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We are creating more data than any other time in history. There are currently 2.7 Zettabytes of information online. That’s a 1 followed by 70 zeros if you’re counting.
In fact, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created each day. That’s a 1 followed by 18 zeros if you’re keeping track. It’s predicted that 1.7MB of data will be generated by every human on Earth by 2020.
Businesses rely on more data than ever before, as well. Big data has changed every single aspect of conducting business. That just means more things that need to be done in any given day unless you go about it in the right way.
That’s where automated data capture comes in. Let’s take a look at some of the major benefits of data entry automation to help you learn how it’ll help your business thrive!
6 Benefits Of Automated Data Capture
Automation isn’t just good for saving time and money. Although it’s quite good for that, as well. Here are some of the other main advantages of using automation in data capture.
Increases Employee Satisfaction
Manual data entry is tedious. It’s also frustrating for many of the employees who are tasked with manually filling in forms. It leaves them feeling unappreciated and under-utilized.
Repetitive, monotonous tasks are mentally draining. This isn’t just bad for employee morale, it’s also bad for accuracy.
Mental fatigue and lack of concentration lead to errors. Which leads to our next point.
Reduces Errors
Eliminating errors is one of the top reasons to adopt data capture automation if you haven’t already. Automatic Data capture greatly reduces errors, so your organization can focus on more important things.
As a general rule of thumb, a business can spend $1 to prevent errors in data capture. Correcting that error could cost up to $10, in comparison. Not catching that error could result in up to $100 in lost revenue.
So you’re essentially preventing $100 of loss for every $1 spent on error prevention. That’s not even considering the time and stress you’ll save.
Eliminates Hidden Costs
Accounts payable departments have all manner of hidden costs and expenses. First, there’s the payroll for employees. Then there’s the cost of printing and distributing invoices.
That’s not even to mention the potential costs of late payments or misplaced documents. In fact, the costs of manually processing invoices have increased from $10.15 to $22.75 over the span of ten years.
Automatic Data capture can cost up to 20 times less than manual data entry.
For one, automated data capture automatically sends invoices by sending updates to a network location. Notifications are generated automatically when the network location is updated.
This completely eliminates the possibility of overlooked invoices. It also eliminates the cost of printing and mailing paper invoices, as an additional benefit.
It also hugely reduces the amount of time it takes for invoices to get paid. When an invoice is approved almost instantaneously, it can mean the difference between being paid in a matter of minutes instead of several months!
Enhances Productivity
Manual data entry is time-consuming an inefficient for a variety of reasons. First, someone needs to sort and identify the data, making sure it gets to right department. Then someone’s got to enter that data. That’s not even considering the possibility of human error and its attendant costs.
With automated data capture, everything is automatically organized, extracted, and distributed with no human involvement. This doesn’t only include digital documents. Multi-function scanner/printers are able to do the same thing with paper documents.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) extracts numbers, the total due, line items, and other pertinent invoice data. Many companies take advantage of dedicated OCR services to transform their data into editable structures. OCR outsourcing helps to preserve entire data securely while also ensuring invoices are cleared on time.
OCR automated data entry software makes it easy to create scanning templates for recurring invoices. This lets the scanner know the location of where specific data is located on invoices.
Data capture automation also checks for data accuracy. This also reduces the workload for management. Only inaccurate invoices need to be brought to their attention.
Always Available
“Time is money,” as the popular saying goes. Downtime means lost money, as a result.
More and more daily business activities are expected to be online at all times, these days. Order entry, reservations, shipping orders, assembly instructions. If any of these things go offline, a business suffers.
With so much competition in today’s digital economy, there’s great pressure for businesses to always be online. Depending on the size of an organization, even a few minutes offline can mean millions of dollars in lost revenue. That’s not even to mention the loss to your reputation.
Data capture automation does more than automate your paperwork. It also automatically creates backups of your data. That means you’ll never lose important documents.
You’ll also be safe from human error, in case something goes wrong.
Enhanced Visibility
Automation in data capture ensures that everybody’s on the same page. It also means that everybody with access can get at the same resources.
Think about the old days of paper filing cabinets. Only those in physical proximity to the file room can access those files. That’s not even mentioning how difficult and inefficient it can be to find anything in those files.
Automated data capture takes full advantage of cloud-based computing. It ensures that all of your folders and files are always accessible to everyone with access. It also makes sure they are easily searchable and organizable.
These are just a few of the almost endless advantages of automation in data capture. Automation is revolutionizing every single thing about the way we conduct business in this day and age. Get on board now and see the results for yourself!
Want To Learn More About Data Capture?
We are passionate about the possibilities of digital technology and all the ways it’s improving the ways we do business in the 21st Century.
If you’re ready to make your data capture process as painless and efficient as possible, here are a few great reasons why you should work with us!