crowd sourcing for enterprises

8/6/2019 Crowd Sourcing for Enterprises

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!1!Enterprise Crowdsourcing, A Flexible Solution

REPORT: Enterprise Crowdsourcing, A Flexible Solution

Table of Contents

1.

Introduction2. Enterprise Crowdsourcing3. A Flexible Alternative4. Turnaround Time, Quality,

Cost Savings

5.

Ensuring Quality6. Applications7. Proof Points

Introduction

All businesses have large-scale information and data needs that require human annotation to

be completed successfully. Whether it be collecting and correcting data, categorizing

information, or even creating content, internal teams are often not scalable, while outsourcing

poses management headaches and flexibility issues.

For the first time, there is a fully managed, on-demand solution to these problems that elegantly

handles fluctuations in volume and offers accurate results at an affordable price. That solution

is Enterprise Crowdsourcing.

EnterpriseCrowdsourcing

Enterprise Crowdsourcing matches the scale of crowdsourcing with the reliability and stability

that enterprises require. The hallmark of enterprise crowdsourcing is thousands of individuals,

distributed throughout the world, participating independently and in parallel. For enterprises,

the most successful projects focus on simple, repetitive tasks (micro-tasks) that can be

performed by anyone with internet access.

With contributors in nearly every time zone, crowdsourcing offers truealways-on capabilities.

Enterprise Crowdsourcing promises multiple reviewers for every data point. Thisredundancy leads to more predictably accurate results than relying on the work of a

single person.

Contributors opt-in with automated management and oversight, so overhead is greatlyreduced.

On-going quality control and training in real-time ensure the highest levels of accuracy.


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Where Work Comes From:

Contributor map from ONE Crowdsourcing Project

Crowdsourcing: A Flexible Alternative

Internal Teams

Internal teams are often the first step of a data annotation project. What these teams lack in

scale, they make up for in flexibility and minimal startup costs. Simply put, internal teams are

often the fastest way to spin-up a project. However, as the demands on a project grow, internal

teams have trouble scaling up. As well, internal resources are often tied-up doing repetitive

tasks when they could be adding more value on higher-level projects.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is a possible next step if a project outgrows its internal team. However, large-scale

outsourcing engagements require precise planning to hire, train, and occupy workers.

Depending on the stage of the project, these needs vary substantially. When starting a new

project, the manager must invest considerable resources to find and train the right workers. On-

going training is also a large expense.

For on-going projects, outsourcing vendors require a steady supply of work to keep their

employees occupied. Attrition of outsourced personnel is a serious concern, and it is the most

productive workers that are most likely to leave a project that doesnt promise steady

employment.


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Crowdsourcing

Enterprise Crowdsourcing offers an appealing alternative to tying-up an internal team or

engaging a traditional outsourcing vendor. With access to a pool of contributors of

unprecedented size, crowdsourcing can scale up and down dynamically to meet an

organizations needs. A two-week delay in data procurement no longer means having to find

other projects to keep a team occupied. Additionally, crowdsourcing can handle spikes in

volume without the need to contract additional employees.

Turnaround Time, Quality, Cost Savings

In addition to increased scalability and flexibility, crowdsourcing often offers improvements in at

least one of these following additional characteristics: turnaround time, quality, and cost.

Turnaround Time

Enterprise Crowdsourcing uses a massive team of contributors, so projects often complete more

quickly. Additionally, with a team distributed across the globe, crowdsourcing offers a truly

always-on workforce, capable of processing data around the clock.


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Quality

Enterprise Crowdsourcing also uses redundant annotation, and so the impact of any individual

bias is reduced, often improving accuracy. Furthermore, by controlling the entire interaction

between data and annotator, crowdsourcing provides highly detailed information to track and

predict overall accuracy.

Cost Savings

And lastly, because Enterprise Crowdsourcing automates the management process, costs are

often greatly reduced. Crowdsourcing also eliminates slack-time, by only engaging with

contributors when theyre actively participating on a project.

Applications

In general, any data or content related projects that are highly repeatable with an objective,

unambiguous correct response are good candidates for Enterprise Crowdsourcing. Additionally,

tasks with high volume and on-going needs are better able to take advantage of the economies

of scale that Enterprise Crowdsourcing offers.

eCommerce Solutions

Boosting conversions by offering a well-organized and personalized shopping experience is the

name of the game for eCommerce companies. To do this, eCommerce companies need quality

product data classified appropriately in their product catalog.

Product Attribute Annotation Find the UPC for this product Product Attribute Verification Is this a 12.0 MP camera? Product Image Moderation Does this image match this product title? Product Disambiguation Are these two products equivalent? Product Categorization Is this a Camera, a Camera Accessory or something else? Product Search Relevance How relevant is this product to the query Xbox 360?


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SEO Content Creation and Verification

Search rankings are vital for most online businesses. Media companies rely on SEO content to

drive advertising and ecommerce companies rely on SEO content to boost conversions.

Moreover, fresh content is often good for business regardless of search results, keeping users

engaged and satisfied.

Business Lead Verification and Generation

Data Providers, Search Companies, and Group Buying sites all need highly accurate business

listing information to gain an edge. Any large company with a massive customer list needs the

same. Crowdsourcing offers the only real-time solution for accurate business listing information.

For existing lists this means quality assurance- ensuring leads meet minimum accuracy

standards- and enrichment- adding additional data that may not be supplied. Furthermore,crowdsourcing can generate customized lists of leads that meet your business specific criteria.

Generate content Write 3 sentences on what a 401(k) plan is Analyze Content Verify that the keyword 401(k) exists in this description Edit Content Edit spelling and grammar for this product review.

Verify accuracy of leads Is the phone number for this business correct? Enrich existing leads What hours is this business open? Generate custom leads Find 25 BYOB Restaurants in St. Louis


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The Four Cs of Crowdsourcing

The above examples are by no means exhaustive. When considering projects to crowdsource,

you can use the Four Cs.

Collect Any objectively verifiable piece of data accessible on the internet can

be collected by crowdsourcing.

Correct Any objectively verifiable piece of data accessible on the internet canbe confirmed or corrected by crowdsourcing.

Categorize Given specific business rules or an existing taxanomy,crowdsourcing can categorize any type of information.

Create Crowdsourcing can generate or transcribe content successfullyas long as it is no more than a few paragraphs in length.

Proof Points

Client Profile Problem, Previous Approach,and Challenges

Improvement

Fortune 50eCommerce Company

Needed millions of discrete productrelevance annotations

Using BPO and internal team and

still needed more scale

effectively unlimitedoverflow capacity

Fortune 50eCommerce Company

Needed a scalable, cost-effectiveway to annotate product info

Outsourcing solution not flexibleenough

100x faster throughput

Able to reassignoutsourcing team to otherprojects

Large Group Buying

Company

Needed data to qualify andprioritize leads

No cost-effective solution existedpreviously

Qualified and prioritizedTens of Thousands ofLeads per day

Large Media Company Needed to generate high qualityanswers to user-generatedquestions

Looking for more cost-effective,scalable solution

Within a week generatedthousands of answers,between 100 and 1,000characters in length

90% of results deemedexcellent by client


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Large Financial

Services Company

Needed handwritten formstranscribed into digital format

Internal teams could not providescale

Transcribed 25,000 fieldsdaily at 98% accuracy

Fortune 1000 InternetServices Company,Local Search Team

Needed extremely accurate andenriched business listing data

Purchased list could not provideaccuracy or richness of data

Achieved

crowd sourcing for enterprises

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