Data entry is a cumbersome, often time-consuming process that most companies out there cannot eliminate. The good news is that like most other repetitive procedures, data entry can be automated.
Manual data entry comes with many direct and indirect costs. The median hourly wage of data entry keyers is 16.56 dollars. Most businesses estimate that they need approximately 10 hours of data entry work per week. That translates to 165.6 dollars per month or slightly over 8,600 dollars per year.
The cost of labor itself isn’t the only expense linked to manual data entry. Errors can be even costlier. According to The High Cost of Bad Data for Procurement report, data entry errors in this sector alone cost businesses 600 billion dollars per year!
There is a simpler, more efficient and more accurate way to handle data entry. Automated data entry is becoming the norm in most industries. All businesses can afford such automation, regardless of their size or financial status. If you’re wondering if your business can count on such automation, the following guide will shed some light on the topic.
What Is Automated Data Entry?
Data entry automation, as the name suggests, refers to eliminating the manual entry of important information into a database. Automated workflows are created to “take over” data entry responsibilities and free human resource for more strategic tasks.
Many high quality document management systems provide opportunities for the creation of automatic workflows as far as the input of data is concerned.
Through the creation of such workflows, you can save time and resources, reduce the risk of errors, create standardized data entry routines for consistency across the board and bring down or eliminate data redundancy altogether.
Most businesses have to enter information from many sources into a centralized database. Such information could be coming from warehouses, clients, business partners and the various departments across the organization.
Some business owners worry about automated data entry and the associated costs. They’re afraid to make the switch, thinking that such a transition will be too expensive or too complex to carry out (or both).
If you’re one of these business owners, we have some news for you. Document and data management-related automation is more affordable and easier to carry out than ever before. It should be a part of your document digitization strategy and many tools offer personalization opportunities that are bound to address your enterprise’s every need.
How to Make Automated Data Entry a Part of Your Digital Transformation
Once you digitize existing documentation and you have the right cloud-based document storage solution in place, it’s time to start thinking about data entry automation.
Most document management and data storage solutions today offer some automation capabilities as far as the input of data is concerned. Hence, you should educate yourself about the scope of functionalities built into the brand new platform you’re about to adopt.
The first step would be to make sure that the other software programs and platforms can feed data automatically into your document management solution.
For example, integration between invoicing or inventory management programs and a document management system can help you save a ton of time and money. The same applies to automated ecommerce software, order management, payroll, customer relationship management and marketing tool data entry.
The built-in capabilities of document management systems can be tweaked even further through the creation of custom workflows.
Do explore all tools and platform capabilities before deciding if personalized workflows need to be created. Such solutions may be required in some niche industries or to handle a very specialized type of data entry.
Once you’re done with the completion of these steps, check and review the work processes that have become the norm in each department. Ongoing analysis can help you identify additional areas where automated data entry could be possible. Business processes evolve all the time and so do corporate solutions. Don’t embrace digital transformation once, thinking you’re done with the change. Auditing your procedures on an ongoing basis will lead to even higher efficiency in the long run.
Find Out What Isn’t Working Right Now and Change It
Data entry automation should commence with a thorough review of current operations.
It’s up to you to identify the areas in need of improvement. Find out where your company is spending the most money. Also, pinpoint the data entry tasks that contribute to the biggest risk of costly errors.
Such a starting point gives you the best opportunity to seek out tools and new operations bound to deliver improvements.
A digital transformation should not be the end goal. The aim of that digital transformation should be to streamline processes, boost employee productivity and increase engagement as much as possible. By asking a few simple questions in advance, you can easily pinpoint major weaknesses and start working towards the elimination of those.