3 Things to Consider Before You Outsource Data Entry

With the booming growth of the global digital economy, the reliance of companies of all types and sizes on data analytics has also grown. From moguls like Google and Amazon to start-ups struggling to stand on their feet, data can be a helpful tool for anyone who uses it properly to fuel their business strategies. 

But, here’s the kicker- how do you make sure that the data that’s responsible for making millions of dollars worth of business decisions is correct in the first place? 

When an organization mulls over the decision to outsource data entry, they consider many things. After all, data is costly. Everything, from capturing it to cleansing, verifying, and sorting it, requires resources. And, bad data can have unacceptable repercussions. It’s natural for businesses to wonder if the cost of hiring data entry services justifies itself. 

So, here’s what you should keep in mind before you outsource data entry. 

3 Essential Factors to Consider Before You Outsource Data Entry 

• Data Quality 
• Manual vs Automated Data Entry 
• Types of Data Requirements 

Let’s jump in, shall we? 

1. Data Quality- A Critical Step to Success 

According to the research firm Gartner, poor data quality costs businesses somewhere between $9.7 million & $14.2 million a year. 

That is a lot of money wasted on lost opportunities. 

In addition to lost revenue, bad data quality can also negatively impact operating costs & increase overhead costs. The damage isn’t just limited to monetary loss. It can harm your reputation by causing poor customer experiences. It can impact products and development processes, tank marketing efforts, and negatively affect stock prices. 

Two primary reasons responsible for poor-quality data are-

• System challenges
• Human errors

Human errors are mostly about typos that could occur because of the tedious nature of the job, distraction, fatigue, or mistyping. Conformity can be a problem when an employee may forget to follow data entry rules. Uniqueness is also affected in cases where multiple people enter the same data in different ways, thus creating many entries for single data. In the absence of timely maintenance, even the valuable data can become obsolete and hence, useless. 

As for the system challenges, problems can arise if the systems don’t integrate properly, data quality is compromised during migration, or data integrity is messed up by platform updation, etc.  

Steps that Encourage Quality Data

There are well-defined measures that can help keep the data quality in a healthy condition. Before you outsource data entry to any external provider, it’s a good idea to ensure they follow these practices. 

• Defining usefulness metrics for data quality, i.e. accuracy, relevancy, validity, completeness, understandability, timeliness, etc. 
• Qualitative and Quantitative assessment of data validity and accuracy of primary attributes
• Profiling data to make it useful, i.e. clarifying the structure, defining relationships, and creating rules for analysis
• Enforcing standards on data to ensure conformity with business objectives
• Using proper matching and linking techniques to uncover unique insights
• Monitoring the entire process to make sure the data and processing standards are up-to-date and in sync with the current objectives 

2. Manual Versus Automated Data Entry 

Torn between hiring automated or manual data entry services? Well, how about both? 

It’s important to understand that automated and manual data entry carry unique situation-specific benefits. They outdo each other in specific instances. However, when it comes to ensuring good data quality at a quick turnaround time, what you need is a balanced composition of manual and automated systems that best fits your organizational requirements. 

Confused? Let’s sort this out with an example. 

Amazon is the world’s largest eCommerce company. It currently adopts an industry-leading supply-chain practice that uses the latest technology and smart strategy to optimize the entire customer’s journey. At the same time, Amazon gives its customers a quick way to reach human executives for their problems. The lesson- this eCom giant chose to automate specific processes while keeping a few others on manual to create the most beneficial combination for its customers. 

That’s how organizations should think when it comes to choosing automated or manual data entry services. So, when you outsource data entry, here’s what any service provider should do for you-

• Accurately put down your business requirement, immediate goals, and long-term goals
• Create a scalable solution that utilization manual workforce as well as automated systems for data entry 
• Challenge manual processes frequently to uncover their issue and optimize their performance 
• Analyze automated data entry processes to justify their impact on ROIs
• Manage and update the data entry process accordingly 

3. Types of Data Requirements 

The data requirements of industries depend on many factors. Hospitals would make patient records; eStores will create customer records; insurance companies will collect claim records. Of course, at its core, the concept of handling that data remains the same. However, technicalities differ with changing industry verticals. 

Hiring data entry services will depend on the kind of data your organization needs and the operations it requires to develop and grow. 

Here are some standard data requirements that most external data entry providers offer-

• Remote/manual data entry 
• Online copying, pasting, and sorting
• Data editing and indexing
• Survey forms processing
• Data capturing and enrichment
• Data cleansing and standardization
• Data validation
• Data mining 
• Data matching and linking 

Of course, it isn’t an exhaustive list. There are many other data entry services that an external provider will offer to you. Just look for the ones you need before welcoming someone on-board. 

Benefits of Outsourcing Data Entry As Opposed to Doing in In-house

Benefits of handing over your data entry requirements to a third-party also include- 

• Complete data management 
• Process efficiency 
• High-quality, accurate data
• Quick results 
• Flexibility and capability to manage different projects at once 
• Quality support
• Minimal risk
• Reduced chances of errors 
• Reduced operational costs 

Still Got Doubts about Availing External Data Entry Services? Let Us Help! 

Hiring a professional data entry service provider saves your cost and time while giving you a competitive edge in the market. And, it doesn’t compromise your core staff, leaving them to focus on the more critical operations, that they are trained to excel at. 

But, of course, considering the doubts around data security and confidentiality in an increasingly complicated online world, it’s natural to have doubts.

Data-Entry-India.com, a pioneer in data entry services, can help you by answering all your questions and queries regarding the matter. We’ve been delivering automated and manual data entry services of exceptional quality for more than a decade. Backed by a team of experienced professionals, latest industry standards, and the best tools, we know what it takes to design solutions that best fit different organizational goals. Just drop us a word at info@data-entry-india.com, and we’ll not only help you understand the point of outsourcing data entry but also provide a solution for you.