Manual data entry can work... if you have the right partners and the right tools. But let's face it, it is not the most productive use of your time. Any organisation knows that accurate, timely, data, is a fundamental element of marketing, capital management, decision-making, and productivity.
While manual data gets the job done, it usually comes at a cost. When you switch from manual data entry to automatic data entry, you negate some potentially problematic business issues. Here are a few potential issues with manual data entry:
3 Reasons Why Manual Data Entry Is Bad for Business Video
One of the most significant downsides of manual data entry is human error. When you rely on a person to correctly transfer data from one place to another, mistakes are to be expected. Eye fatigue, inattentiveness, and hard-to-read information make it a recipe for errors to occur. According to Quality Mag estimated on average documents in Life Science, even a 1% manual error rate leads to 40% of documents containing mistakes. With documents reusing data from each other, errors compound over time.
These mistakes, for example, can lead to wrong test results, mislabeled packages, inaccurate quantities and even budget flaws. Furthermore, manual data entry requires time and money to train employees and coordinate for data consistency. An automated system, however, streamlines information into a single checkpoint, making it easier to catch and fix any errors and to keep a standard categorisation. The beauty of machine learning is that they learn to categorise differently worded but identical meaning into standardised outputs, enabling to keep clean data and to clean up historical data.
On the face of it, converting to automated data entry may seem more costly at first. However, once an automated system is implemented entirely, a company can save thousands of dollars. Typically, through this type of investment, we see a ROI (Return On Investment) within one year. With manual data entry taking a prolonged period of time, decision-makers often retrieve out-dated information, making it challenging to create cost-saving strategies and up-to-date marketing decisions. Automation of gathering test results in Stability Reports has proven to yield 90% time savings, not to mention benefits on data quality and consistency.
Going further, automated data chunking for Clinical Studies save thousands of hours in manually extracting data, also enabling efficient analysis and reuse of the data in internal analyses and regulatory submissions.
Let's be honest, data entry is boring and tedious. Your employees have the potential to contribute more than just hours transferring data from one place to another. Disengaged employees can lead to low productivity and higher turnover. Whilst new software solution have a cost, the cost of losing bored or disengaged team members is even higher. From recruitment to training and loss of knowledge, the cost of turnover is often estimated at 30% and above of the employee salary.
On the other hand, introducing an automated data entry system can liberate time for your employees for activities that bring higher value to the business and create higher work satisfaction. Not to mention the often praised opportunity to work on AI solutions and training proprietary machine learning models, which creates higher skilled team members and contribute to a necessary innovation culture.
Processing large numbers of invoices and orders manually leads to lost or duplicated invoices, meaning a customer isn’t billed at all, or, they’re double billed. Moreover, invoices could take longer to reach your customers, which can potentially delay payments from reaching your books.
While errors and delays are problematic within the workplace, these types of issues can lead to problems with industry compliance rules. If your company must provide accurate data regularly, manual data entry takes too long and leaves you vulnerable. An automated system ensures your company always has the information it needs in the proper, accurate, format.
Manual data entry is inefficient and outdated. If you want to stay ahead in your industry, utilising an automated system is critical. You’ll save time and money while focusing on the essential parts of growing your business.
We’re here to talk about your needs and support automation in in your business: Get in touch today