Why Should I Outsource Data Management And How Much Will It Cost?

Modern businesses depend on data. Be it sales, marketing, customer experience, production, or finance management, the majority of business operations are driven by data. Therefore, managing your databases is critical to smooth business functioning and performance. 

Unfortunately, several organizations fail at maintaining data integrity and quality - irrespective of knowing the importance of data. This could be due to a lack of resources (time, money, team) or inadequate skills or knowledge. 

In either of the cases, the results can be detrimental. In other words, poor data management can lead to:

• Inaccurate analysis
• Poor customer relations
• Ineffective business decisions
• Missed opportunities
• Lost revenue
• Reduced productivity and operational efficiency
• Lack of compliance
• Increased financial costs

To save your business from such risks, outsourcing data standardization and management to data analysts and professionals is the key to effective performance.

Here, we will discuss the benefits of outsourcing data management and how much it costs. But before that, let’s briefly discuss data management.

What is Data Management?

As an organization, you have tonnes of crucial data that must be stored, organized, and maintained in a secure, effective manner; and that’s what data management is. 

Data management allows businesses to better organize and access critical information gathered across diverse sources. The internal management teams and decision-makers can deploy the enriched data to derive valuable insights and take necessary actions for maximum profitability. 

However, managing data isn’t a cakewalk. It involves a range of tasks, including:

• Creating, accessing, and updating data
• Storing data across cloud and on-premises
• Ensuring data security and governance
• Scrubbing data to improve data quality and hygiene
• Implementing progressive techniques to extract data in real-time

A good data management strategy optimizes all the processes to attain accurate, reliable, and secure datasets. 

The Primary Challenges Of Data Management

Data management is easier said than done. In order to add value to your data, you must analyze, store and organize it valuable without compromising on security and governance. This poses several challenges that must be addressed for the desired output. Some of the significant data challenges include:

• Huge Data Storage 
• Syncing Different Systems 
• Obsolete, Duplicate, and Incomplete Data
• Data Compliance
• Lack of Skilled Resources, Tools, and Software

These challenges can hinder your data management process and business operations. Also, addressing these challenges (along with others) requires deep knowledge, expertise, and a considerable amount of time. This is why most data-intensive organizations choose to outsource data management to experts.  

Unveiling The Fundamentals Of Data Management Outsourcing

Organizations and enterprises generate a sheer volume of data that must be monitored and validated on a regular basis. Intelligent data management systems and outsourcing solutions help organizations in capturing, retrieving, analyzing, accessing, and updating multi-faceted datasets. 

Data management outsourcing gives you access to a learned team of data analysts who provide a comprehensive range of data services, including:

Data Capture:

Capture and extract data in real-time from multiple sources for processing, storage, and management purposes.

Data Validation: 

Verifying and validating contact information such as customers' phone numbers, postal addresses, email addresses, etc., provide relevant and authentic data.

Data View and Access: 

Store data in a user-friendly, easy-to-access format for users to view it as and when required. 

Data Distribution: 

Provide multiple integration points and adequate measures to move data around the organization for better usage. 

Data Deduplication: 

Get rid of duplicate entries via data merging, data matching, and other data purging techniques for utmost accuracy and uniqueness. 

Data Standardization: 

Standardizing critical customer information, including names, phone numbers, addresses, product attributes, etc., across ERP, financial records, and CRMs.

Data Enrichment Services: 

Enhance the data quality by removing invalid entries, rectifying incorrect data, fixing misspelled words and typographical errors, updating outdated information, and other enrichment activities.

Mailing List Cleanup: 

Removing and updating inaccurate or invalid email addresses to ensure appropriate customer targeting and boost marketing efforts. 

Document Tagging Services: 

Identify key subjects and tag files with recommended tags to help you efficiently sort documents, images, audio, video files, and other business-critical documents.

The Benefits Of Outsourcing Data Management Services

1. Scale Up 

Data management and processing is a labor and resource-intensive task. Therefore, if you decide to do it in-house, it will end up consuming a considerable amount of time and effort. Also, you will have to assign a dedicated team who manages data and keeps a strict check round the clock. This, in turn, restricts your team from exploring new business opportunities or concentrating on other critical tasks. 

