The Cost of Cumbersome Data Capture

Why We Need to Automate our Approach to Data Collection

The phrase "data is king" has become a cliché in the world of business and technology. It suggests that data is an organization’s most valuable asset and that businesses can gain a significant competitive advantage by collecting, analyzing, and acting on it. 

However, managing and capturing all this data can be daunting, especially if done manually. Manual data capture can be time-consuming and is often prone to errors. Streamlining data capture through automation can significantly reduce these costs and increase efficiency. In fact, a study by McKinsey found that automation can reduce manual effort by 30% to 60% and another report by Zapier found that the most common automated tasks included data entry (38%).

Why is Data Capture Cumbersome?

Capturing data can be a cumbersome process for many reasons. Some of the most common challenges include:

1. Lack of Standardization: Data can come from various sources, and the format in which it is captured can differ. This makes it challenging to collect and analyze the data effectively.
2. Rekeying Data: Capturing data in word documents and then having to rekey the data into systems takes double the amount of time, and has the added risk of mistakes due to human error.
3. Lack of Automation: Automation can significantly streamline data capture by reducing the need for manual data entry and standardizing the process.

Why Automating Data Capture is Critical?

1. Increase speed: Collating answers and rekeying data into a spreadsheet or other system takes time. Automating the data-capture process using a web form, means all the information is automatically captured in a central location that can be downloaded and interrogated.
2. Improve accuracy: Since all the information is captured centrally, rekeying the data is unnecessary, reducing the risk of errors and increasing accuracy.
3. Better their use of resources: Organizations can allocate their resources more effectively, freeing up individuals to focus on more strategic tasks.
4. Enhance data consistency: By centralizing data collection, data collected is consistent and standardized. This helps to reduce errors and improve the quality of data.
5. Gain real-time data analysis:  Data can be analyzed in real-time, allowing organizations to make data-driven decisions quickly and effectively.
6. Standardize processes: Using web forms created once and used multiple times, helps organizations standardize how they collect data.

Data capture is critical to the success of any organization, but it is often a cumbersome process. In a report by Zapier, 34% of SMBs said that automating tasks like data entry reduces errors.

By automating the data capture process, businesses can save time and money, improve decision-making, and increase productivity. Ultimately, automating data capture can help businesses gain a competitive advantage and thrive in today's data-driven business landscape.

How Kim Document Helps

The 'Campaign' feature is one of the most convincing aspects of Kim Document. It can be used for a variety of purposes, such as filling out security checklists and legal questionnaires, to running compliance campaigns, responding to RFPs, conducting client surveys, and managing requests. The primary advantage of this functionality lies in its ability to distribute information to multiple recipients both inside and outside the organization, and to collect the resulting data, which can be analyzed or repurposed either within the document or externally.

You can find out more about Kim’s Campaign Feature in this recent blog.