Simplifying Your Company’s Data Enrichment Outsourcing Journey

Published on 5th November,2021          Last Updated on 31th July,2024

Getting your work done from an external team gives you access to specialised skill sets that may not be available at your company. It’s likely that every organisation would see benefits if they decide to outsource data enrichment. But the level of success lies in understanding the various approaches that vendors take. How is the process of outsourced data enrichment carried out from the vendor’s side? What are the special processes they have developed to ensure there is accuracy of data, along with the ability to scale up operations, while being cost effective.

In this blog, we will help you explore the benefits of outsourcing data enrichment, guide you on finding the right service provider, and provide insights to simplify your outsourcing journey.

Approaches to Outsourcing Data Enrichment

1. Data Appending

• Data Appending: This approach involves adding missing information to existing records. Vendors use external data sources (such as public databases, social media, or third-party providers) to enrich customer profiles. For example:
  • Email Appending: Adding missing email addresses to customer records.
  • Phone Number Appending: Completing phone numbers for better communication.
  • Demographic Appending: Enhancing profiles with age, gender, income, and other demographic data.

2. Data Cleansing

• Data cleansing outsourcing involves running checks over your entire existing database, removing duplicates, correcting errors, and standardising formats. Vendors clean and validate data to improve its quality. Common cleansing tasks include:
  • Duplicate Removal: Identifying and merging duplicate records.
  • Address Standardisation: Formatting addresses consistently.
  • Data Validation: Verifying data against reliable sources.

3. Data Integration

• API Integration: Vendors integrate their data enrichment services directly into your existing systems via APIs. This real-time integration ensures that your data remains up-to-date without manual intervention.
• Batch Integration: Periodic batch processing where vendors receive your data, enrich it, and return the updated dataset. Batch integration is suitable for large volumes of data.

4. Automated Data Enrichment Tools

• Machine Learning Algorithms: Vendors leverage machine learning models to predict missing values or enrich data based on patterns. For instance:
  • Predictive lead scoring models.
  • Customer segmentation algorithms.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP techniques extract valuable information from unstructured text data (such as social media posts, reviews, or emails). Sentiment analysis, entity recognition, and topic modelling fall under NLP-based enrichment.

5. Manual Data Enrichment

• Human Review and Verification: Some data enrichment outsourcing services require human judgement. Vendors employ data analysts to verify and enhance records manually. Examples include:
  • Industry Classification: Assigning industry codes to companies.
  • Job Title Standardisation: Ensuring consistent job titles.

Outsourcing Data Enrichment to a Research Partner

All the processes mentioned above can be done using complete software automation. This allows data companies to achieve scale and a fair level of accuracy. What is lacking in this automated method is 100% data accuracy and customisation.

To achieve complete data accuracy, customised data services, as well as scale, the best option is to work with data partners. Data partners rely heavily on customisation of data with the help of a team of research experts, who work as full-time employees to the client. There are specialised teams for quality control and data verification. This ensures that data is highly secure, protected and effective in generating ROI.

Benefits gained when you outsource data enrichment to a research partner

2) Reduced Costs
One of the biggest and most obvious advantages when you outsource data enrichment is lower labour and operations costs, as well as a reduction in overhead expenses. Outsourcing removes the need for infrastructure investment as the contractor takes responsibility for the business processes and hence develops infrastructure for the same.

3) Expertise
Access to skilled resources means that businesses can avail of the right talent and specialised niche technologies, assuring a higher quality of the outsourced data enrichment services, without having to hire them internally, thus saving recruitment, training and infrastructure costs.

4) Access to Latest/Niche Technology
Reputed data enrichment outsourcing companies usually subscribe to the latest frameworks, crucial development tools and usually have access to niche technologies that they use for all their projects.

5) Increased Efficiency
A data enrichment outsourcing vendor brings in specialised knowledge and experience, which in consequence leads to increase in productivity and efficiency of your business.

6) Reduced Risk
Outsourcing data enrichment services removes a large share of risk, by sharing it with another company. If you are launching a new product or have a new service offering, having an outsourced offshore team can quickly be fine-tuned to match a skyrocketing demand as compared to the team in developed nations.

7) Staffing Flexibility
If your business has operations with cyclical or seasonal demands to bring in extra staff, outsourced data enrichment provides an opportunity to avail of additional resources when you need it and release them when they are no longer required.

8) Free-up Internal Resources
Outsourced data enrichment frees up your resources and allows them to focus on their key tasks that ultimately lead to a growth in your business.

