Data Entry Outsourcing: Essential for Your Business?

In this day and age when data is becoming a very valuable asset for many businesses, virtually every business involves at least one data entry task in their operations. 

With the volume of data generated by businesses continuously growing every year, the volume of data entry and data processing tasks will also grow. 

On the other hand, data entry is infamous for being a time-consuming and challenging task, and while many data entry jobs are relatively simple, there are also specialized data entry tasks that need to be assigned to skilled experts. 

This creates a dilemma for many businesses: hiring a full-time employee solely for executing the data entry task might not be cost-effective, especially when the needs to perform data do not come regularly. However, data entry is indeed a necessity.

So, what’s the solution?

One viable solution is data entry outsourcing, and in this guide, we will discuss all you need to know about data entry outsourcing, its benefits, potential concerns, and whether outsourcing your data entry processes is the right choice for your business. 

Without further ado, let us begin. 

What Is Data Entry Outsourcing?

Data entry outsourcing is, simply put, the act of outsourcing your data entry tasks and processes to a third-party company. 

But first, what is data entry? 

Data entry is the process of inputting data into a digital database, which often involves transcription (or conversion) of information from one form into another. For example, when we transcript a handwritten note into a Word document, we can consider that an act of data entry. 

Data entry tasks can be very simple, like transcribing an audio note into a text document, but can sometimes involve complex conversions and even calculations (common in accounting and scientific data input). There are cases when a data entry expert with adequate skills and experience is needed to perform the job. 

With that being said, data entry jobs could come in various different forms; 

• Transcribing handwritten document
• Product data entry
• Survey data entry
• Invoice transcription and processing
• Inputting Excel database
• Image data entry
• Offline data entry (i.e. forms processing)
• Document management services
• Meeting transcription

How Data Entry Outsourcing Works?

While there are now various service providers and vendors offering outsourced data entry services, generally you have two different options:

Onshore data entry outsourcing

Outsourcing your data entry process within your own country or within your geographic region. If you live in a developed country (i.e. US or European countries), then this approach can be more expensive, but it’s easier to collaborate with the outsourcing vendor. For example, you can invite them for face-to-face meetings when necessary and you can eliminate issues like cultural differences and language barriers. 

Offshore data entry outsourcing

This approach refers to outsourcing your data entry process to professionals from foreign countries. The main benefit of this approach is that you can hire data entry experts from countries with lower labor costs than yours without sacrificing quality. Oworkers, for example, specializes in providing data entry services from Bulgaria, Madagascar, and Egypt for only up to $4 per hour while ensuring accuracy and service quality. 

Why Data Entry Outsourcing? Key Benefits

As discussed, the basic idea of data entry outsourcing is to eliminate the need of hiring and training your in-house data entry team, as well as investing in the required infrastructures. This, in turn, can provide several key benefits: 

Cost-Efficiency

The main benefit (and also the main objective) of outsourcing data entry processes is to reduce your operational expenses of executing the data entry process, as well as to eliminate the costs tied to infrastructure investments. 

Not to mention, you’ll save more on operational costs of employing in-house data entry employees like insurances, compensations, and other benefits. 

As discussed above, you can also hire data entry professionals from countries with lower labor costs, which can result in significant cost savings. By partnering with an established and experienced service vendor like Oworkers, you also don’t need to worry about the quality of work. Make sure you are partnering with vendors that are committed to employing professionals with adequate training and experience. 

Focus On Core Business Activities

By outsourcing your data entry processes, your employees can then focus on attending to their core competencies and executing tasks that can contribute more to your organization’s objectives. In turn, this can significantly help improve your organization’s productivity. 

Better Accuracy

By outsourcing your data entry services, you are getting help from data entry experts with adequate skills and experience at their job. Thus, they are much more accurate in inputting and processing data, eliminating the risks of errors and inaccuracies, which can be expensive. 

In comparison, hiring an experienced data entry professional can be difficult and expensive, and you’ll also need to deal with the hassle of in-house management.

Data Security

A common concern in outsourcing your data entry service is that you are exposing your confidential data to outside parties, making you more prone to data breaches and other issues. 

However, unless you have possessed an adequate data security infrastructure, chances are, it’s going to be more cost-effective to outsource to a data entry vendor with its own security infrastructure that has implemented cybersecurity best practices. 

Conclusion

Is data entry outsourcing the right choice for you? 

You can only answer this after you’ve properly assessed your organization’s data entry needs and available resources. In most cases, however, outsourcing your data entry processes will translate into better cost and time efficiency, while allowing your business to focus on its core competencies so it can be more productive in achieving its goals.