Outsourcing data entry services offers many benefits to you. However, there are some potential risks as well. Thankfully, those risks can be avoided by being prudent. Here is the list of top 5 risks associated with such kind of outsourcing and how you can avoid them.
1. Losing Your Access to The Progress and Updates
Due to the geographical differences, offshore outsourcing sometimes risks the communication and updates to the progress of the project. This may happen due to a number of reasons and one of them is the incompetent nature of the outsourcing provider. Sometimes it is also owed to the lack of willingness of the offshore company to keep the client up to date with the progress. Also, due to a big difference in the time zones, sometimes it becomes difficult for both the parties to establish a clear line of communication. But, for better results this needs to be avoided. This is why the expectations and terms must be laid in advance before outsourcing the data entry service.
3. Hidden Costs
There is no doubt that outsourcing the data entry service to an offshore location could save you a great deal of money. However, before signing the contract, it is important to understand the payment terms completely. Although it is very rare, you may still get the invoice with higher amount than you expected. But, you can avoid it easily. Before finalizing the deal, make sure that you have understood the price structure completely. Be forthcoming about your needs and clearly ask the outsourcing provider if there would be any hidden costs. This will make sure there are no surprises in the future.
4. Lack of Communication
Lack of communication does not only result in you losing access to the updates about the project; due to lack of communication both the parties may not be able to understand each other’s needs and thus you may not get the desired results. When you are outsourcing to the country whose first language isn’t your native language, there could be many gaps in the communication. In order to avoid such a situation you will need to make sure that you choose the data entry service provider that is adept in communicating in the language of your choice.
4. Lack of Quality Control
Even when the clear line of communication has been established, you may still struggle with quality control. While you may have laid out your needs clearly and categorically, you are not the part of the day to day operations. You have to completely rely on the data entry outsourcing service to provide the output to you under their management. To avoid this risk, it will be a good idea to have an in-house quality control team that double checks the quality of the work provided by the outsourcing company.
5. Data and Confidentiality Issues
Data security is one of the major concerns when outsourcing the data entry services to another company. To make sure that your data remains safe, outsource the job only to a reputed and well established company with a good track record. Also, make sure that you have them sign the confidentiality agreement.
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