Travel Technology - Scanning business cards?

What's the best way to scan in all the business cards (instead of manually typing them into my PDA)?

I see there is cardscan that offers a scanner and software. Is that the best?

Is there another option where I can use a regular scanner to scan multiple cards at the same time and it will import it into my contacts?

Cardsoft really is very very good, but there are alternatives I haven't tested.

http://www.newsoftinc.com/products/product-main.asp?productid=NAI0001 is one of them.

Tigerdirect has a list of quite a few scanners with software, some of these scanners with software are cheaper than the standalone software would normally be...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=299

The company I am working for is just opening up a beta (aimed at North American users) where you can take a picture of a business card (or scan it to a jpg), email it to us, and we'll return a .vcf file via email that you can import into Outlook.

There's some additional details and examples at http://www.scanR.com/

PM me if you'd like to try out the beta and I'll give you more details.

Steve

I have a CardScan 500 and it's an amazingly smart little device. Can read almost *anything* and figure out which way is up, what is a street address, what is a name, what is a phone number, etc., etc. Imports to Outlook easily. Only drawback is cost, about $250 as I recall, and it's kind of slow.

I have a CardScan 500 and it's an amazingly smart little device. Can read almost *anything* and figure out which way is up, what is a street address, what is a name, what is a phone number, etc., etc. Imports to Outlook easily. Only drawback is cost, about $250 as I recall, and it's kind of slow.
We've been using CardScan for a while as well. It's okay & it does what it does

Cardsoft really is very very good, but there are alternatives I haven't tested.

http://www.newsoftinc.com/products/product-main.asp?productid=NAI0001 is one of them.

Tigerdirect has a list of quite a few scanners with software, some of these scanners with software are cheaper than the standalone software would normally be...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=299

Hi ScottC, could you give me a linnk to Cardsoft? I can't find it on a google search. Thanks!

You can pick up (http://www.cardscan.com/onlinestore/details.asp?cat=refrb) a refurb from Cardscan for about $130 for the 600cx.

Hi ScottC, could you give me a linnk to Cardsoft? I can't find it on a google search. Thanks!

Sorry, brainfart... I meant to say Cardscan...

For a CardScan, if you don't mind the condition, you might try Ebay, too. Might get a deal on a slightly older version.

I'd second the Ebay suggestion. A co-worker had CardScan back in 98 and it seemed to work fine then. I suspect most of the upgrades since then are icing on the cake.

I, too, have been using CardScan since 98 - and really do love it. I call it the best business tool investment I ever made (I'm in sales and marketing). The only drawback is that it sometimes has trouble with international cards.

The really cool thing that keeps everyone impressed is that you can send a copy of YOUR business card as part of your Outlook e-mail signature. I continue to hear "that's cool - how do I do that?" Sorry...you can't if you don't have Cardscan - I tell them. :D

I too have used cardscan for years; it's great. I am now at the point that I can look at a card and now if it will make an error with the address, etc. If you gather lots of business cards, it's well worth the money.

The future is in Cellphone business card scanners. SonyEricsson has perfected this technology and I'm sure scanR has a bright future ahead of it. I just wish more people would let me grab their VCard as well as handing me a business card.

The company I am working for is just opening up a beta (aimed at North American users) where you can take a picture of a business card (or scan it to a jpg), email it to us, and we'll return a .vcf file via email that you can import into Outlook.

There's some additional details and examples at http://www.scanR.com/

PM me if you'd like to try out the beta and I'll give you more details.

Steve


I hate to say it, but i ain't gonna try that for a 1MM$. No way I am going to send my business contacts to a third party, for scanning and to send me the data back. conatacts are like IP, they need to be protected with GREAT care.

that said, i've been using Cardscan, and THEIR scanners for about 10 years now, and find that they work well.

I have also used their software with my regular scanner and it works well too. But, the card scanner device, not sure what the latest one is works the best and the fastest.

But, I CAN put about six cards on the regular flatbed scanner and scan them all at once. If you have a good flatbed scanner, you might try that approach first. Just get the software somewhere cheap and try it out.

I hate to say it, but i ain't gonna try that for a 1MM$. No way I am going to send my business contacts to a third party, for scanning and to send me the data back. conatacts are like IP, they need to be protected with GREAT care.

Certainly, there are always going to be folks who don't like to entrust anything -- email, etc., to third parties. But certainly the success of companies like Salesforce.com have shown that a lot of people will :)

And then there are people who are buyers, and get tons of cards from salesmen, etc., and don't consider them critical, but never get around to entering most of them into their contacts.

But we can't please everyone all of the time -- just most of the people most of the time :)

Steve

Certainly, there are always going to be folks who don't like to entrust anything -- email, etc., to third parties. But certainly the success of companies like Salesforce.com have shown that a lot of people will :)


Steve

yeah, I guess I should have put all the information in my post, like, I went to the website and read the full complete release of liablity and agreement. there is practically NO mention of any security policies other than standard, this web site is protected by XYZ, which we all in the IT work can mean crap. Proper web PAGE security is soo often soo poorly implimented, it is laughable.

