Cultivating
the future
The facts
The customer
Bell Fish Company, Albany, Indiana, USA
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Philips partner
American Dictation
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The solution
SpeechAir Smart Voice Recorder
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While it might seem to be more commonly used in traditional professional environments, dictation isn’t just for attorneys, physicians and insurance adjusters. It can help any professional work more efficiently and productively — and truly make every minute of their time count.
In fact, sometimes dictation works best in highly mobile, non-traditional work environments. Bob Davis, CEO of Bell Fish Company in Indiana, is a perfect example of this. Bell Fish Company is a growing, innovative food tech company that sustainably grows great-tasting, high-quality, fresh Steelhead and Coho Salmon, free of antibiotics, added hormones, or any other additives.
Bell Fish Company’s next-gen farming process, called a recirculation aquaculture system, has the lowest environmental impact of any protein source, whether beef, pork, poultry, or other fish.
For the past three years, Davis estimates he has traveled 75 to 85 percent of each week meeting with customers, building his management team, and meeting with his partners and prospective investors.
To stay productive while travelling, Davis relies heavily on voice technology. Davis is a long-time dictation user, having employed dictation and transcription to create documents and capture ideas and plans since he was in college in the 1980s. Recently, Davis began using the Philips SpeechAir touchscreen smart voice recorder, the ideal voice technology tool for mobile professionals.
“I like the SpeechAir better than my traditional digital recorder,” Davis says. “For road warriors like me, it has everything I need.”
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I try not to waste time typing, because my fingers can’t keep up with my ideas. With dictation, I can get all my thoughts down in a reasonably coherent manner while they are fresh in my head, and then refine the work from there.
Bob Davis
CEO of Bell Fish Company
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Lifelong dictation user
Davis’ awareness of the simplicity of dictation actually began before college while watching the physicians in his father’s medical office dictate their patient notes and letters. When Davis was in college, he started dictating his school papers into an analog tape recorder that would later be transcribed by a friend. As a result, Davis never learned to be a very fast typist, which has not been a liability in decades as a successful business professional.
“I try not to waste time typing, because my fingers can’t keep up with my ideas,” Davis said. “With dictation, I can get all my thoughts down in a reasonably coherent manner while they are fresh in my head, and then refine the work from there.”
Davis dictates nearly everything, including emails that can’t be replied to in a few keystrokes. He estimates that short dictations, such as a quick email, can take him a few seconds. Longer documents, such as if he is editing a contract or capturing notes from an important meeting, may take 20 to 30 minutes.
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Strategic outsourcing
Davis uses a dedicated outsourced transcriptionist that types all his documents to ensure that he remains efficient. Once the first draft is complete, Davis dictates his edits for the next or final document version. Regardless of how many drafts it takes, Davis says dictation is still much faster than typing to get documents completed.
Best of both worlds
Throughout his career as an entrepreneur and investor across numerous industries, Davis has always used dictation.
Recently, Davis’ voice technology consultant, Scott Desrosiers with American Dictation in Wrentham, Massachusetts, showed him the Philips SpeechAir, a voice recorder that offers the touchscreen and WiFi connectivity of a smartphone, but the recording performance and functionality of a digital recorder.
SpeechAir features many familiar components of a digital recorder, but with mobility upgrades for true on-the-go use. For example, like Philips handheld recorders, the SpeechAir has an ergonomic and wear-free slide switch that is designed for efficient single-handed operation without having to look down at the device. It allows for quick and easy access to functions such as play, pause, stop, fast forward, fast rewind.
“I’ve been dictating a long time, so that slide switch is what I’m used to and comfortable with,” Davis says. “But it’s the WiFi that makes it really great. After I’m done with a dictation, I just send it from the device to my assistant without needing to create or type an email. It’s the best of both worlds – a digital recorder and a smartphone app.”
Quality and security
The SpeechAir also offers three embedded microphones to ensure recording quality, a durable Gorilla glass construction, as well as security features that help safeguard confidential client information. Recordings are encrypted in real time using a 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), while a PIN code protect against unauthorized use.
For Davis, however, the most essential feature for the SpeechAir is its simplicity that allows him to get things done faster and make the most of his limited time.
“SpeechAir is with me everywhere I go,” Davis says. “Having the right tools makes travel time productive time, and my SpeechAir is a critical tool that helps me manage the kind of exciting, rapid growth that our business has ahead.”