everyone shares the exact same competencies. To some degree, differences affecting their workflow exist. Some examples are the necessary time to do a task or the transcription quality. This, therefore, challenges each individual to adjust to deadlines without discounting service quality.   Another challenge is regarding project management, both manual and automatic. Each of them has its own strengths and weaknesses, specifically pertaining to tradeoff. Manual management allows more flexibility. Scheduling can be based on each transcriptionist’s workload. It, however, induces rough task estimation and requires more energy for scheduling. The automatic one, in contrast, puts the start date, duration, and target per day into the digital calculation. This enables a more accurate estimation of the cost of working under tight automated scheduling. Moreover, there is another challenge during this pandemic. As in-house collaboration is strictly limited, telecommuting collaboration may cause communication difficulties that lead to misunderstanding within a team and misinterpretation of what the project is about. Should the problem prevail, such bigger problems as delay may occur.     2. Quality Control   Service quality delivery presents challenges for numerous industries ─ transcription is no exception. To get the best quality possible, a transcriptionist has to translate not only the language but also the context. Furthermore, translating context is difficult due to its sub-aspects such as background information, language style, and tone. For example, context translation varies from one field to another. As transcription is not exclusive to certain business sectors, its projects’ coverage is wide. To produce comprehensible transcripts, context must be present and each business sector, topic, and field are dissimilar to one another (compare Banking to Engineering). Ergo, this necessitates transcriptionists to, at least, understand what the document is about. This is to provide clearer or semantically similar information even after the original language has changed. Rework and revision also affect service quality levels. Before a transcript is ready to use, editors will review it. Should a room for improvement exist, either rework or revision is necessary. Rework refers to addition or modification through elaboration for details of the context. Meanwhile, revision is any correction to make a text more understandable. As a result, these processes may cause a longer time to complete a project.     3. Technical Difficulties   Technical difficulties also exist in transcription and data entry services. This is for probabilities of software and network failure exist. Oftentimes, the problem is out of the transcriptionists’ control. One of the issues, for instance, is downtime. Today’s transcriptionists mostly utilize an online portal as a submission entry and collaboration playground. In the event of downtime, this portal will be temporarily inaccessible. That might be due to either server or network downtime. Server downtime happens when problems occur in the web server hosting the portal. Whereas, the causes of network downtime are either a device’s failure to detect internet connection or internet unavailability at the range. Another one is pertinent to files. In some cases, a file size is too large, resulting in longer access time. Another common case is due to file quality. Inaudible or low audio quality and overlapping voices are the examples. Additionally, corrupted files also become an obstacle. The last resort is by contacting the customer(s) to inquire about backup files.     The Bottom Line of Data Transcription Challenges   Data transcription services have three major categories of challenges: (1) workflow, (2) quality control, and (3) technical difficulties. While some challenges such as workflow and quality assurance are controllable, the other, technical difficulties, are not. Despite everything, mitigating the risks of problems resulting in challenges is not far from possible. While a good transcriptionist team strictly follows a plan to finish a job, a better team prepares a backup plan in the event of a worst-case scenario.

