Product Spotlight – Dragon Professional Group

2016 heralds the release of a new version of Nuance’s award winning speech recognition software solution, Dragon.

Dragon Professional Group is an enterprise ready speech recognition solution that enables fast, accurate dictation with robust customisation features to improve documentation productivity for multiple users within an organisation, whether they’re in the office or on the road.

There are a number of exciting new features that improve on the existing Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional v13 solution.

Central administration for Dragon Professional Group
Dragon Professional Group is enabled to work with Nuance User Management Centre (NUMC). Designed for corporate deployments of Dragon Professional Group speech recognition software, Nuance User Management Centre provides powerful, yet easy to use, cloud-based central user administration capabilities that allow organisations to enable and manage these solutions across multiple users. Nuance User Management Centre helps businesses to ensure efficient use of their licences, meet requirements for reporting accuracy and centrally manage their Dragon Professional Group deployments for significant time and cost savings.

Support for published applications in Citrix virtualised environments
Dragon Professional Group supports installation on Citrix XenApp or Citrix XenDesktop servers, enabling users to dictate from workstations that do not have Dragon installed. In this configuration, the Dragon application is only installed on the same Citrix server as the target application that will be used for dictation, such as Microsoft Word or a records management system. By installing Dragon on a Citrix server computer, you can have Dragon rely on the Citrix server for all processing activities. Furthermore, deploying Dragon on a Citrix XenApp or Citrix XenDesktop server provides Dragon users with Full Text Control, for supported applications running on that same Citrix server.

Enhanced Transcription
Dragon Professional Group offers the ability to accurately transcribe another single speaker’s voice from pre-recorded audio files or from podcasts without having to create and train a profile using a recording of that single speaker reading preselected text. To transcribe an audio file, Dragon checks if your profile needs a transcription source created and will lead you through a training process. If your audio recording is of a different speaker, you must create a new profile. Only a 90 second audio clip of that speaker (instead of the speaker personally present to read a passage) is required for training. .m4a format is now supported (in addition to .wav, .wma, .mp3, .dss and .ds2).

Easier to use
Dragon Professional Group offers the following features to make it even easier to use:

• Newly designed Dictation Box, so you can easily create or edit text by voice even in applications not supported by Dragon
• Additional help with in-context commands when user asks “What can I say?” at any time, giving you not only a hint on the spot but allowing you to learn these essential commands over time
• A list of relevant commands will immediately assist you if you ask “What can I say?” when working in for example, Outlook, Word, WordPerfect, Excel, Web browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox) and on the desktop
• The “What can I say?” window offers additional help with the following:
  • Show navigation commands
  • Show correction commands
  • Show formatting commands
  • Show punctuation commands
  • Open Help
• Easier access and management of “Text-and-Graphics” commands (or “auto-texts”) in the Tools menu
• Easier access and management of user-defined commands in the Tools menu with “Manage Custom Commands” option

Windows 10 logo certification
Dragon Professional Group is Windows 10 logo certified.

Office 2016 support
Dragon Professional Group is fully tested and supported with Full Text Control capabilities and Natural Language Commands with Microsoft Office 2016.

Nuance PowerMic II support
Dragon Professional Group supports Nuance PowerMic II. PowerMic II is a robust, ergonomic handheld microphone featuring simplified, thumb-control operation (for dictating, editing, navigating, and reviewing documents using speech recognition), programmable buttons and integrated mouse functionality. It is ideal for professionals who are looking for new levels of dictation speed, ease-of-use and productivity.

Dragon Professional Group is currently available (as a Volume License Agreement starting from a 1 user license) delivered as an electronic download with microphones sold separately. Contact us for pricing and further information.

Nuance User Management Center licenses are supplied as a separate product and should be available in February 2016. Pricing to follow shortly.

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A day in the life of a trainer

Training is an essential part of providing clients with a complete solution to meet their individual assistive technology or productivity needs. Without product tuition, clients could be left with a thick user manual, a software DVD and no real knowledge of how best to get started.

