If your business has been going for a while you have a lot of data. Someone typed in every line of it. In many cases they had to type the same thing over and over, hopefully not making any mistakes. You’ve paid for every byte of data in your accounting system and all your databases – some data, you’ve paid for more than once.

One of the goals of a good office system is to provide one and only one place for everything. That alone can save a lot of time, effort, and money, as well as raise moral with your data-entry staff. But the challenge in one-storage-for-all is getting your data to cross application boundaries: getting data out of your accounting system, or phone system, or website and into another database.

Consider that some of the data you collect was typed by an outside source and some of that data is stored until you might need it. For instance, transactions from your website are entered by your customers. What if that data was available for other databases, say, your accounting system when you want to set them up as a new customer or your prospecting system to set up a marketing contact. Instead of rekeying these transactions, you can import them.

Another practical example could be that when invoices are sent by your vendors. They’ve keyed in the data on their end and so it’s certainly possible to import your vendors’ invoices directly into your accounting system (inventory system, shipping and receiving, etc.). You know which vendors are your primary sources. Giving them the opportunity to connect with your system electronically may save them time and money too.

If you let the data entry work be done by someone outside your company as much as possible, you’re increasing the value of their work; you’re strengthening your mutual partnership, and you’re reducing your costs.

Setting up a web portal, intranet, or extranet can give your vendors or customers the ability to upload or download data directly. This not only reduces your cost, it also accelerates your speed of business, builds trust with your partners, and makes it possible for you to do more with less, more quickly.