Though modern technology has reduced the incidence of errors in data entry, inadvertent mistakes can still occur and cause havoc. According to a Bloomberg news report, Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co. has been fined $70 million by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for its failure to underreport about 1,700 warranty claims involving accidents that resulted in injuries or deaths between 2003 and 2014. The accidents have been linked to defective parts in their cars. Honda, on its part, has blamed the under-reporting on data entry flaws.
Common Data Entry Errors
Errors while entering data often lead to chaotic situations and can have irrevocable consequences. Here are some of the reasons why these errors occur:
- A value is not entered for a required field or an invalid value is entered
- Incomplete/incorrect information or lack of proper information
- Misspellings can result in serious database issues
- Voice recognition software is prone to errors if the input voice is not interpreted properly
Data entry operators under pressure to enter a huge pile of data can make mistakes.
Computer Errors that Cost Honda
It is reported that Honda’s underreporting of accident claims occurred due to the following errors:
- Honda failed to enter a date into a field in its own database requesting “written claim received”. As a result, the system failed to distinguish between reportable written claims and notices from non-reportable oral claims for relief
- The computer program that was used to generate early warning reports was not properly set up and had used an “overly narrow interpretation of what constituted a written notice”, resulting in failure to report certain claims
Professional Data Entry to Avoid Errors and Save Time
If your company needs high volume data processing, it would make sense to outsource the task to a professional data entry company. Moreover, if your data has to be used in applications such as calculation, statistics, claim reporting, health records and so on, accuracy is extremely critical. You need to consider what errors would cost you in terms of reprocessing costs, customer loyalty, lost business, and compliance issues. Outsourcing data entry would offer many advantages:
- A trained and experienced team on the job
- Use of advanced data entry software that is designed specifically
- to speed up the keying process
- increase data accuracy with error detection at character level, field level, and record level, double-key verify capability, and many other techniques of catching errors as they occur
- Stringent quality checks
- Cost-effective solutions
In addition to increased productivity, a professional service provider can ensure error reduction and higher accuracy. Correcting errors can prove costly, more so if the bad data has infiltrated through the database or has to be corrected in more than one place. Moreover, the intangible costs intangible costs associated with compliance issues and fines as in the case of Honda can prove really devastating.
