The Office Management faculty at Hocking College hosted a statewide Office Administration Seminar for two-year college faculties from across Ohio at the Ramada Inn in Nelsonville. One of the speakers for this event was eTranscription Solutions, Logan, Ohio.

eTranscription Solutions gave a brief presentation, describing the type of work eTranscription Solutions does, which includes businesses’ quarterly earnings and fiscal year-end conference calls, senate and congressional hearings, focus groups for market research firms, just to name a few. It was further explained how a lot of the transcription work is now done via the Internet by downloading audio from an ftp site, recording a phone conference or recording a live webcast. The audio is then transcribed using a special foot pedal and software which attaches to your computer. The final documents are then emailed back to the clients.

It was further described how more and more companies are switching to digital dictation systems instead of the regular cassette tape recording devices. Once dictated into the computer, the audio is then uploaded to an ftp site from which eTranscription Solutions downloads for transcription.

Further, the use of conferencing companies for meetings is growing at a rapid pace. Companies are finding it much more economical to schedule meetings by phone or via web conferencing instead of trying to assemble everyone in one place. This not only saves companies time, but also extensive travel expenses. These conferencing companies then provide the audio to eTranscription Solutions for transcription.

Finally, it was explained to the faculty the fact that it is so hard to find good transcriptionists. Most schools and colleges do not teach typing any more. Moreover, grammar and spelling skills seem to be a thing of the past. It was also stressed the need for proofreading skills to be a good transcriptionist.

On June 2nd, Sue Chiki and Barb Sunderlin from Hocking College took their students on a field trip to the main office of eTranscription Solutions. The students were shown the equipment that was needed for all types of transcription work, including digital, and how to use it. It was explained to the students that standard transcription units burn up too quickly and that digital was more economical. In addition, standard transcription units are practically a thing of this past as more and more companies are going digital.

It was further explained how transcription can be done by never having to leave your home; however, a person still needs to have an office environment or a place where you can work undisturbed. To do this type of work, a person must be very structured and self-disciplined.

It was also stressed to the students how important it is in this line of work to research information in order to provide an accurate transcript. There is so much knowledge to be gained and information to be found on the Internet than was ever made available to us before, that this part of the job has been made so much easier. No client likes to have a document returned to them with either their name or their product names misspelled!

In addition, it was stressed to the students that they need to be careful when searching the Internet for this type of work. There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there with all kinds of scams. If someone you are applying with asks you for money upfront, move on to the next. No reputable company will do this.