Reduce Admin Work by Outsourcing Data Entry

What is data entry?

To remain profitable and competitive, businesses today must develop and implement effective data management strategies. Data has become one of the most precious resources in business today. Like any other resource, such as time and money, data must be managed and controlled. At the root of this is the very basic process of data entry.

Data Entry is a specialized and time-consuming task, but despite its importance, data entry is a non-core business process. It falls within the realm of routine administrative tasks, and back-office support. It ranges from the simple scanning of documents, or the transcription of handwritten notes, to the management of an accounting ledger with numerous entries.

What is outsourcing?

Outsourcing is a common business practice, whereby services or job functions are delegated to an outside party. There are two broad categories of outsourcing: Onshore and Offshore. As the name implies, onshore is when you hire talents located within your country while offshore is where you hire talents located outside your country. Choosing between these two often depends on issues such as data security, availability and costs.

Types of data entry you can outsource

Poor data management can result in poor data quality and data loss which can have negative impacts on business intelligence and decision making. The first step in data management is ensuring that all the organization’s relevant data is entered correctly into a system. Data entry requires a special skill set – focusing on speed and accuracy.

Outsourcing to an external party means that a business does not have to bear the costs of a specialized team managing what are basically support services and can free up employee time to focus on core business activities. There are many different types of data entry that can be outsourced to outside parties, including:

Data cleansing

Data cleansing includes filtering information, ensuring removal of duplicates and corrections of errors – for example in customer information lists and other databases.

Data conversion

This includes converting data from one form to another – for example transferring written documents into digital formats, scanning documents, PDF conversion, transcription of audio files and handwritten documents.

Data processing

Data processing includes collecting and modifying information into usable formats, image captioning, accounting entries and form processing.

Data classification

It includes categorizing and organizing data according to set criteria – for example, cataloging, updating and indexing product lists.

What are the benefits of outsourcing data entry?

For businesses of any size, data entry outsourcing can be an essential part of their data management strategy. Outsourcing can have many benefits, including:

Increasing efficiency

Accuracy is increased when data entry is handled by dedicated professionals. Reducing error and improving data quality can have many positive knock-on effects on data analytics and the ability to improve organizational performance.

Providing organizational scalability

It is typical that data entry needs fluctuate according to the business. There may be seasonal impacts – for example increasing sales during holiday seasons, or there may be changing project related demands. Outsourcing data entry enables any business to hire the needed resources to complete the work only when they are needed – scaling up and down as required.

Improving business productivity

Outsourcing routine tasks frees up the time of other employees – allowing them to focus on core business activities like marketing, finance and operations.

Optimizing costs

Outsourcing eliminates costs related to hiring and training data entry personnel. It also removes any concern about turnover. At the same time, outsourcing can be even more cost-effective, because an organization can focus on hiring the best qualified and best value personnel as necessary.

How to choose the right data entry outsourcing partner

We’ve focused on many of the benefits of data entry outsourcing, but what are the factors that could make a company hesitant to take the plunge? As we’ve stressed, business data is a vital resource. So, if you decide to outsource data you have to be sure about data security and confidentiality. Data freelancers can be found on a variety of freelancer platforms so how can you be sure that you are contracting the best people for the project?

The first step is to determine your data entry requirements. This includes determining the volume and value of the data involved. Once you have a clear picture of the “scope of work”, you can proceed to find an outsourcing partner. The key factors to look for when you are selecting a source for your data entry needs include:

• Experience of potential hires
• Vetting of personnel
• Data security and integrity

Unlike other freelancer platforms, Pangaea X specializes in data analytics. Pangaea X acts as your outsourcing partner accompanying you every step of the outsourcing journey – helping you to connect with the best qualified freelancers, facilitating hiring and payments, and troubleshooting and quickly resolving any issues.

Start outsourcing your data entry projects and transform your data strategy today.

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