Transcription services are required in almost every area of the business spectrum. The need to put into text, the spoken word, automatically creates demand for business transcription companies that specialize in this type of work. Mostly, it is the businesses themselves that do their transcription work to avoid the extra cost of transcription services.
However, too much of transcription work can put undue load on the existing staff. This can subject them to unnecessary work related stress and the quality of their important duties will also suffer. Also, special equipments need to be purchased for this transcription work, which will undoubtedly entail extra costs. Realizing this, more and more companies are now going for transferring their transcription work to a different company. This can be cheap too if the company goes for outsourced business transcription services.
To get transcription work outsourced, the company records their meetings, seminars or conventions. This is then uploaded to a specified location from where the transcription company can download it to start off with the transcription work. Companies accept audio files in various formats. MS Word or any other text processing software is used for creating transcripts. These transcripts would then be sent via email or hard copy or simply uploaded to the location from where the company can have it.
However, outsourced business transcription companies hire employees that need not be in sync with the rules and regulations of the country from where their clients send them recordings. This will not be a big hindrance if the work involves simple transcription. However, many transcription tasks include understanding data and transcribing accordingly.
Also, American accents and terms may be hard to follow for home grown transcriptionists. To avoid such problems, many business transcription companies follow the BPO model where the basic transcription staff works out of a low cost country like India while the quality editors and their support staff works out of the US or the country from where the files are sent. This ensures the best rates with no compromise on quality.
The classes of recordings that may need transcription in the business sector are varied. They include one on one interviews, lectures, conferences, seminars, Group discussions, Telephonic recordings, workplace interviews, focus group sessions etc.
A business transcriptionist's career is an interesting one to pursue. If you are a graduate with good English language skills and also are a good listener then, business transcription will be suitable for you.