This valuable data has to be stored, analysed, and presented in various ways to make it useful to the business.
In most cases, data digitisation begins with manually inputting the information into E-commerce tools such as websites, ERP systems, spreadsheets, and data analytics systems.
However, data entry is a daunting task for most businesses.
An input error can be a mistype, spelling mistake, or wrong interpretation of information.
Input errors usually result from carelessness or failing to spot small but important details like commas, decimal points, unique symbols, and digits.
Complex sets of data are usually stored and presented using intricate and delicate formats.
Businesses may be faced with the need to handle a large amount of information.
Entities with limited capacity to deal with bulky information may need to outsource their services to external providers.
The accuracy of data is vital since it will be used for insightful decision-making in a highly volatile and competitive world of business.
Proofreading ensures the data is devoid of spelling errors and grammar mistakes that may hurt the confidence and trust of customers.
You can always verify the information was well proofread by conducting random checks on different sections.
The validity of the information
Many small business owners and entrepreneurs fall into the trap of presuming that outsourcing data entry services to a professional company is reserved only for large businesses.
The package that your data entry provider will build with you is going to account for your requirements, which as a small business are going to be relatively easy to manage.
Freeing up your most important asset
Outsourcing data entry gives you back your most valuable asset – time.
Money comes and goes, but time is something you only get to spend once.
Outsourcing data entry means that you’re able to focus more of your time elsewhere, building up your business and stimulating business growth.
A report by IBM concluded that 90% of the data available today has been generated in the last two years.
This explains the unprecedented focus worldwide on big data—the evolving collective of structured, unstructured, and semi structured data used extensively in analytics to drive business decisions.
This revelation means that businesses are effectively losing out on insights that could have transformed their business.
Companies need a convergence of technologies, high speed decision-making, real-time inputs, while being fleet footed to wrest the initiative in a competitive world.
The impact of big data on ERP – an integrated knowledge hub
In addition to harmonizing information streams, big data has the power to make ERP solutions more effective as it offers broader analytical functions.
Top benefits include:
- Sharper sales forecasting through the quick exchange of information across ERP modules: Sales analytics of various patterns are vital inputs for decision-making. ERP modules deliver sharp insights, extracted from multiple channels of information, empowering business to take the right decisions at speed.
- Improved scheduling to optimize processes: The aggregation of information in ERP modules helps manage projects better with better scheduling. This leverages productivity, getting more done in lesser time without negatively impacting other parameters of quality/delivery.
- Streamlining supply chain management: The integration of ERP and big data gives the biggest fillip to supply chains, offering businesses a complete view of assets and processes, enabling better decisions to meet emerging demands as developments unfold.
- Cherry picking candidates with critical analytics: Hiring of candidates for positions comes with the need to match multiple criteria, including skill sets, ‘need to have’ qualities, ‘nice to have’ qualities, psychometric evaluation and multiple other inputs. ERP systems have the ability to filter out candidates over different criteria, helping to zero in on the perfect ‘fit’.
- Data driven exploration of new horizons: Expansion of activities requires comprehensive inputs and sharp insights into potential opportunities and pitfalls. Big data analytics offers businesses inputs that help make sharper decisions on new revenue streams and opportunities in new markets.
Speed is often the biggest dimension and differentiator in an ecosystem where business models and deliverables are often similar across many parameters. Clearly the need is for businesses to quickly access real-time information, process and derive sharp insights from inputs for decision-making. Broad insights are of relatively lesser consequence in a landscape where personalization and segments rule. ERP and big data are increasingly finding traction in businesses and it is time that organizations embraced this integration for the big change.
This blog was originally posted on Orion ERP 3i Infotech
