Utilizing data entry services is a practical solution business organizations can consider to ensure accuracy for their data. Data entry errors can create chaos and lead to grave consequences, which underlines the need for total data accuracy. New York Post recently reported how more than 120,000 Brooklyn Democratic voters were wiped off the rolls on account of a colossal data input error that escaped the notice of the Board of Elections officials for months until finally it created a total mayhem on Tuesday’s presidential primaries. This error has its source in another blunder, i.e. when the board failed to send out postcards to Brooklyn voters about to be purged. Only some postcards were sent and some of them were returned by residents who said they were active voters. All those on the list including those who responded and those who did not receive notification were all removed from the rolls following a computer error. Though more details regarding the source of the error have not been revealed, mistakes such as these usually stem from carelessness or negligence on the part of the staffs responsible for entering and reviewing the data.
Take the case of the stock market, when in May 2010 a data entry error caused the market to plummet by 1000 points. Instead of the letter “M” for Million, the letter “B” for Billion was input, leaving the computerized financial markets in utter chaos. Though this “flash crash” wiped out 1.1 trillion of investor dollars, most of that was soon regained. However, this incident left the market totally in shock. Typically, data entry errors are of two types: transcription errors and transposition errors. The former is caused by people making mistakes when they type fast. Mistakes may be misspellings, typos or the same information may be input more than once. Transposition errors occur usually when people type numbers. For e.g., they may type 961 instead of 916.
This brings us to the topic of data entry accuracy and how organizations can ensure that the data being fed into their databases is clean and reliable. In an earlier blog, we had discussed the ways to avoid errors in data entry. It is important to remember that overworked in-house staff can make errors, though inadvertently. Business owners and managers must ensure that their staffs have sufficient spare time to relax and get over any tediousness.
Data entry is unavoidable for almost all businesses. This has been discussed at length in industry circles with people having different opinions about outsourcing and its consequences. However, if all paper-based data (including old as well as new) is to be digitized and preserved, you may need the support of a reliable external agency. Outsourcing data entry will help minimize administrative burdens and also save considerable cost. It makes available more time for your employees to focus on core activities.
Other major benefits include the following:
- Helps companies to reduce expenses on operations
- Helps in organizing the documents in an orderly manner and update information when required
- Ensures confidentiality of client documents
- Accurate and quality data processing
- Helps in creating a simple system for a company’s data
- Improves the overall efficiency of the organization.
