Why are ‘Batch Deliveries’ not feasible/advisable in Transcription Industry

Definition: Whenever the client requires the delivery of transcripts in batches as opposed to a single delivery of the entire job, it is termed as Batch Delivery.
Batch Deliveries are not our standard service and we do not encourage them, the reasons for which will be clear as you read through this blog.

Batch Deliveries usually are favoured by clients in rare cases where;
1. Clients need urgent delivery of the entire job and it is not possible for us to process that job in a day. Thus, sometimes clients request us to split the job up in batches so that each batch will have a separate delivery schedule.

2. In some cases where clients have a very large job, for example, an entire Conference/Symposium which spans over an entire week, the clients upload the audios on a daily basis and hence the delivery is then scheduled in batches as per the turnaround time (TAT) for that particular file.

Disadvantage of Batch Deliveries:
1. Serious Quality Implications: With regards to batch delivery, there are multiple audio files with urgent TAT. These files are usually processed as single entities, not an entire job, and can get allotted to different Editors. This raises the issue of quality/consistency in the overall output of the job. If it is a single delivery, then we always try and give the entire job to a single Editor (owner) so he has a good understanding of the subject matter of the job, the speakers in the files with regard to identification, etc., and hence the final transcripts are accurate and of the best quality.

2. Consistency Issues: In batch deliveries, there are multiple files and multiple Editors work on it at the same time which usually results in issues of inconsistency in formatting/speaker identification, etc. For example, there may be instances where the Main Speaker has identified himself/herself at the start of the symposium/interview in the first audio file. As it is a batch delivery, the Editor doing the second or subsequent files might not be the same person who worked on the first file. Hence, the second Editor might miss out on that information given in the first audio. This will result in incorrect or no speaker identification in the subsequent files which leads to major consistency issues in the job.

3. Delayed Deliveries: Sometimes, as there are three to four batches of the same job that have to be delivered over a span of 3–4 days, there may be a high chance that some batches may get delayed. This is because it is very challenging for the Process Manager to keep a track of these batches as compared to a single delivery for the entire job.

Thus, we always encourage our clients to avoid Batch Delivery Schedules and to keep a single delivery schedule for the entire job so that we can assure our clients an unclear-free, optimal quality output with timely deliveries.