How to Efficiently Shift to Data Entry Outsourcing

One of the most common tasks every business needs to manage on an ongoing basis is data entry. With the growing trend of digitization, almost all organizations across industries are looking to transform their printed files and other information into a digitized format. But considering the large amount of data businesses usually need to handle, it’s not always viable to go straight to hiring multiple people to handle this process, especially if you need all your data entered, organized, and ready to use as soon as possible.

Doing your data entry in-house will add substantial extra work for your current team members and expenses for onboarding and training new staff to support them. If you already have an in-house team handling your data entry, you might be looking for a better way to manage your costs.

The good thing is there is a way for you to get past all of these preparation intricacies and reduce your operational costs. Data entry outsourcing can free up resources, reduce costs, and speed up completion times for large projects. If you are unfamiliar to business outsourcing, here are some considerations that can help you evaluate options to efficiently shift data entry to an outsourcing partner.

Know what you can automate

The first thing you should do before you decide to outsource is to identify what data entry tasks in your business can be automated. Careful analysis and planning are both required to help you identify which processes to outsource and which ones are better automated. Some useful things to consider include:

• Team member specialties and essential roles
• Redundant roles and whether tasks can be delegated or consolidated
• Time consuming tasks staff lose time to regularly

Remember that the more tasks you pass on to your outsourcing partner, the more your existing staff can benefit. By offloading data entry tasks, your in-house team can focus more time on specialized work that only they can perform.

Identify your needs

You may already know which data entry tasks need to be outsourced. However, you also need to be specific on how you want these tasks to be performed. Aside from identifying tasks that you can automate, you also need to consider how you want the outsourced tasks to be handled by your outsourcing partner. When setting up your arrangement with your potential outsourcing partner, you should learn more about their:

1. Availability. You should know how available your outsourcing partner can be anytime you need data entry tasks done. This includes daily regular hours dedicated as well as scalability to meet fluctuating demand.
2. Tools and Processes. To thrive in an ever-changing business world, an outsourcing partner should have the right set of tools and processes available. This includes tech stacks, training programs, process management, and people management.
3. Scalability. If you ever decide to grow your business, will your provider be able to scale to support your increasing needs? To help you achieve business continuity, your outsourcing provider should be able to share how they can scale resources to match your growth.
4. Precision and Accuracy. Dirty data is never welcome. All data entry outsourcing companies should aim for precision. But how do you monitor and report on their accuracy? Make sure that your selected outsourcing partner includes regular quality audits and reports to ensure that their performance is up to your standard.

Make a list of your potential outsourcing partners

Now that you have identified your business needs and you have decided to outsource, you can look for the right outsourcing partner. Every business process outsourcing company is different, so make sure that you review each potential partner’s offers as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Let them know what your business needs are and see to it that you document everything in line with your expectations.

Plan and prepare for the transition

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Before you onboard an outsourcing partner, organize your processes and approach. You will need to properly reallocate in-house resources and adjust workflow changes to your data management. There may also be a need for you to redefine work roles to give way to the data entry outsourcing you will be adding to your processes. Everyone in your team should be made aware of the changes in your processes, and if necessary, set up a meeting to discuss and clarify these changes. And because you will be freeing more resources, you should clarify how these will be realigned. You might need to reassess and reallocate your current, the size of your team, your tools, and other resources that you may no longer need.

Maintain and monitor the process

Once your new outsource process has been implemented, monitoring and maintenance are key to ongoing success. Remind your team members of the essential roles that they play. With regular reporting and cadence calls, make sure that the flow of materials between you and your BPO partner are kept smooth. And because business data will be flowing in and out of your company, data security should be a top priority. Invest in secure servers or use the best cloud services you can afford.

Boost Your Team’s Efficiency by Outsourcing to Assivo

Data entry outsourcing can help improve your team’s efficiency. It can also help you scale your business and enable you to achieve your business goals faster. If you need more information and some assistance on how you can jumpstart your data entry outsourcing, contact us here at Assivo. We will provide you with the guidance and support that your business needs to start your shift to data entry outsourcing.