Note we do NOT translate documents, only recordings. And we don’t offer onsite transcription, such as at a live hearing, only uploaded recordings.
The pitch:
Trusted since 1995 as "The Intelligent Transcription Service" -- with non-artificial intelligence. Confidential, accurate and guaranteed transcription -- in English and Spanish, for government, archival, non-profit, academic, corporate clients. A preferred vendor at Northwestern and many other universities. Ask about discounts for authors, artists, and non-profits.
In this age of AI transcription start-ups, we especially appeal to new clients for our confidentiality and accountability — with a limited and traceable footprint of your recording. When you upload a recording to us, it doesn’t disappear forever into the online Void. We don’t use it to train AI or keep it past a specified period. In most cases, unless you specify otherwise, we only have it (temporarily) accessible to the manager and trusted transcriber. We also support workarounds where you can grant only the transcriber access to a ShareFile that you manage.
Our transcribers have established long relationships with us and our clients, with most having been with us for at least a decade, and some for at least 25 years. With a very low staff turnover, the result of fair wages paid, we can provide consistent service and make the most of your hard-earned research, whether for a dissertation, academic study, corporate report, book or documentary.
We began in Chicago and moved just north to Evanston, Illinois, in 2011. Our clients now range from local to national, and even international. We are a "preferred vendor" at many other universities and medical schools, including the University of Chicago and the University of California-Irvine. Other recent and repeat clients include S.C. Johnson, the Chicago History Museum, the American Association of Law Libraries, NORC, AL Media (political consultants), c/change, Mount Sinai Hospital, and many students, professors, business writers, journalists and filmmakers.
As of 2016, we are both a registered "small woman owned business" and "woman-owned business" with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). NAICS Code 56140, PSC Code: R603.
Paula Kamen, the company founder—an author who still manages the business—had begun doing this work transcribing her own interviews for her writing work many years before. In the early 1990s, she worked as a transcriptionist at the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago and saw a need for a premium-level transcription service, which could be trusted by academic and corporate clients alike.
When we started, the work was strictly on audio cassettes. Always anticipating new technology, we have, of course, evolved with the times and now mostly handle digital transcription of both audio and video. We continue to transcribe all kinds of formats, whether academic (IRB- and CITI-certified) or corporate, or interview or focus group transcription.
In 2017, we have become HIPAA compliant in the transfer and encrypting of health-related interviews. We also have several CITI-certified transcribers.
Other related services include website proofreading and typing manuscripts from a PDF to a Word document.