Transcription Typing: Speed Significance and How to Improve It

Transcription Typing

Transcription Typing: The Relevance of Speed in Transcription Typing Service Speed. Yes, it matters.  The transcription typing relies a lot on time. The faster a transcribers’ typing speed, the better it would be for their career. Audio typing transcription services follow a 4:1 ratio for its standard. This means a transcriber needs to transcribe an hour-long of clear audio in four hours.  Hence, in an hour, a transcriptionist should be able to finish a 15 minute-long audio recording  and even 60 words per minute for the standard of transcription typing. However, the time standard also varies depending on the audio quality.  On less-audible audio files, either contaminated with loud noises, muffled voices, or perhaps errors due to a corrupted file, are more lenient with the time standard.  Audio files containing more than one speaker can also take more time to transcribe as overlapping voices are inevitable in such situations.  Note that a transcriber does not only listen to the audio once to assure the transcription accuracy.  Proofreading, making corrections, and editing the transcription document are also parts of the job. On top of that, transcribers are restricted by deadlines.  The amount of workload and demand in audio typing transcription service could be stressful for individual transcribers. It brings more burden if they can’t match their typing speed to the standard.  Piling workloads and ticking deadlines are on the line.  Furthermore, transcribers need to maintain transcription accuracy. On the other hand, transcribers who work in a team, like in an agency, might benefit more.  Instead of pushing the workload on one person, they can divide the workload.  However, it is as much important to keep in mind that working in a group requires good teamwork and balanced pace.  One person with slower work speed can stall the others, and affect the team’s work quality. Transcribing is a time-sensitive work.  This pretty much explains how a transcriber’s typing speed matters for the job.  But how can we improve our typing speed? Transcription Typing: Improving Your Typing Speed There are a lot of ways to improve your speed. Constant practice sure can help you improve your typing speed.  However, note that it also matters that you know what you are practising for, and know what you actually need.  1. Know yourself Try to find out what your weaknesses are.  Once you know what you are lacking, you can start practice accordingly.  Listen to more audio available on the Internet.  Try to listen to people from different countries and understand their accent.  Read more books or articles of different subjects to at least recognize certain terminologies that exist in varieties of work fields.  Broadening your knowledge can always help you save time from googling the specific term that you heard from the audio. 2. Listen to your clients’ feedback Just like any other jobs, it is important to be open with constructive feedback.  If they don’t give feedback, know that you can also ask too. 3. Use all your fingers Learning how to type with ten fingers is a must.  It can save you a lot of time while transcribing. Instead of going back and forth to erase and rewrite miswritten words, hone your typing skill. Having keen ears and good listening skill is not enough, you need to improve your fingers’ speed and accuracy in pushing the keyboard. 4. Invest in some high-quality technology If you have more budget for the job, try to purchase better headphones.  Some experts even use specific headphones that are “tuned” for transcription.  Though it may cost you some, it would help you a lot in transcribing.  Especially if you are thinking of taking the transcription typing services as your occupation. Some others even purchase foot pedals to ease them in transcribing.  These foot pedals allow you to control the audio playback without using hotkeys. Bottom Line Typing speed is one of the most valuable assets for transcribers.  If you are still new in the field and you feel a lot of lacking compared to your peers, know that you still have the chance to improve yourself.  Don’t get too discouraged and challenge yourself to change for the better!

Transcription Service Rates: Cost-Cutting with Software

Transcription Service Rates

Transcription Service Rates Vary, and in Some, such as Medical Field, Could Cost A Lot   Transcription service covers a lot of work fields ranging from business, law, education, and even healthcare. The transcription service rates for different fields, obviously, come at different prices. Every field of work comes with particular sets of vocabulary and key terminology.  Hence, some specific field of works may need transcriptionists with more knowledge and experience in the industry to give a more accurate transcription.  Some fields of work also come with different work ethics as well.  The more specific the transcription service targets, the more it may cost. Take for example the medical field. How exactly does the transcription service run in the medical field? The medical field is filled with long shifts and grueling workload. At times, it becomes impossible for a single medical worker to handle all the workload. One specific task that consumes medical staff’ time is deciphering dictated audio files into medical reports. This is when medical transcriptionists come to fill in. Medical transcriptionists help convert audio files of medical staff into an accurate transcript. Some medical transcriptionists match the transcription into specific formats depending on the medical staff’ needs. The transcription will further be processed into documents for the patients’ own record, insurance claims, or other needs. Accordingly, Business News Daily  quoted Dr. Kathleen A. Bishop of Kaplan University upon the benefit of relying on third-party transcriptionists for medical workers. Bishop said, “Medical transcription services allow the physician to record the patient information at their leisure, which can be sent to a service that can transcribe it while the physician takes his or her time with the patient.” Bishop further added, “(the physician) has the ability to look the patient in the eye and hold their hand, if need be, instead of looking at a computer screen documenting the visit.” Medical transcription service is a great cheat key to save time.  The transcription service rates, though, could end up quite costly.   Transcription Services Rates: Knowing What You Pay for Medical Transcription   Medical transcription services rates are based per line transcribed. A quick google search will tell you that the rates for medical transcription service start from around $0.07 to $0.20 per line. Accordingly, the average rates for medical transcription service range from $0.12 to $0.14. Though the transcription service market rates come at a very desirable price at a glance, it could pile up with the amount of workload that needs to be transcribed. Why do the transcription service rates cost so much? Medical transcription service is not as easy as it sounds. The occupation is filled with professionals who not only have keen ears but also has knowledge in the healthcare field. It takes time for people involved in the service to train in order to give the most accurate transcription. Moreover, the service consists of complicated steps to ensure the quality and accuracy of the transcriptions. Another important thing to note is that medical transcription service must keep the confidentiality of the transcribed documents. The patients’ privacy is protected by law. Thus, medical transcription agencies and the personnel involved need to abide by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).  By abiding HIPAA, or privacy rules, no leakage of patients’ information will ever happen. To ensure the patients’ privacy, some transcription agencies even control how the medical worker and transcriptionists exchange data.  These agencies either send the files through a secure network or deliver the files physically through the agency’s staff to avoid digital traces. Some even go extra miles to ensure safety by running criminal background checks on every employee.   Transcription Service Rates: Can AI-integrated Software Really Cut Your Expenses in Medical Transcription?   To cut medical transcription service costs, some healthcare providers usually think of opting for voice-to-text software. But, can software usage in medical transcription service really cut the costs?  Some software sure is more affordable. Though, there are also some cons that come with the software medical transcription service. There are several medical transcription software on the market that we can choose. Every software offers a different type of service at different starting prices. You can opt for a yearly subscription or monthly subscription, depending on your needs. These subscription options often end up with a more affordable price compared to non-software services. One of the software choices even offers a yearly subscription plan with only 20$!  However, note that some software may require periodic updates. While some do not ask for additional fees for the updates, some others do. Always occasionally check on the software and read the changes that the updates bring. At times, your subscription plan’s price can change along with software updates. If you think the quality of the transcription service is no longer promising, changing to other software or opting for human transcription service is an option. Another plus point of voice-recognition software is its speed in transcribing audio. Software is, undoubtedly, faster in transcribing audio. However, the problem with the software remains the same: accuracy. Though numeral enterprises have tried to integrate AI to its software to improve the software’s accuracy, not one has surpassed the accuracy of human transcriptionists. Different tone, volume, accent often cause misses in software transcription. While this issue is still tolerable, or at least fixable in other fields of work, it could cause a major problem in the medical field. Instead, medical staff will end up spending more time to correct the errors and processing it into medical reports. This retorts the initial purpose of a medical transcription service: to save time. Compared to trained, experienced medical transcriptionists, software medical transcriptionist services are usually less accurate. AI-generated software can’t easily flag any potential errors from misspoken or mumbled words.  Accordingly, several medical transcriptionists have saved patients from encountering potential allergic reactions to medications due to a misdiagnosis. At the end of the day, deciding on whether to use a human transcriptionist or software really depends