There is no mention of the lengths that one goes to maintain and or controll the environment where the information is kept, processed, stored and returned.

That was a key driver in the content of the post.

BTW, I have used SF.com for more than four years now, and having started and run an ASP based web services company, I can fully understand the concern of the customer and need to over satisfy their security and access to data concerns. I wouldn't have signed up for sf.com for our salesforce, had they not shown and considered data security/protocols and T&C policies to be PARAMOUNT to how they chose to do business. Their liability policy does not seek simply complete indemnification regardless of condition. In cases of clear negligence on their part with respect to data integrity and potential ACCESS to data, they cannot indemnify themselves completly. And I wouldn't expect them to expect it.

I can see your model though, good luck with that!

yeah, I guess I should have put all the information in my post, like, I went to the website and read the full complete release of liablity and agreement. there is practically NO mention of any security policies other than standard, this web site is protected by XYZ, which we all in the IT work can mean crap. Proper web PAGE security is soo often soo poorly implimented, it is laughable.

There is no mention of the lengths that one goes to maintain and or controll the environment where the information is kept, processed, stored and returned.

I hate to drag this out, but, OTOH, I don't want people to have the wrong impression. Specifically, that:

1) We run some form of insecure environment. We don't. The founders and workers here substantial ASP/hosting experience, having run operations to which ebay, for example, outsourced critical operations.

2) Because we don't describe our environment, that it is by definition insecure. We strongly feel that any exposition of how data is handled is exposing data to risk.

3) I'd also like to mention that you did not read the T&C's or policies for the beta but rather for the production service (unless you joined the beta) and the production service T&C's are different as we do not retain specific data in the current document and whiteboard offerings.

Steve

I hate to say it, but i ain't gonna try that for a 1MM$. No way I am going to send my business contacts to a third party, for scanning and to send me the data back. conatacts are like IP, they need to be protected with GREAT care.

Hey, it could always be worse... It could be someone using Plaxo :mad:

Hey, it could always be worse... It could be someone using Plaxo :mad:

So I suppose this press release about scanR and Plaxo (http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060807/20060807005365.html?.v=1) would just make things worse :)

Steve

So I suppose this press release about scanR and Plaxo (http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060807/20060807005365.html?.v=1) would just make things worse :)

Steve

Yes. I won't touch anything even remotely related to Plaxo. I despise people that hand Plaxo all my personal information without a second thought. No amount of privacy statements from them will make me trust them. There have been worse things stolen online and the Plaxo database is an absolute goldmine of information.

I hate to drag this out, but, OTOH, I don't want people to have the wrong impression. Specifically, that:

1) We run some form of insecure environment. We don't. The founders and workers here substantial ASP/hosting experience, having run operations to which ebay, for example, outsourced critical operations.

2) Because we don't describe our environment, that it is by definition insecure. We strongly feel that any exposition of how data is handled is exposing data to risk.

3) I'd also like to mention that you did not read the T&C's or policies for the beta but rather for the production service (unless you joined the beta) and the production service T&C's are different as we do not retain specific data in the current document and whiteboard offerings.


Steve

per 2#

I didn't say it was by definition insecure, I simply said that I would expect someone to attempt at least SOME reference to security to appeal to a potential users concerns about data security.


indeed, I did not read the T&C's for the beta. Are you trying to say, that the beta T&C's do NOT specifically request or require complete indemnification, and or no fault for any loss of data sent to scanr? Are you saying, that the data is not maintained anywhere on a local or remote server (in your hosted data center) and that all that data is erased pursuant to a us DOD or gutmann erase procedure?

Maybe i'll just signup just to read the T&C diffs.

I'm sure Choicepoint and the VA also had extremely secure policies in place...

I don't want to turn this -- or any -- thread into a conversation about the relative values of scanR or anyone else. I definitely don't want to turn it into a significant debate over the legal verbiage of Terms and Conditions.

I'd like the thread to discuss the options for scanning business cards.

Steve

here is a nice cheap option

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?pfp=SEARCH&Ntt=315305&N=0&Dx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&D=315305&Ntk=All&product_code=315305&pfp=srch1

hardware, software, the lot.

Just as an update; for those folks using Salesforce.com, scanR is now a certified partner!

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060925/sfm040.html?.v=67

And best of all, for now, the service allowing you to take a picture of a business card, send it to scanR, and have us put it directly into your Salesforce.com account is free!

Steve

How does these programs work with non english business cards? Do they translate it into English if you run an English version of outlook?

Sorry if this is an elementary question.

How does these programs work with non english business cards? Do they translate it into English if you run an English version of outlook?


It's a valid question! I can't speak to other solutions, but I do know that for scanR we don't currently give valid OCR for non-latin characters. It's definitely on our roadmap but it's not in the current release.

Steve

YOu can buy the Cardscan software seperately and use an existing scanner adn it will do the same fucntion - it is not bad at catchgin most cards except any form graphics designers who alwasy use funky fonts, layouts and colors to fool these systems!