Data Entry versus OCR
With the improvement of modern technology, the field of Data Entry service has met with some rapid changes.
The most recent one is the introduction of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology for converting the
hard copy of any document to digital format. But before you think that OCR service can work as a substitute
of data entry service, you need to go through the comparison given below between the two.
OCR
Optical Character Recognition is a modern technology for digital replication. OCR technology comes
with software, hardware and an additional circuit in the computer to execute conversion process.
OCR software can not only read the fonts but also recognize line breaks in a document.
The process of OCR is quite simple and easy to manage. If you are looking for only converting any
document into editable digital format then there is nothing better than OCR services.
The entire process takes only a few seconds and hence, helps in saving the time and effort of developing
a digital replica of any document in comparison to data entry. Here, you don’t need to type
characters manually on a digital file. You just need to place the hard copy of the document inside
a scanner and get the digital format of that document with the help of OCR software.
With OCR process you can convert a document in several electronic formats like – Microsoft Word, Excel,
HTML, PDF, Text or Rich Text formats. Also, the cost of OCR service is quite less for
developing electronic replica of any document as compared to manual data entry service.
Looking at the dark side of it, there are several disadvantages of OCR service regarding the cost
as well as the process of recognizing the characters. Initially, the cost of developing
replica through OCR process may seem lucrative but if you consider the cost of entire OCR system life
cycle, the cost will be much higher than data entry service. Also, if you are using an ordinary
OCR then correcting the OCR error counts will cost more than preparing a digital format of the document.
Hence, you should try to use high accuracy OCR software that can read more than 400
characters/second, approximately. Also, OCR software is not efficient in recognizing the handwriting and the fonts,
which are quite similar to handwriting. In such cases manual typing plays a better role than OCR process.
Data Entry
Data entry service comes with several levels – staring from inserting raw data in a document to an error free document.
Manual data entry services are widely used in the industry where the
services like mailing list conversion or data extraction from the Internet are needed.
Compared to ordinary OCR process, conversion life cycle cost is less in data entry service and it provides
complete flexibility to data entry operators preparing digital documents from
multiple formats like hard copy or audio files because OCR cannot prepare digital document by scanning audio files.
Apparently, though OCR is efficient during the initial level of data entry service but it cannot be a substitute
of data entry service. However, the selection of a right service (Data Entry or OCR)
depends on requirements of the job.