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Intellect & SQS Escrow Validation Solutions adds peace of mind to Bighand’s Customers’
 The escrow and validation solutions from Intellect and SQS ensure BigHand customers have added peace of mind in their investment.
Background
Established in 1996, BigHand has been at the forefront of voice technology for over 10 years. With a heritage for excellence and innovation, BigHand has worked hard to become the legal market leader and now supplies digital dictation software across UK & Ireland, North America, Australasia, Europe and South Africa.
BigHand is a Sunday Times Tech Track 100 company and backed by LDC, the private equity division of the Lloyds TSB Group, and is one of the fastest growing software companies in the world. Over 800 firms and companies use BigHand’s software globally and a recent survey revealed that over 50 per cent of the top 250 UK law firms who have digital dictation have implemented BigHand software.
BigHand is a next generation voice productivity package that pushes the boundaries of digital dictation workflow technology. It has won multiple awards over its 10 year history and was voted 'Mobile Product of the Year 2008' at the CNet Business Technology Awards for the systems BlackBerry edition.
Challenge
As part of its complete digital dictation solution and dedication to customer’s needs, Bighand wanted to ensure that its customers could take advantage of a pre-packaged and independently validated software escrow agreement. This would allow Bighand’s customers to fulfil part of their IT governance obligations as quickly and cost effectively as possible.
The solution
The escrow solutions provided by Intellect and SQS were tailored to BigHand’s requirements. BigHand decided to opt for Intellect’s standard terms of business which are written by a leading commercial law firm.
BigHand understood that it was important for its customers that the materials it was depositing in escrow had been checked to ensure they could be used to produce the BigHand Digital Dictation product CD.
SQS, the #1 independent specialised test and quality assurance company, completed the Silver Validation service to provide the reassurance that Bighand customers had access to the complete source code required to build the Digital Dictation software in a release event.
The “silver validation” service involves SQS consultants undertaking an independent build of the Bighand Digital Dictation application from the materials deposited in escrow. This was performed with assistance and input from Bighand’s application development team. The service from SQS included:
- determining and validating the applications, files and 3rd party tools required to build the application
- complete build of the application with the above tools in an independently verified environment
- validation that the resulting files matched the contents of the Bighand Digital Dictation product CD
- a detailed report summarising the results of the validation and the additional tools required to build the software.
Quote
“The escrow and validation solution that Intellect and SQS provide is an efficient and cost effective way for us to ensure BigHand customers get the legal peace of mind they need, and differentiates us from competitors who don’t offer that level of investment security.” Simon Lewis, CTO, BigHand
Benefits
- Bighand’s customers are assured of access to source code in release events
- Bighand is able to win more customers by including a cost-effective escrow agreement from Intellect as part of its Digital Dictation solution
- Customers are reassured that escrow materials are complete and fit for purpose as a result of the validation process and report from SQS, the #1 independent specialised test and quality assurance company.
- Bighand’s customers are made aware of third party applications and tools, required to build the entire application, through the report.
- SQS recommended that additional files and tools were deposited in escrow.
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