Unsolicited Testimonial

At a time when information can go stale quickly, an Irvine software company sees court reporters as the perfect corporate data gurus.

“These people are trained to record, compile and transmit information at incredibly high speeds,” said Bill Holmes, spokesman for Gigatron Software Corp., a small company that specializes in computer-aided transcription tools. “They’ve been using computer technology for more than a decade. So why should the legal community be the only ones taking advantage of their skills?”

According to legal experts, other corporate arenas are beginning to tap the skills of court reporters, from making quick changes in international contracts during negotiations to producing minutes of corporate meetings that shareholders can pull up on the Internet.

With certain modifications, a court reporter’s machine can plug into the serial port of any PC. Gigatron’s software, called OPEN Write 32, recognizes the steno strokes of a reporter’s machine and converts them into keyboard keystrokes on any Windows 95 and Windows NT application.

The program can transcribe the strokes up to 250 words a minute.

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P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com