Data Entry Services
What does your data mean to you?
How many times have you started a reporting project, an analysis project, or any project, for that matter, only to discover the data you were planning to use is just not in the greatest shape? In this world of big data, bad data is becoming more and more common. The technology we use to help manage and organize data can be blamed somewhat for fueling this issue. As we all strive to be more on-demand and personalized, we embrace the cloud, mobile technology, and of course, social collaboration and media. All the data we collect all day long is very valuable. But, unfortunately, we have let the quality of our data decline.
Knowing your data is bad is only half the battle, but it needs to be an immediate focus. Fixing your current data issues won’t resolve the new bad data that is coming in, and you will be right back in this position in 3 years if you don’t resolve the entry point issue. We suggest spending time tracking the data entry point back and resolving that issue first. This might be a process change for a sales rep upon capturing data from a customer, or possibly even a data entry field change on a CRM tool that needs proper validation on it; for example, an email always needs an @ symbol and a period. So many things can affect your data coming in, but you need to make it a focus because, as we all know, bad data in is bad data out.
The other half of the battle, after you have tracked down the input issue and found a solution, is fixing the existing data in your system. Data correction is only one specialty at Uptown, and we would be happy to lend a helping hand. Often, we can use one of many scripts we have developed to run against your exported data, correct the issues quickly, and provide you with clean results. But, as we all know, sometimes the biggest issue is either that the data was never collected to begin with or questions exist about the validity and integrity of the existing data. Uptown has a large team of resources who work on these types of opportunities every day. Here are just a couple of examples of what we have done for customers recently:
- Customer had done a great job of collecting phone numbers for their clients (fax, main, mobile, other, extension). The problem was that our customer put them all in a single field in their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. We have all seen this one, right? Well, no problem for the team. The customer exported a 20,000+ row worksheet of data and provided it to us. Our team used the tools and pure manpower to go line-by-line and break data out into separate fields. In some cases, we even jumped on the Internet or called the customer to confirm the data we had was correct if, for example, the area code was accidently entered as a 4-digit area code. Our customer was more than pleased with the final results.
- Customer just completed an acquisition and was in the stages of integrating the data from the acquired company into their system. Unfortunately, as many of us have seen, information formats can vary between companies. Well, our customer only sent out e-invoices, and the acquired company did not embrace e-invoicing. No problem for Uptown! Our staff used phone books, the Internet, and many other resources to find out who at each company should be receiving invoices, we captured their email addresses, and finally we provided our customer with the data in the format needed to update their systems.
- Customer was receiving response cards from a mass mailing, but they needed to capture the data quickly and in a cost effective manner. We captured the data in a format that the customer could then use to upload into their database system.
- Customer received written and/or printed responses from their clients that included new and updated data. This info had to be confirmed and/or entered into an online system to ensure client data (e.g. name, address, phone, email, etc.) was up-to-date and current. We received these hard copies and made the data updates directly into the online system.
Data is vital, and as we move increasingly toward data-driven decisions with artificial intelligence and machine learning initiatives, it becomes even more important that the data we capture and store is clean and consistent! At Uptown, we pride ourselves on being data specialists, and we partner with our customers to help with these opportunities and so much more! From basic data entry to data clean-up, let us know how we can help you.
Why Uptown Press?
When you send us a project, you can expect the following:
- An aggressively competitive pricing policy.
- Personal, responsive service (real people answer our phones and expediently address your questions or concerns)
- A specifically assigned customer service representative (with over 20 years experience) who manages your project from start to finish.
- The finished, quality product you hoped for when you placed your order.
- No surprises: You’ll be informed all the way through the process.
- The pleasure of working with a company dedicated to providing outstanding outcomes by helping you get what you want.
Call 410-889-8686 now for more information, to get a quote, to place an order, or email us at jack@uptownpress.com for prompt service.
