Speech to text software is a powerful tool in transcribing processes. 

While that in itself is incredible, that would not be enough for the needs of a business, such as ones that need powerful transcription functions. This is where standalone speech to text programs come in. There are companies that develop these solely in-house or those who use speech to text AI engines. Some developers offer these for the use of other businesses in their own software. These are available as code snippets or can be connected with another platform using what is called an API. 

When used in an effective way, standalone speech to text applications are capable of adapting to your unique workflow, of expanding their dictionaries with your custom words, and with highlighting words being transcribed for easier correction. 

But you may wonder why you should invest in the software when you can avail of the services of human transcriptionists. Below, we outline some of the ways that innovative organizations use speech to text applications in their work. 

• To transcribe faster

AHIMA conducted a survey of medical transcriptionists and health information management professionals. The results showed that they averaged 21-24 hours for medical reports while for discharge reports the turnaround time was from 40 to 48 hours. This is because they deal with a lot of voice data that can be difficult to process at times.

Since they are working in the medical field, accuracy is a must since a single error can have great impacts on the health of individuals involved as well as in the reputations of the health professionals. 

It is similar in other industries–one mistake causes a ripple throughout a workflow that could cost a company millions to correct. That is why innovative companies, such as those in the finance sector, are turning to transcription software. It can help them put the spoken word into the written word faster and with greater accuracy. To put this in context, researchers from big tech companies like Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Baidu have been working on reducing the Word Error Rate (WER) of their automatic speech recognition engines. 

Based on published papers cited on Medium, Microsoft reported that their ASR has a WER of 5.1%, IBM by Watson has 5.5%, and Google has the highest accuracy with just 4.9%. In contrast, human transcriptionists have a WER of 5.1% to 5.9%. 

Google has the highest accuracy over Baidu Deep Speech, IBM Watson, and Microsoft.

By using ASR software for transcribing and complementing it with human transcriptionists, organizations can produce reports and other documents with fast turnaround time with no inaccuracies.

• To make corrections easier

One more thing that makes transcription a protracted process is because of corrections. Though automatic transcription software can transform dictated audio into written text, there would be moments when it cannot decipher terms perfectly. Transcriptionists have to be meticulous to avoid errors, which is why they have to listen again and review their transcribed data.

However, this process is something that a speech to text program can speed up. This is possible because of a word highlighting feature. This focuses on the word it is currently transcribing so you can see immediately what it is working on. In case the software makes a mistake, you can pause the audio and make corrections instantly. The audio pauses when you do and resumes only when you choose to do so. 

• To meet people’s need for convenience

If your blogging policy for employees disallows them to do their job outside of your office, then you may be throttling their productivity. But if you give them access to technological innovations, your workforce can become more fruitful, creative, fulfilled, and faithful to the organization. An Aruba report also shows that this is common among companies that provide IT support for the devices employees bring to work and those that enable the use of social media and messaging platforms for communication.

When you give your employees access to leading technology like speech to text software online, you empower them to be productive wherever they are. This also streamlines workflows because mobile workers can provide information to their in-office counterparts while they are on the go. This can lead to reduced work hours and lesser overtime expenditures, too. 

Your employees will not be the only ones to enjoy the benefits of mobile access to ASR software, however. You can enjoy this in your own work, too. You can provide instructions for projects like your custom CRM development to your team via voice and transform it into words before you send it as an email. This way, you do not have to disrupt your task to communicate with your organization. 

• To take control of the workflow

The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines workflow as a sequence of actions undertaken to complete a work process. Each company has its own and even teams have their specific set of steps. This applies to a transcribing team as well, which is why companies need flexible solutions in this aspect.

Fortunately, there are examples of ASR applications that have workflow engines that you can tailor to your needs. This way, you and your labor force have full control over your days and with a software that helps you rather than hinders you, you can produce top-notch outputs and accurate reports. 

• To create an expanded dictionary

In some business aspects, such as in online marketing, organizations use unique terms that are not found in standard dictionaries. These can be words that make a speech to text software for transcription trip up–they can insert words incorrectly, make word substitutions, or even delete them completely.

