Every type of business requires data entry, and the amount of data collected continually expands. More than 300,000 U.S. workers are employed keying in data. Yet almost every industry is reducing the number of workers in this function. So, how is this work getting done? Increasingly more businesses are relying on data entry services from third party data entry companies.

While the employment of workers entering data is expected to decline by almost five percent in the next eight years, the number of employees of data entry service companies is expected to grow by close to 14%. Clearly, companies across the board are recognizing the cost benefit of outsourcing to third party data entry service providers.

Typical Data Entry Projects--Not Just for Large Companies
Outsourcing to data entry services is not only for large companies with ongoing data entry needs. Although law firms, pharmaceutical businesses, and insurance companies might be the first industries that come to mind, many smaller businesses also need these services. For example, contest entries, signatures gathered for ballot initiatives, receipts, invoices, and order forms are just some of the types of documents handled by data entry companies.

Quick Turnaround
One reason data entry service companies are growing is that they can provide quick turnaround for one-off projects, eliminating the need for clients to hire and train temporary workers. For clients whose businesses rely on the fast fulfillment of orders, data entry companies provide service level agreements that promise data entry completion within a specified amount of time, often 12 hours or less.

Other Cost Saving Considerations
Data entry companies not only provide the labor to enter data, they eliminate the need for their clients to purchase and maintain computers, scanners and software that are required for this work. Clients can also sidestep the need for office real estate to contain personnel and equipment.

From Acquisition to Highly Accurate and Useable Data
Data entry companies accept both paper-based and electronic projects. After acquiring handwritten or electronically-generated source data, the client makes the raw data available to the data entry company. Sometimes physical boxes of paper are shipped. The data entry service then inventories and scans the documents. Electronic data is often encrypted before being transmitted to the data entry service. In either case, the output is guaranteed to be accurate, usually in the range of 95% or greater, and is delivered in the client-specified format.

Keeping Information Secure
Companies that collect personal information have a business and ethical imperative to keep that information secure, and data entry companies employ a myriad of methods to ensure that information is kept confidential. Expect that documents will be tracked from the moment they are received, that access will be monitored by cameras or even biometrics, that data may be encrypted, that source documents will returned or destroyed per client instructions, and that the entire process will be documented.

Although data entry companies ultimately rely on human beings to get the work done, the application of sophisticated technology drives the systems that ensure the security and accuracy of the data entered and the speed at which it is delivered.

Source
BLS: Data Entry and Information Processing Workers