Third party verification is a process wherein a client’s information is checked for its accuracy and validation of intent by an independent party. Data verification services are mostly sought when transactions occur either online or through telephone, or in situations where the client cannot present a signed copy of the required information. The data is subsequently verified by the third party that will check whether the transaction was authorised by the client.
Companies that sell products over the phone are required to deploy third party verification; failing to adopt this practice can afflict them with criminal penalties. Companies that ask for electronic check payments from their customers are required by law to acquire authorisation that are either written of audio recorded.
Data verification services ensure that the data generated is in compliance to specifications and that it satiates acceptance criteria; and that it is used appropriately and does not violate the intent of use. As a process, data verification is empirical for assessing the performance and compliance of generated data when it is checked for its accuracy and consistency by deploying data verification services set forth in the project documentation.
Third party verification is important in circumstances where obtaining a signed hard copy of the information is either difficult or not possible. Such cases include situations an individual living at a distance. Military personnel based overseas, authorisations from relatives or next of kin, and seeking emergency permission are examples of such cases. Numerous organisations now use data verification services, including schools and universities and other educational institutions, insurance companies, internet service providers, auto dealers, real estate, hospitals and other healthcare providing institutions and telecommunication companies.
Third party verification is also a significant factor that influences the quality of an organisation’s data. The practice of checking for inaccuracies and inconsistencies, thereby producing high-quality data, help in improving the business of an organisation. Some of the other advantages of deploying data verification services include increase in revenue and cost reduction, and improved customer experience.
Regardless of the industry or the sector, data verification services add value to an organisation’s overall functioning. While it instils confidence in analytic systems, the time one spends in reconciling data is significantly lowered. There are lesser inconsistencies, because of which changes that are necessary can be identified and executed with ease and efficiency. Companies can, thereby, cut costs and enhance their returns on investment.
Although third party verification process can be implemented on several types of data, they are most importantly required for customer data. At high accuracy levels, one’s contact information – including, but not limited to, phone numbers and addresses – are hard to maintain. With customers either passing away, marrying or relocating, there is difficulty in maintaining accuracy of customers’ information; about 2 percent of data in a CRM becomes outdated and disused because of these factors, according to experts.
More importantly, data verification is an assessment that an organisation has followed the regulations set forth in the Global Investment Performance Standards. In addition, it determines whether the policies and procedures of an organisation have been designed in accordance with Global Investment Performance Standards.
As part of the GIPS standards, each verification process requires that the person conform to certain procedures and regulations, which add value to the process in itself.
Verification can be carried out in several ways. One of the ways is to enter the data twice. This allows the computer to determine that the data entered the first time wasn’t mistyped or erroneous. Although this method can help identify several mistakes, it is not ideal when handling large amounts of data – a lot of time would be consumed typing each set of data twice, and there is a possibility that the same incorrect information could be typed twice.
Another efficient way to verify data is to check the data on the screen against the original documentation. While this technique will remove the overhead of entering each set of information twice, moving one’s eyes continuously from the screen to the paper can be a tiresome activity and could lead to mistakes.
The easiest way to verify the data is to take a print of the data and then use it to compare with the data on the original document. With the two copies placed next to each other, a person doesn’t have to adopt the cumbersome exercise of checking the data on the screen against the original copy. However, this can take up a lot of time as each mistake identified will have to be first noted on the printed copy and then corrected on the screen.
Despite the growing need to have accurate and consistent data, there are organisations that don’t have the required knowledge of maintaining accurate data.
The importance of accurate data lies in the fact that policies created on the basis of incorrect data can lead to inconsistent decision making. Having accurate data is empirical for business developers, marketers, recruiters and market researchers.