That is something that an automatic speech recognition software can resolve, though, especially when it has a custom word capability. This means that you can expand the dictionary of the program with words that are specific to your organization, new industry terms, and contractions. 

By adding terms that are not yet included in the dictionary, you can be sure that you will encounter fewer errors in the transcription. This will save your transcriptionists plenty of time during the correction procedure and you can get the data you need quickly, too. 

• AI in ASR engines

Automatic speech recognition software has powerful artificial intelligence engines under the hood. This use case is widespread in different sectors such as aviation, media and e-commerce, telephone-based customer service, and toys and games. It is applicable to enterprise-grade software as well such as automatic transcription programs.

Like in other fields, it is meant to accelerate work and to make sure that transcription is as accurate as possible. Earlier, we mentioned that companies use ASR software and complement it with a human workforce. That is because when a machine and human work together, they can have a higher accuracy rate, thereby reducing the number of corrections to be made at a later point and increasing turnaround times. 

The post Highly Effective Methods That Innovative Companies Use Speech to Text Software appeared first on Voice Report.

What is transcription software?

At its core, transcription software is a tool that helps in converting human speech to text using natural language speech recognition technology. Before the existence of this technology, some human transcribers used to listen to audio and type the text manually. This method of transcription is still extant, and businesses even now hire human transcribers for transcription services, but the market is clearly moving towards technology-based services that use Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to deliver more efficient and faster results at the least. The latest software is loaded with a plethora of other features, some of which we will discuss here soon. 

Transcription services are usually provided for businesses, legal or medical purposes wherein the requirement is more or less straightforward. Court proceedings need to be saved for record-keeping, and so does the medical reports dictated by doctors or healthcare professionals. Text format is more convenient for record-keeping since they take up lesser space than audio files and are also easily searchable for future references when required. Another industry that has a strong requirement for audio to text conversion is the finance industry. However, the transcription services needed in the financial domain is not as straight-forward, and it demands a reliable and feature-rich transcription software to meet its requirements.

Why Finance industry needs specialized transcription software?

Requirements of a financial transcription service are unique because of its subject matter since they mostly involve financial reports, sales reports, interim results, and recordings from annual meetings with investors and stakeholders. Accuracy and reliability are of utmost importance here, mainly because there are a lot of numbers involved in these reports – prices, interests, sales, income, and expenditures, etc. The format is not plain either and includes spreadsheets, forms, questionnaires, balance sheets, etc. These concerns nonetheless, transcription services are imperative in the finance industry. There are third-party transcription service providers that dedicate not one but two human transcribers when it comes to financial transcriptions – one for initial manual transcription and the other for proofreading to ensure there is error or mistake made in the first draft. 

In a recent survey conducted on financial advisors to evaluate the need and impact of tools for tasks like documentation, more than 60% felt strongly that automated tools backed by AI-based technologies would help reduce a lot of their mundane manual tasks and give them more time and bandwidth to focus on more important matters like client service. Using transcription software has helped them achieve detailed client notes since they are much faster than manual typing. Further, efficient and streamlined documentation process has led to better client service. Furthermore, automated transcription tools are more reliable and less error-prone, hence are risk-free than human transcribers and are less expensive too. 

However, while general notion was that financial advisors seek tools like transcription software to improve productivity in back-end tasks, leading to better compliance and better client service, more than 50% of the survey respondents were not satisfied with the existing automation tools used in their firms. They observed scope for improvement in the level of automation and features offered by such tools. 

How Voice Report can help Financial Service Companies?

Dictation can be done Anytime & from Anywhere: The best part about the Voice Report is that it is independent of any particular device. You can do the dictation as per your convenience at any time and anywhere only by calling a toll-free number. This can be done through a mobile app, a tablet, or a computer. The mobile apps have high-grade encryption so you can be assured that your data and information are safe. It also allows you to easily view the transcripts whenever you want without worrying about safety and security.

Workflow can be Automated: Everything is customizable as per your workflow and needs of your organization. You can do voice reporting through an automated portal customized for the unique processes and requirements of your organization. Your documentation requirements are also taken care of completely. Therefore, the customs form only shows relevant fields that are essential for your business workflow. 