Whether it’s a one-to-one course on how to use Dragon Professional to dictate letters and e-mails quickly or a group session teaching doctors how to operate their latest digital recorders effectively, training (by a qualified tutor) provides end-users with the tools to become more productive and achieve the results they want from their software or hardware.

What’s a typical day in the life of one of our assistive technology trainers like?

“I always try to get to a client’s address 15 minutes before the session starts so that I have time to introduce myself, get to know the client and find out what they want to achieve in that session.

For training locations in the South of England, I tend to drive to the client and pre-arrange parking but for locations further afield, I generally get the train to their home town, or close to their workplace, the night before and stay in a hotel so that I’m refreshed and ready to assist them.

We have refined our training guides and course structures over many years of providing assistive technology & digital dictation tuition which clients really appreciate. We also modify, on the fly,  core training structures to suit how clients want to use their new software and hardware tools.

One size does not fit all when it comes to how individuals use applications such as speech recognition software (Dragon Professional 14) or text-to-speech software (Read & Write Gold 11.5). I ensure that, during the day, I tailor how I teach these applications to allow clients to operate them effectively in their environment and in their own in-house systems.

Most training sessions last about 3 hours (normally 10am to 1pm) although we also provide full day sessions. Depending on what applications users are supplied with, subsequent visits may be required, after a period of time that allows the client time to practice the skills I’ve taught them.

I leave the client at the end of each session happy that I’ve made a difference to their working (and often home) lives and have enabled them with a new set of skills. I leave my contact details (and our helpdesk number) so that once I‘ve left the site, they’ve got access to continued support. No two days are the same so it’s an interesting and rewarding job.”

To get the right set of training tools & understand how to get the most out of your new software & hardware, contact us and arrange to get trained.

Click here to go to our contact page.

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Client feedback – Success stories

Bill Gates famously said “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve”.

We regularly contact clients we have worked with to gain an insight into their own training experiences and to monitor how well we are delivering the services we provide.

These are some of their comments:

Dragon software feedback...
"Training was clear to understand, pitched at the right level for me to understand. George was very knowledgeable and more patient than I had expected."
"Neil was not hesitant in answering all my silly questions even when using the software."

Read & Write feedback...
"I must say George is very sincere and his teaching method is very good that easily any one will grasp the information and build the confidence in implementing what they learned. He is an asset for your company."
"Neil was an amazing trainer and very helpful. He always supported my questions and made me feel comfortable discussing my learning difficulties."

Dragon scripting feedback...
"Veena tailored the training specifically to my needs and equipped me with sufficient scripting language/skills which provided me with a strong basis to tackle any future scripting requirements I may have."

Dyslexia Strategy Coaching feedback...
"Extremely personal and built instant rapport."
"Veena was able to focus in on key issues very quickly and come up with practical strategies based around the way I work."

If you have received software or hardware training recently (or had one-to-one Dyslexia Strategy Coaching), we would be grateful for your feedback to enhance our trainers Continual Personal Development and to understand any additional needs you may have.

Our feedback form can be accessed by clicking here.

If you have any questions, please use our contacts page which can be found by clicking here.

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Owed to a Spell Chequer

English is a very irregular language filled with many strange spelling and pronunciation rules. To highlight this, we thought we republish a poem (that’s been in the public domain for a number of years) illustrating this.

It’s called “Owed to a Spelling Chequer” and has many variations – we liked this one...

I have a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye cannot sea

When eye strike a quay to right a word
I weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait away

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two late
And eye can put the error rite
Its rarely, rarely grate

I’ve run this poem threw it
I’m shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect in it’s weigh
My Chequer tolled me sew!

(Sauce unknown).

We have a range of software tools to help with reading & writing using a computer – contact us for further information and pricing.

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Join our team - New Assistive Technology Trainer required

Due to our recent business expansion, we are looking for a new member of staff to join our team. Details are below.