Professional Transcription in Business: How It Matters

Professional transcription

How Professional Transcription Service Can Help You Maintain and Grow Your Business Businesses have been growing at an immense speed. Dozens of startups have managed to gain acknowledgement globally, earning them the “unicorn” title for their stellar achievements attained in a considerably short time. To develop into a bigger business, it’s not uncommon for businesses to cooperate with other companies. To ensure both companies give each other mutual benefits, there will be a lot of business interactions involved. Presentations and meetings are important parts of the strategy. Another important thing is making sure you have the log of all your discussion. In this specific case, professional transcription service can give your business a big hand of help. Ever heard of a professional transcription service? A professional transcription service helps you log business interactions like meetings, conferences, workshops, presentations, and others. Having trained for years, professional transcriptionists can assure you accuracy in their transcription, even when the speakers have different accents. Apart from that, there are more ways how professional transcription service could help businesses. Professional Transcription: How It Helps Your Business 1. Official documentation, solid evidence to the agreements Having official documents that track your agreement on hands is especially helpful to avoid disputes and lawsuits in the future. Sometimes, your business may face unexpected occurrences that may risk your deal with the other companies. The other party could suddenly insist on a different thing from what was discussed, or even worse, they might ask to cancel the agreement for no exact reason. At these moments, the transcription log can come handy as a solid proof of the discussion.        2. Less trouble with accurate and legitimate transcription A communication gap can lead to a lot of misses: misinformation, miscommunications, even misarticulations. Professional transcriptionists who are trained and experienced in the matter can really help you get away from such problems. With your business interactions logged accurately, you can also go back to the notes to find out what points you missed, or which points to highlight from the meeting.        3. Connecting one part of the world to another Transcription service is not only used for meetings. It is also a helpful tool for marketing, especially on audio and audiovisual contents. Whether it is a promotional video, a TED talk content, interview clip, or other video contents, having the help of transcriptionists can really boost the views. Providing subtitles for such video contents can help the video understood by global audiences. Or, you can also upgrade your video quality by providing translations for more worldwide audience-friendly contents. Note that professional transcriptionists are required to maintain the confidentiality of their work. Hence, you could rest easy on the confidentiality of your business agreements. As much as the deal matters to your business, the professional transcriptionists and their agency’s reputation are also on the line. A lot of businesses have been considering the needs of professional transcription service. In fact, there has been a significant rise in professional transcription demand. With the rise in demand, businesses are also served with a wide variety of options. But, how do we choose the best professional transcription service for our business? Professional Transcription Service for Your Business: Things to Consider The first step you need to do is to determine the language for the service. Don’t ask professional transcriptionists that master in English to transcribe your meeting that is spoken mostly in Korean! Next, always try to check out the error rates for the service you choose. When it comes to transcription, one important thing to note is the error rates. Obviously, the smaller the error rates, the better it is.      While looking for available transcription services, you might find some offers that utilize AI. At a glance, choosing AI for transcription might sound like the best option. Hold your horses!, because in the transcription field, advanced technology can’t really guarantee accuracy. Wired reported in 2016 that certain research calculated a 4% error rate from professional transcriptionists. Meanwhile, advanced technology only managed to press its error rate to 8% with the same audio. Moreover, Stolcke & Droppo (2017) attested advanced technology is still puzzled to differentiate the filled pauses (“uh”) from backchannel acknowledgments  (“uhhuh”). How did this happen? Simple, technology can’t think logically as humans do. Humans can use their logic to guess on inaudible audio, something that AI can’t do. Furthermore, while humans can differentiate accents, dialects, missing words (either due to an error in the audio or the speaker got cut while speaking), technology can’t. Humans are also still capable of grasping what is spoken in overlapping audio to some extent. The transcriptionist can read the speakers’ lips or gestures to write down the exact word they are talking about. Once you’ve narrowed down the list, all it takes are to proceed with the last step. Settle on the agency that suits your budget the best. Don’t forget to check on the offered services. Do they comply with your needs? Different services might offer different additional services with similar rates. Some of them could be really helpful, but some others could be a waste of money. Don’t rush yourself in choosing a professional transcription service, especially when it’s still your first time. Take your time to understand every detail offered. If necessary, try various options too. Finding a transcription service that suits your business the best may take time. However, it could give a handful of help for your business, more so if you are aiming at the global market.