Transcript Automation: Voice Report’s transcription software is highly accurate and a powerful tool with a perfect speech-to-text engine. Therefore, once you start using this software for transcription, you don’t need to check and go through it several times. A quick review from your team will ensure quality. What’s more, it highlights the words that might be incorrect, and you can click on it to make the correction. The audio automatically stops when you are making the corrections. Hence, it is straightforward to use and does not create too much of a hassle while you review the document in the end.

Benefits of Using a Transcription Software in Finance

Increases productivity: With transcription software, the turnaround time of your document will be massively reduced. It will also maximize overall productivity while maintaining high quality.  

Offers Robust Data Analytics: You also get a robust data analytics option and the possibility to create customizes reports. 

Gives You a Possibility to Work Offline: You can decide to work online or offline with the flexibility in recording options offered by your transcription software.

Streamlines the Entire Process: You can easily optimize all your processes by integrating the existing data as well as its management in order to ensure there is minimum data entry.

Final Words 

To sum up, transcription software can help the finance industry greatly. It helps in increasing the productivity of the organization massively because of the reduction in turnaround time and accuracy of the transcription. It also offers other features and a possibility to customize the software as per your needs and requirements. Therefore, you can use a tailored version to increase your productivity by adding some essential features specific to your business. Moreover, it is highly secure with high-grade military level encryption, so you don’t even have to worry about your data and its safety. Overall, using transcription software can really be a boon for your business. 

The post How transcription software can help finance industry? appeared first on Voice Report.

Writers and novelists have been using pen and paper for ages and have been typing away in their keyboards for the past few decades since the rise of computers. Though necessary, typing for long periods can get tedious and also isn’t time-efficient. Technology has now enabled us to do away with typing since it is now possible to directly convert speech to text. 

There are many voice-to-text converting software currently in the market, and this technology is only getting better with time. Gone are the times to have stenographers in the court-rooms and since technology is now at a level where voice to text conversion can happen at the same rate as the standard speech, there is no need for journalists to use short-hand either. Dictation software, in general, uses speech recognition technology that can recognize and understand spoken words. The identified words can then be converted to texts or used to perform other actions depending on the application. Let us now look through some dictation software and their features that can help us choose the right application depending on the purpose. 

Accuracy

One of the most crucial aspects of dictation software is its accuracy, which measures how often does the software identifies and understands the user’s voice correctly. The dictation software won’t be of much use if the user ends up correcting words misspelled by the software very often. It might get frustrating in such situations. Free versions like Google Voice Typing has around 90% accuracy and the technically advanced versions like Dragon’s Naturally Speaking and Voice Report boasts with an accuracy of 99%. Most software does an excellent job of identifying the standard dictionary words when spoken in a clear accent.

However, things get tricky when it comes to slangs, local accents, and non-dictionary words like names, abbreviations, and industry-specific jargons. Machine learning comes to the rescue here for advanced software that allows the computer to use the feedback provided by the user when there is a mismatch between what was spoken and what was recognized by the computer. Background noise and quality of the microphone used to record the sound also makes an impact when it comes to the accuracy of dictation software.

User Experience 

One of the aspects to look for when investing in software is its user-friendliness. The software might offer robust features, but if it is difficult to access and is limited in scope as to where such features can be of practical importance, then it wouldn’t be of much use to the user. Clean and straightforward user-interface with hassle free steps to save, download, and share the output is a nice feature. Having a mobile app for dictation is a must-have feature.

While specific software like Speech notes of Google Chrome browser basic, user-friendly features like autosave and auto capitalization of the letter at the beginning of the sentence, there are few other software like Voice Report further allows the user to make edits and also train the speech engine. Features like these, though apparently simple, are beneficial since they save a lot of time. Specific standard in-built commands let the user perform basic format like adding bullet points, bolding texts or italicizing, while some software also allows the user train such basic commands of convenience so that he/she doesn’t have to memorize the pre-defined standard voice commands.