Outsourcing, on the other hand, frees up your resources by managing and maintaining all the crucial business data. A reliable, adept partner works as an extension of your in-house team and adds value to your data via proper data management, processing, verification, standardization, and enrichment. Therefore, you can save enough resources to expand and scale up your other business processes.

2. Data Compliance And Security

Data breaches can cost companies millions. In other words, failing to meet data standards and regulations can result in heavy losses - in terms of money, reputation, sales, or revenue. In addition to this, your organization might be at the risk of data security attacks.

Since data is highly significant to business functioning, it must be secured and prevented from any malware or breaches. However, irrespective of constant efforts, you might not be aware of or comply with all the security standards. 

Fortunately, data standardization experts can eliminate the risk of breaches and other data security-related losses. They are well-acquainted with security protocols and thus abide by them to attain the highest data safety standards. Furthermore, they ensure strict compliance and implementation of security regulations to save you from any kind of counterattacks and breaches.

3. Informed And Timely Decision Making

The majority of business decisions are data-driven. Therefore, your data must be accurate, clean, and updated for effective, strategic decisions. 

Data analysts and specialists employ advanced tools and techniques to create high-quality databases. These can be accessed and deployed by your internal team(s) to extract useful insights for timely decision-making. 

Any decision based on augmented data can enhance your business performance, boost your marketing efforts, save costs, and improve your bottom line.    

4. Staying Ahead Of The Curve

Delegating data management services to the right service provider also entitles your organization to benefit from their expertise in a rapidly changing environment. There are constantly new technological developments and functionalities to innovate corporate operations. When dealing with managed data service providers who keep abreast of the most recent trends, keeping track of cutting-edge new technologies and features is made possible.

5. Increased Productivity And Efficiency

One of the supreme benefits of outsourcing data management is enhanced productivity and efficacy. When you have a ready-to-access, organized database, you no longer have to spend time searching for information across different datasets. Instead, you get all important information in one place, thus saving your time and effort to invest in other key areas.

In addition to this, since data management outsourcing facilitates clean, accurate, and updated data, you can better organize your business for enhanced productivity. Your teams can depend on data to better understand your customers and the latest trends while gaining accurate insights.

6. Cost Savings 

When you outsource the task of data management to experts, they provide you with a team of data analysts who work in tandem with your needs and deliver error-free results. Therefore, you end up saving the costs of:

• Hiring data specialists and managers (or paying salaries to them)
• Purchasing data management tools or software
• Evaluating different data management techniques 

Okay, But What Is The Cost Of Outsourcing Data Management?

First things first, data management outsourcing is a cost-effective and affordable solution for businesses worldwide. However, the cost of outsourcing depends on various factors, including:

Skills And Knowledge 

Outsourcing costs might vary based on the skills and expertise of the vendor. A provider with advanced certifications, a talented pool of resources, or a state-of-the-art infrastructure might charge some extra pennies for their services compared to those with unskilled resources. Remember, the quality of services is integral to the success of your data management project, so choose accordingly. 

Also, several experienced and trusted outsourcing companies provide exceptional quality services at affordable prices by creating custom pricing plans based on your specific needs.

Usage Of Tools And Software

Experts use both manual and automated means to manage your data effectively. As far as the manual process is concerned, they employ diverse techniques and methodologies to attain secure and accurate databases. Automated data management, on the other hand, is dependent on tools and software. 

Some of the renowned tools such as Oracle Data Management Suite, SAP Data Management, IBM Info-sphere Master Data Management Server, Microsoft Master Data Services, Tableau, etc., must either be purchased, subscribed to, or upgraded for proper usage. Therefore, the cost of outsourcing might vary on the basis of the tools used. 

Now that we have listed the most significant factors, here’s the general cost of outsourcing data management in different countries. 

Please note: The costs might scale up/down on the basis of your data requirements.

Ready To Get Started With Data Management Outsourcing?

Experts organize and manage your data to maximize profits for your business. Get an accurate, reliable database to boost your performance, productivity, and overall business functioning. After all, data is your biggest asset, so maintain it well to yield the best results.                       

Author Bio:

Gracie Ben is a data consultant and has a history of contributing to creating data solutions for businesses and entrepreneurs. She usually writes about the intricacies and use cases of outsourcing data standardization, cleansing, management, processing, and other backend-data operations to help enterprises understand how to create value out of their data in an affordable manner.