9) Leverage Value Added Services
Most outsourced data enrichment companies today also provide a range of additional services that could add value to your business by improving productivity and efficiency while reducing costs or risk within your business in times of crisis or on a day to day basis.

Points to consider before you outsource data enrichment services

Before making a decision to outsource data enrichment services as a marketing manager, here are key pieces of information you should gather and considerations you should make:

1. Current Data Quality Assessment: Understand the current state of your company’s data quality. Evaluate how accurate, complete, and up-to-date your existing customer data is. This will help you identify specific areas where outsourced data enrichment is needed.
2. Specific Data Enrichment Needs: Determine exactly what types of data enrichment outsourcing services your company requires. This might include appending missing data fields (e.g., phone numbers, job titles), verifying existing data, or enhancing data with additional attributes (e.g., demographic information, firmographics).
3. Data Security and Compliance: Ensure that the potential outsourcing partner adheres to data security standards and compliance regulations relevant to your industry (e.g., GDPR, CCPA). Obtain information about their data handling practices, security measures, and certifications.
4. Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Discuss and establish clear SLAs with the data enrichment outsourcing provider. Understand their commitments regarding data accuracy, turnaround times for enrichment, and resolution processes for any issues that may arise.
5. Scalability and Flexibility: Assess the data enrichment outsourcing provider’s ability to scale their services according to your company’s needs. Consider whether they can handle fluctuations in data volume and whether they offer flexibility in service levels.
6. Quality Assurance Processes: Inquire about the provider’s quality control measures for data enrichment. Understand how they ensure the accuracy and reliability of enriched data before it is integrated into your systems.
7. Cost and ROI Analysis: Conduct a cost-benefit analysis to determine the financial implications of outsourcing data enrichment services versus keeping them in-house. Consider not only the direct costs but also potential savings in time and resources.
8. References and Reputation: Seek references from other companies who have used the outsourcing provider for similar services. Research the provider’s reputation in the industry and look for reviews or testimonials.
9. Integration with Existing Systems: Ensure compatibility and smooth integration of enriched data with your company’s existing CRM or marketing automation systems. Discuss any potential challenges or requirements for integration upfront.
10. Long-term Strategic Alignment: Evaluate how outsourcing data enrichment fits into your company’s long-term strategic goals. Consider whether the provider can support future initiatives and growth plans.

By gathering this information and carefully considering these factors, you can make a well-informed decision about whether outsourcing data enrichment aligns with your company’s needs and objectives.

Problems that can occur if you outsource data enrichment to the wrong vendor

2) Loss of control in quality standards:
Many vendors focus mainly on making a profit from the services that they provide to you and other businesses like yours. Besides setting up targets and reviewing them, you need to check if the vendor company has data quality control processes in place, to ensure satisfactory progress for both parties of the outsourcing exercise.

3) Hidden costs
Cost savings are the main reason most companies decide to outsource, but you need to be aware of potential hidden costs. An outsourcing contract should cover the details of the service that the outsourcing data enrichment company will be providing.

4) Threat to security
If you have confidential information that an outsourcing company will have access to, you risk a breach of confidentiality. If the outsourced task involves sharing proprietary company data or know-how, this must be considered. Evaluate the outsourcing company carefully to ensure the safety and protection of your data.

5) Lack of transparency
Lack of knowledge about the outsourced function creates a problem with transparency. For this it is necessary to have strong communication channels between the 2 companies. The vendor’s team needs to learn the specific company processes and workflows, through training, and then a system of regular reporting about the data gathered, to maintain transparency.

Thus we see that although outsourcing data enrichment presents a variety of advantages, it could also pose difficulties if not done correctly, or outsourced to the right third-party provider. Many of the potential problems could be avoided by having a solid outsourcing contract which examines service level agreements, timeframes and measurement, penalties, rewards, regular reviews and exit strategies.

But more important than a solid contract, is choosing a vendor who is reliable and shares accountability. This is where customised data research comes in, specially with a company that works as a partner or an extended team.

Firstly, a custom data research team is aware that your data directly impacts your ROI. Therefore, custom data means you are assured that the data you receive is sourced based on your specific needs, and belongs solely to your company, giving you intellectual property rights. In other words your data is not available to your competitors, thus giving you a competitive advantage over them.

Secondly, an extended team working in partnership means shared responsibility and accountability. This allows you to be at ease about the operational as well as quality aspects concerned. It also puts you at ease from a legal standpoint where privacy laws are concerned. The problem of quality leads and GDPR privacy standards is solved through one single approach of partnership and shared responsibility.