Speed and max length

Basic versions of dictation software expect the user to speak slowly and clearly for it to properly recognize the words and can process only short periods of speech in one go. For example, Apple’s in-built dictation software works if the system is connected to the internet, and it uses Siri’s servers to let the user dictate up to 30 seconds of speech at a time. Advanced software like the one from Voice Report allows the user to speak generally for an extended period of time. Dictation software are getting popular across industries especially Medical Industry, Finance Industry, and Law Enforcement.

Language support

Most dictation software provides support only to a limited set of languages. However, there is progress being made to include more and more languages for voice-to-text dictation. Technology supporting language translation goes beyond dictation since it can be used in many other ways like helping foreign language learners and enabling a live conversation between two people who don’t share a common language etc. 

Price

While there are a few free software like Voice Typing in Google Docs, Speech notes in Chrome browser, Apple Dictation in Macs, etc., that does the necessary voice-to-text conversion at a limited speed and some standard commands to perform specific actions within the tool, there are also many paid version of Dictation software that offers enhanced features. Dragon Professional Individual and Voice Report are few paid software that uses Deep Learning technology to get better with experience so that it can learn to adapt your specific voice and accents, jargons used, etc.

Conclusion

Just a few years ago, speech recognition technology was in its nascent stage and using dictation software as an alternative to physical typing was tedious and at times, frustrating. However, the technology has proliferated, and we can now use a voice-to-text converter software or dictation software almost professionally to do away with manual typing completely. It is now possible for users to get inexpensive dictation software that provides high accuracy and user-friendly interface to make out note-taking task both more straightforward and effective.

The post How to choose the best dictation software? appeared first on Voice Report.

Documentation is an integral part of any organization. With the growing time crunch among financial industry professionals, they are turning to technologies enabling faster and accurate documentation. Financial organizations like banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, and other establishments require to comply by regulatory standards to improve functional transparency and mitigate risk. A smart technology that could unburden the financial advisors of voluminous documentation tasks and menial administrative duties is the need of the day. Speech recognition solutions with transcription and mobile dictation features prove to be the most beneficial solution as these allow to capture client interactions in real time with maximum accuracy.

How speech recognition works

Speech recognition uses language modeling and acoustic modeling algorithms. While language modeling refers to the theory the system uses to distinguish similar sounding words, acoustic modeling is based on the relationship between the audio signals and the linguistic units of speech. Accuracy of speech recognition depends on several factors like vocabulary size, language constraints, accent and pronunciation, background noises and echoes, and speaker’s dependence factors. 

Benefits of speech recognition

By using real time speech analytics, banks and other financial organizations can drive operational efficiency while maintaining quality. Financial advisors can use the solution to capture client notes, create an action plan, and prepare reports ─ and all of these by just using voice. The speech recognition technology also comes with transcribing features that enable quicker conversion of any speech to text with a good accuracy rate. The best part is the speed in which the reports can be produced, making the process a lot easier than it would have been if done manually.  

Speech recognition solutions enable faster capturing of client conversations leading to the efficient recording of asset. This mitigates the risks associated with inaccurate or incomplete documentation. Financial advisors find the technology highly reliable for safeguarding the brand reputation and developing better client relationships. 

Speech recognition technology coupled with mobile dictation and transcription features enable the advisors to complete and share documentation across the different medium. The technology takes care to streamline documentation process so that the advisors have enough time to concentrate on building client relationship and devising new ways to optimize output.

Much more than being a transcriber

Speech recognition solution paves the way for better client service at a reduced cost. The advisors can use the speech recognition technology not just for creating error-free and auditable reports but also for other daily tasks like setting up meetings, creating presentations for meetings with clients, and managing emails. 

The technology can be used much beyond the initial engagement with the client. For example, if a client has queries or requires additional information, the system can be triggered to check frequently asked questions to come up with solutions. These solutions exceed customer’s expectations and lead the interaction to a resolution in the shortest time possible. 

Speech recognition technology has evolved over the years to become a mainstream technology, taking customer experience to new heights. The technology combined with highly optimized

The post Speech Recognition Revolutionizing Finance Sector appeared first on Voice Report.