The Brief Data Entry Outsourcing Guide

Are you interested in data entry outsourcing?

Data entry is a specialized and time-consuming task that trained professionals should only perform.

Hiring a full-time employee solely for data entry can be prohibitively expensive for most startups and SMBs. Even large corporations may need to outsource additional data entry work on occasion.

So, how do you go about doing it?

In this comprehensive guide to data entry outsourcing, we’ll discuss the three main advantages of outsourcing the data entry process.

We’ll also go over five things to consider when selecting a service provider and how to manage them effectively. Finally, we’ll highlight three outstanding data entry service providers to get you started immediately.

What is data entry outsourcing?

Data entry outsourcing is hiring outside help to handle your company’s data entry tasks.

• Data entry jobs could include anything from:
• Transcribing handwritten document
• Claims data entry
• Product data entry
• Filling in MS Excel sheets for back-office accounting
• Survey data entry
• Raw data conversion and data input
• Document management services
• Image data entry
• Invoice data entry
• Offline data entry services like forms processing

Read more: Top 6 Data Services Businesses Should Outsource

Why should you outsource data entry?

Outsourcing data entry is primarily intended to save time and money.

Because a third party will handle the tasks, you will be able to concentrate on core business functions such as marketing, finance, and operations.

But how is this usually accomplished?

There are two approaches to data entry outsourcing:

• Onshore outsourcing refers to outsourcing within your own country (on-site or remote). While the business process can be costly, it is easier to communicate and collaborate with the outsourcing partner.
• Offshore Outsourcing: Hiring a foreign entity, such as India, Viet Nam or the Philippines. This usually saves you a lot of money but may cause collaboration problems.

3 Important Advantages of Outsourcing Data Entry

Outsourcing data entry is becoming increasingly popular across a wide range of industries. Most businesses, from accounting to healthcare, are looking to outsource data entry services.

Here are three significant reasons for this:

1. Cost Savings

Outsourcing a data entry task to a service provider significantly reduces your costs.

Here are three reasons for this:

• You don’t have to spend much money hiring and training an in-house employee to do this.
• You do not need to purchase any data entry software.
• You will save money on operational costs, such as allowances and insurance, associated with hiring someone.

Another significant advantage of outsourcing is that you can save money by hiring an offshore data entry service.

Hiring data entry professionals from the Viet Nam, for example, is far less expensive than hiring a professional from the United States.

But what about the work’s quality?

That will not be a problem if you outsource to a service provider with a proven track record. You will receive high-quality service because they employ professionals with years of training and experience.

2. Improved Accuracy

Data entry professionals are skilled at their job because it is what they have been trained to do.

This reduces the likelihood of errors in their work.

Because the outsourced team brings their own professional experience and tools, they are more likely to provide timely and accurate data entry – especially when compared to an inexperienced in-house team.

3. Increased Business Focus and Productivity

Most likely, your entire organization is focused on your core competencies.

For example, a market research firm may concentrate on data mining and processing, whereas a real estate firm may concentrate on identifying excellent properties.

As a result, assigning data entry work to employees makes no sense because it will take time away from their specialization.

This can reduce their productivity, affecting the overall efficiency of your organization.

Outsourcing eliminates these headaches, allowing your employees to focus on what they do best!

5 Considerations Before Outsourcing Data Entry

Those were some impressive advantages, weren’t they?

But take your time selecting an outsourcing partner provider!

Let’s go over 5 factors to consider when choosing a data entry company:

1. Determine the Potential Cost Benefit

Before making any hiring decisions, make sure your math is correct.

You must understand how much the data entry outsourcing service can help your bottom line.

You’ll need to figure out how much it would cost to do the job in-house with your employees.

Once you have the data, you can use it to help choose data entry professionals. The goal is only to hire an agency or professional who will cost you more money than doing it yourself.

2. Ensure the Service Provider’s Security Measures

Security is always paramount when dealing with a sensitive company or client data. This is especially important when the data is shared with a third party, such as an outsourcing provider.

When selecting a data entry service provider, you should be aware of the security measures that the company/agency provides.

These measures must, in general, meet industry standards.

For example, if you work in healthcare, you could face serious legal consequences if your information pipelines are not HIPAA compliant.

Similarly, if you work in the financial sector, you risk being sued if your client data is not handled securely.

To summarize, whether you’re in e-commerce or accounting, ensure the company you’re hiring is up to date on its data security protocols.

3. Determine Your Requirements

It is critical to map out your business needs before hiring a data entry specialist company.

Why?

It is common for businesses to have custom needs (specific requirements) in addition to standard data entry, such as:

• Data capture
• Data mining
• Data conversion
• Data extraction

For example, if you require advanced data analysis and processing, look for a company that can meet your diverse data entry needs.