Transcription Rate per Minute: Human vs Machine Transcription

Transcription rate per minute

Transcription Rate per Minute: Work With Agency Working with a transcription agency is a smart choice when you have to prepare a minute after a meeting is over.  When you deal with a transcription agency, you may be required to choose between human vs. machine transcription services.  What does matter with these choices? Of course, your choice will matter most.  Whether you choose human or machine transcription service will determine the transcription rate per minute, that you have to pay and the quality of transcription you get. The digital era comes with sophisticated technologies, which benefit the transcription agencies.  Now, they are supported by technologies like smart speakers and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that assist in transcribing the audio or video files.  Some agencies even replace human transcriptionists with a machine, which is able to understand what human beings say. However, is that a correct choice?    Transcription Rate per Minute: What Does it Matter? On the one hand, machine tools have indeed been getting smarter now. They can understand human dialects and work faster in transcribing audio.  With the help of sophisticated technology, the transcription agencies are able to offer cheaper transcription rate per audio minute compared to those that rely solely upon human transcriptionists. However, many people still question whether machine transcription may completely replace human transcriptionists.  Transcription agencies, which decide to use human transcription service, certainly do it with reasons.  Similarly, customers have specific reasons when they have audio or video files transcribed by human beings.  Human transcription and machine transcription have their advantages and disadvantages. The following are some aspects that may influence your choice as well as the transcription rate per minute you have to pay:   Speed When speed is more important than accuracy, machine-based transcription can be your choice.  You can get the benefit from online or app-based transcription services. They work much faster than human transcriptionists do.  They convert the speech into text within minutes or even seconds. The transcription app can convert a 2-hour video into text within fewer than 30 minutes.  How can human transcriptionists do it? When it comes to speed, machine transcription is the choice; but remember that you will lose accuracy in the transcription text.   Intricacies of Human Speech Every individual has a unique way of communicating and expresses his/her feelings.  Even the smarter or most sophisticated machine will fail to understand human speech accurately. Such intricacies are made worse by background noise.  If your projects involve technical terms, relying upon a machine transcription can be a wrong decision.  If you insist on using the machine, you have to be prepared for losing some substances of the audio materials.   Number of speakers Those who do field works, like journalists, interviewers, or reporters, may work with different speakers.  Their works may involve three or more speakers in a session and three or more sessions in a recording.  Do you expect the machine transcription to work smoothly in this situation? No machine can accurately differentiate different vocals, accents, and personal communication styles.  If you want to get accurate transcription, human transcription service is the choice.   Recording Setting As mentioned above, the settings of the recording may vary widely. At one time, you may interview someone in a vacuum or sealed room.  At another time, you may have to interview your subjects in an outdoor setting, where background noise will make the transcription works much more challenging.   Budget vs. Accuracy There may be some instances, in which budget matters the most for you. If you have a very tight budget, you may opt for machine transcription.  The average transcription rate per audio minute is much cheaper. You can even choose a free online transcription app.  However, if accuracy is more important than any other things, human transcription is the answer.    Transcription Rate per Minute: The Bottom Line Some aspects that determine the transcription rate per minute above need to be considered carefully before making a decision.  You cannot say that you only need human transcription, as there may be cases in which machine transcription is enough to solve your problems.  The following is the summary of human vs. machine transcription: Human transcription service is the choice for a highly accurate result.  Studies show that the average error rate of human transcription is only 4%, but highly experienced transcriptionists can work with an error rate of under 1%.  The service is highly dependent on human quality, but the services can be customized according to the customers’ requests.  In addition, human transcription is the answer when the audio or video files involve diverse dialects and accents. On the other hand, the average error rate of machine transcription is 12%, but the accuracy still depends on the technology supporting the agency.  Sometimes, human insights are still necessary to ensure better accuracy. However, this is a great choice when speed matters the most, and when the required transcription rate per minute is very low.