Assistive Technology Trainer

Freedom of Speech Ltd have a collective experience of over 40 years installing, training and supporting speech recognition solutions & assistive technology for a wide variety of companies across the UK who want to improve their document turnaround time, staff efficiency or to enable disabled staff to operate a PC efficiently.

We are looking for an Assistive Technology Trainer to join our team.

As an Assistive Technology Trainer you will be responsible for providing one to one (and group) assistive technology training (mainly in Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Texthelp Read and Write) to our clients based around the UK (mainly in locations north of London and in the Midlands region).

Experience has shown us that good communication skills and the ability to adapt to any situation are paramount to being a proficient software trainer.

Have you any experience in training or teaching?  Ideally the candidate would have experience in basic Windows applications. This role would suit a motivated, professional person with good organisational skills and a calm manner. A person who enjoys a busy and proactive work environment.

Full product training and support will be offered to the successful candidate.

Skills required
Working knowledge of MS Office (Word, Excel & Outlook) together with a good telephone manner and confident/friendly communication skills.

Skills desired
Assistive technology software knowledge/training experience including Dragon NaturallySpeaking (speech recognition solutions), Read and Write (text-to-speech solutions) and SparkSpace (mind mapping solutions).

Job package
We are looking to offer a good salary (dependant on experience), company car allowance & private healthcare insurance. Additional benefits include laptop, mobile phone, satellite navigation & company/travel expenses.

Working week
Working hours: Monday to Friday, 9.00am - 5.00pm (some earlier starting/ending times may be required dependant on training bookings and client location). You will travel from your home to each client but will be expected to attend occasional meetings at our head office in Worthing, West Sussex.

If you are interested in this challenging new role, send us your CV (via post or e-mail), your current salary and confirmation that you have a full, clean driving license to: Gary May (garymay@freedomofspeech.co.uk)

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Time to upgrade to Read&Write 11.5 – It’s now Windows 10 Ready

Have you considered updating your Read&Write for Windows software to version 11.5?

This update provides even more ways for Windows users to access Read&Write – including in the new Windows 10 operating system, the Windows Edge browser, Office 365 in Edge and on high resolution devices and tablets.

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Read&Write 11.5 is now fully compatible with the new Windows 10 operating system, which was released earlier this summer and is now supported in the Edge browser. This means that Read&Write users can access tools like Text to Speech, Word Prediction, Dictionaries, Highlighters and other features from the Read&Write toolbar when they’re reading and working inside Edge. This is in addition to the existing support for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome,
 
Additionally, Read&Write 11.5 is now supported in Office 365 in Edge. As more and more internet users prefer the convenience of accessing their documents across devices with cloud-based services, loyal Microsoft users are transitioning to Office 365 and the Edge browser.   As schools move towards deploying Windows 10 and using Office 365 in the Edge browser, Read&Write for Windows will be there to provide reading and writing supports in this environment.

In addition to support for the new Windows operating system and browser, Read&Write 11.5 has now been optimised to work on devices with high resolution screens such as the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet.

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Now Read&Write can also better support users with visual impairments – content can be enlarged on your screen without affecting the look of the Read&Write features and toolbar.

This new update to Read&Write for Windows is available as a free, automatic update for all users that are using Version 11.5. You’ll get it right away if you turn on your automatic updates, or you can go to the ‘About’ box from your Read&Write toolbar and click the link to check for new updates there.

If you are running earlier versions (10.0 or 11.0) of Read&Write, please contact us to discuss pricing to upgrade to the latest version.

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Dragon Powers Professional Dictation and Documentation for PC, Mac, the Enterprise and Mobile Devices

Nuance Communications, Inc. have announced a new portfolio of Dragon speech recognition solutions, including the new Dragon Anywhere mobile app for iOS and Android, the new Dragon Professional Individual and Dragon for Mac desktop solutions, and Dragon Professional Group with the Nuance User Management Centre for group and corporate deployments.