Another common requirement to look for is 24-hour customer service. This way, if there are any problems, they can be resolved quickly.

It is also critical to ensure that the service provider uses cutting-edge technology and software to complete the data entry task. This gives you higher-quality service at a lower cost than purchasing the software.

4. Time to Complete

If your company has a lot of data entry tasks, you should look into the service provider’s turnaround time. This is especially important if you work in a time-sensitive industry like healthcare.

Ascertain that your data entry operator has the necessary resources, such as skilled professionals and cutting-edge technology, to handle the workload.

A dedicated emergency service line is another typical requirement in some industries. This term refers to on-demand data entry solutions with speedy turnaround times. If your company requires such facilities, notify the outsourcing company before working with them.

5. Reputation

You should work with data entry experts if you are handing over control of a critical business function.

This is critical for sensitive industries such as medicine and insurance claims processing, not only for security reasons but also because human errors in data cannot be tolerated.

Conduct extensive research on the outsourcing company with which you intend to collaborate.

You don’t want to outsource your data entry work to a company or professional who can’t afford the necessary resources, so make sure the service provider is financially stable.

Check their client testimonials to get an idea of the quality of service and client satisfaction they provide.

How to Manage Your Outsourced Data Entry Workers

While outsourcing is highly beneficial, it does present several management and collaboration challenges, mainly when done remotely.

This, however, is easily overcome with the right set of tools.

If you plan to outsource data entry, you must have three types of software in your arsenal:

1. Communication and Collaboration Tools

Isn’t it true that effective communication is essential?

You don’t want data errors caused by miscommunication.

However, emails cannot meet all of your communication needs. To begin, emails are extremely limited when it comes to task-related discussions. For example, you can’t just quote a specific data set and have a comment thread for further email discussions.

You’ll need team collaboration tools for this.

Here are three essential business communication tools you should have in your toolbox:

Slack and other instant messaging platforms help organize task-related communication channels and file sharing.

For important virtual meetings with your team and hired professionals, use video conferencing tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. You can also share your screen to get more in-depth explanations.

Google Drive and Google Sheets are examples of cloud storage and document collaboration tools. This provides a secure platform for storing your data and enables real-time document collaboration features such as comments and edits on datasheets.

2. Project Management Software

Streamlining your business operations can be difficult, especially using outsourced data entry experts.

You need your data entry project to work well with the rest of your project. This way, you can ensure that your entire business runs smoothly and without interruptions in productivity.

You must ensure the following:

• You are systematically assigning tasks.
• You can monitor the progress of their work.
• You’ve planned an organized workflow for them.
• You can handle this and more with an effective project management tool!
• You can also perform advanced management functions such as task prioritization, dependency mapping, and tracking the overall progress of your entire organization.
• You must choose one of the numerous project management tools available, such as Jira, Trello, ClickUp, and others.

Top 5 BPO Companies for Data Entry Outsourcing

Choosing the right outsourcing partner can take time and effort when so many options are available.

But don’t worry. We’ve already done the legwork.

Here are three data entry outsourcing companies that offer excellent services:

1. DataPowerHub

DataPowerHub is a global leader in the field of data entry outsourcing. They have been in this industry for over ten years and have completed over 15000 data entry projects. They received over 18 awards for their outstanding performance.

They are well-known for their unwavering money-back guarantee. If they cannot maintain 100% accuracy, they will refund 200% of your money. They provide client support in over 50 different languages around the clock. Optical character recognition, data entry, mining and cleansing, data conversion, data management, data processing, catalog management, and internet and web research are among their services.

2. Invensis

Invensis is a global data entry outsourcing company with 20 years of experience providing high-quality, cost-effective data entry services.

They offer 24-hour dedicated customer service and multilingual online data entry projects. They also provide data mining, cleansing, conversion, and management services.

3. Oworkers

Oworkers is a 15-year-old outsourcing company specializing in multilingual data entry solutions for global clients. Oworkers, a strong team of professionals from Bulgaria and Egypt, also provides data annotation and content moderation services.

4. SunTec India

For the past 21 years, SunTec has been the industry’s leading low-cost data entry service provider. They adhere to ISO and HIPAA guidelines for data security and confidentiality. They also provide data management and data processing services based on your needs.

5. Bestarion

Bestarion is an outsourcing company in Vietnam with 19 years of experience providing global clients with data processing services such as data enrichment, data categorization and validation, data annotation, and multilingual data entry solutions.

Final Thoughts

Data entry outsourcing relieves your in-house team of tedious, repetitive work and provides you with a more time-efficient and accurate data entry process.

However, keep in mind that careful outsourcing is required to ensure a secure and accurate data entry service.

Examine the list of providers and tips here to determine which data entry provider is best for you.

After that, use the tools listed here to save time and money by outsourcing your data entry tasks!