Transcription Agency Helps Much in These Industries

Transcription Agency

Transcription Agency: All Industries Need Them When more businesses depend upon video conferencing technology to get the jobs done, the need for a transcription agency is also increasing significantly.  This year, the need for transcription is not only limited to businesses, but also government agencies.  The decisions, agreements, or recommendations from the recorded meetings need to be followed up.  They must be provided in the written version to make sure that the managers get the record. Then, they can make the necessary decisions based on the meeting. In the past, only businesses in certain industries like law, healthcare, and marketing needed transcription services.  Right now, almost all industries need them. Of course, the degree to which they need the service may vary widely.   Transcription Agency: When It Is Required? The following are some industries in which the transcription service is important to make sure that businesses run well. Law Legal institutions had been the main customers of the transcription agency since the past.  Most legal activities from interviews, witness statements, expert statements, court cases, depositions, presentation, or audio or video contents as evidence and even parliament sessions are recorded.  These recorded legal activities are transcribed to make sure they are accessible to all relevant parties, like lawyers, judges, and juries.  So, who needs transcription service in legal industries? They are law firms, attorneys, court reporters, paralegals, as well as other legal professionals.   Healthcare Hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices, and many other health care providers depend much upon the transcriptions from audio files to make decisions on the patients’ care.  Transcriptions of all procedures related to the patients, notes, and materials are important. They range widely, from medical procedures, patient statements, meetings, lecturers, and international events.  The transcribed documents are useful for the doctor, the nurses, medical record divisions, and many others.   Education Transcriptions of materials in education are necessary for the students, the lecturers, as well as other academicians.  They are particularly important during the coronavirus pandemic, when all the lecturers are held online.  There are so many types of material in education. They include class lectures, videos, seminars, interviews, and other materials for research and papers.    Marketing Businesses in marketing industries use many kinds of audio and video files. They are not limited to marketing materials like marketing videos.  Who needs help from transcription services companies in this industry?  They range widely, from marketing researchers, product testers, marketing consultants, video production firms, marketing experts, and product development teams, marketing content builders, and many more.  The audio and video files need to be transcribed to make sure they are accessible to all relevant parties, particularly the customers. The audio and video files may include market research interviews, customers’ testimony, expert interviews, industry events, record focus group discussions, product-testing events, and many more.  When it comes to market research, for instance, the transcription provides the managers and product development team with the information on how the target customers respond to the products or services before they are launched to the market.   Media This is another major industry, which relies much upon the services from the transcription agency.  Professionals in the media industry, like journalists, reporters, and interviews deal with wider audiences and public events.  The field works are made easier when all the processes and sessions are recorded. It is hardly possible to take note of all field events while they are taking place.  Then, the transcription process is required to make sure that the information is available to decision-makers.  The spoken words and statements need to be accurately transcribed to allow all relevant parties to understand what is happening in the location.   Entrepreneurs As mentioned above, many businesses now operate in a new normal way, in which many employees work from home, while others do the jobs at the office.  As a result, business owners now need video conferencing and remote working tools more than they once did. This leads to the increase in the demand for transcription service.  They need to appoint staff, who are responsible to make sure that minutes of the online meetings are available for the decision-makers like the managers and board of directors.   Transcription Agency: Who Else Needs It? Besides professionals in six major industries above, many other professionals and workers actually need transcription services to make their jobs better. Who are they? Keynote Speakers. Becoming a keynote speaker is certainly a great chance to market your company. You can provide the transcribed version of the speech and make it a perfect marketing tool. Audio and video podcasters.  You can offer a transcribed version of your podcasts to your business partners and audience. Written version is certainly easier to understand. Freelance writers and bloggers.  You can use transcribed audio and video files to enrich your contents and make the writing process much easier. The same case applies to bloggers or SEO experts, who want to write high-quality contents. When businesses and professionals use the technology to help their tasks done, the need for the help from a  will also increase.