These new products are, for the first time, enabling seamless synchronisation of key Dragon features across PC, Mac, iOS and Android through the cloud, ensuring that organisations and individual professionals can remain productive wherever work takes them, by accessing a consistent, customised dictation experience on any device.

Many companies, organisations and individual professionals across industries, including legal, public safety, social services and education, face critical, yet time-consuming documentation and reporting demands that too often lead to paperwork backlog, missed reporting deadlines or non-compliance. In addition, documentation inefficiencies can force professionals to focus too much time on typing and too little time on clients and core business activities that drive growth and profitability.

The innovative solutions in the new Dragon portfolio empower professionals and organisations to work smarter and more productively – in the office and on the go—with fast, accurate dictation and transcription, advanced customisation, seamless integration across devices, and centralised management of multi-user and enterprise deployments. As a result, professionals can complete documentation tasks more efficiently from any location with a personalised speech recognition experience customised to how they work and what they say.

“The time-consuming nature of documentation and paperwork can place considerable productivity constraints on organisations and individual professionals alike,” said Peter Mahoney, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Dragon. “By expanding our Dragon portfolio, we are extending the benefits of robust speech recognition and transcription across the workforce. Now, organisations can better manage their speech deployments, professionals can increase their productivity in the office, and field workers can complete their documentation in a more timely and convenient manner.”

Dragon for Groups and the Enterprise
The latest enterprise-ready Dragon solution includes Dragon Professional Group speech recognition software, Dragon Anywhere for mobile employees, the Nuance User Management Centre for centralised administration, usage tracking and license management. This complete solution can be deployed quickly and effectively to meet specific enterprise requirements and drive professional productivity across an organisation.

The new Nuance User Management Centre enables enterprises to track employee usage of Dragon Professional Group, redistribute licenses based on employee use, and manage or share customisations, including custom words, commands and auto-texts, across multiple Dragon users. Dragon Professional Group also supports Citrix virtualised environments for published applications. For added flexibility, Dragon Anywhere can be deployed and managed across an organisation as part of a corporate license, enabling enterprise customers to empower employees with professional-grade mobile dictation for significant productivity gains in the office or on the road.

Dragon Professional Individual
Dragon Professional Individual is an all-new version of Dragon for PC, enabling fast, easy and accurate dictation and transcription of documents, notes and reports with a fully customisable experience that optimises productivity at work. With advanced capabilities for customising words, automating repetitive tasks, and creating auto-texts to insert frequently-used text – all by voice – Dragon Professional Individual makes it easy to dictate, edit and format documents, spreadsheets, presentations or emails, fill out forms or simply reduce the physical stress of typing. Integration with the new Dragon Anywhere mobile app lets professionals continue documentation work—using all of their custom words and commands—on their desktop or mobile device for seamless productivity from any location.

Dragon for Mac
The new Dragon for Mac brings powerful, professional-grade speech recognition to Mac users. Upgraded with the latest Nuance speech recognition technology, it delivers greater speed and higher accuracy than previous Mac versions. In addition, a redesigned user interface makes it easier to access key features, get vocabulary recommendations, and add custom words and commands. Dragon for Mac enables professionals to dictate reports, spreadsheets, emails, and other documentation quickly and accurately, while advanced transcription converts any single-speaker audio file into an editable document. The ability to synchronize Dragon for Mac with the new Dragon Anywhere mobile app lets professionals continue working on documents at the office or on the road to be more productive anywhere.

Availability and Pricing
Dragon Professional Group and the Nuance User Management Centre will be available in English in the UK in late Autumn 2015.

Dragon Professional Individual will be available in English in the UK in late September 2015. Dragon Professional Individual is available to users upgrading from Dragon Premium, versions 12 and higher.

Dragon for Mac will be available in English in the UK in September 2015, with special upgrade pricing of for registered users of Dragon Dictate for Mac, versions 3 and higher.

Dragon Anywhere for iOS and Android will be available in English in the UK as a subscription-based application in late Autumn 2015.

Additional language versions of all Dragon products will be available later in 2015.

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