Any business looking to achieve operational improvements will eventually discover that automation is the way to go. Manual processes like data entry not only inhibit efficiencies but they introduce errors, create bottlenecks, and stifle productivity. But automation is a huge umbrella under which many technologies live. Data validation introduces an important level of automation into a business to digitize and control data quality from documents.

What is data validation? Data validation services are ways to extract data and eliminate manual data entry, and they encompass data extraction, data validation, and quality control. They can include extracting data using optical character recognition (OCR) and correcting for errors. Validations performed on the data ensure accuracy, and you can leverage validation services for either electronic or paper documents. Data validation guarantees data is correctly entered into your line-of-business systems.

But what are the benefits of validating data, and what does all this, in turn, create for your business? Below we dive into the five major benefits of data validation.

Introduce Efficiencies Throughout Business Processes

In data validation processes, your data is reviewed for quality, and appropriate corrections are made. Your knowledge base is updated through artificial intelligence and machine learning. This means your information is as accurate as possible, so staff is not burdened with backtracking to fix errors or do work all over again. Those issues that are common with manual processes smooth out with data validation because your workflows — which rely heavily on accurate data — can run without a glitch.

Set SMARTer Goals for Your Business

Data validation gives you more accurate insight into your data — providing information previously in the dark. With the proper insight and analysis, you can set goals for your business that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-related). You’ll be able to apply more specific metrics to your teams, so short- and long-term plans are based on real numbers.

Get More Out of Your Resources

When staff is belabored by manual work, they’re not devoting their time and skill sets to the highly valuable tasks you hired them to do. Instead, they’re bogged down by data entry and fixing errors. Data validation redirects such work away from your valuable human resources so your staff can work on tasks that require human capabilities like judgment and intuition. Employees can then contribute to your business’s strategy and work of greater value.

Improve Workflows Across Departments

Data validation supports multiple business departments. With it, finance can more efficiently validate data in spreadsheets and be assured of financial transaction accuracy. Legal can speed up case processing by more efficiently capturing data from reports. Marketing can easily keep customer relationship management (CRM) software up to date with client information. IT can verify data across databases. HR can automate timesheet management and the updating of employee personal information.

Ensure Data Is Reliable and Secure

Data validation helps keep your data secure in a few ways. It can stop bad data from entering your environment, corrupting your existing data sets, or messing up analytics. “Dirty” data can be cleaned in a modifying process or replaced or deleted entirely. Your clean data will be consistent and secure from being tainted by data that does not belong.

It’s also always a best practice to have a designated person in charge of monitoring your data so data processes are kept smooth. This person can also be responsible for testing data quality when alerts occur and creating a system of checks to ensure data quality.

Work With the Right Partner for Data Validation

When you work with a partner like All Star for data validation, you’ll avoid much of the heavy lifting involved. All you need to do is define your document and data capture requirements, and the experts — with the help of technology — take it from there. The right partner will augment your staff by performing data validation and consistently fine-tuning your solution to ensure your data validation is properly extracting, capturing, refining, and quality-controlling your data.

All Star has 20 years of data validation services experience, and our team ensures your processes run quickly and accurately. Contact All Star today to learn more about data validation services.