The world is full of rituals..
The exchange of business cards is one of the most honored. But we often forget one thing:the humble card is not about the paper it's printed on. It's about the person behind it. It's about the door to opportunity that could open..
Unfortunately, the same paper goes into the black hole of a ragged card holder or the hidden recesses of a drawer that will never be seen again. Despite the desire to move towards a paperless culture The future is here:your guide to living paperless today The future is here:your guide to living paperless today Paperless:a term that is thrown around quite a bit frequently today. But what does it mean? And to what extent is it applied? Certainly, we all still use paper to some degree despite the advancements... Read More The business card exchange label can be supplemented by modern business card management applications that help us take ink from the printer and convert it into bytes.
Yes, it's time to rethink the humble business cards. Rethink the business card. Rethink the business card. The business card is a ubiquitous image in any business meeting. The first documented use of them can be traced back to Japan in the 15th century. These formal royal announcements, known as "meishi," were distributed... Read More
There are many scanner apps on the market, but the best business card scanner tools offer a more specialized ingredient. OCR to extract the printed information and convert it into bytes, but also help to form relationships . It could come from simple LinkedIn integration or an instant way to connect via Skype or WhatsApp. Or it could be some advanced CRM fireworks to help manage a legion of contacts.
We look at what the best business card scanner apps bring to the table.
Every worthy note-taking app has found a way to introduce it. Including Microsoft OneNote.
Last year, Microsoft gave us the Office Lens Application to read business cards and convert them into digital contacts. Thanks to the camera, you can take photos of whiteboards or printed documents and turn them into digital documents. For our particular need, use the Office Lens Business Card Mode function to save scanned business cards in a OneNote notebook.
Office Lens uses OCR to format card information in OneNote so you can access contact information from the card. For example:you can send an email to a customer or click to call with Skype.
That's another category you can add to the productivity benefits of OneNote. 10 Unique Ways to Use Microsoft OneNote 10 Unique Ways to Use Microsoft OneNote OneNote is one of the most underrated apps from Microsoft. It is available on almost all platforms and can do a lot of tricks that you would not expect from a note keeping app. Read More
Main characteristics:
Download: Office Lens for Windows 10 Mobile | iOS | Android
Business card scanning in Evernote is a Bonus feature.
Use the Evernote camera on your smartphone to frame the card and take a quick snap. The camera automatically finds the edges and you don't have to make any adjustments manually in most cases. Evernote digitizes it..
The benefit comes after that:Evernote offers business users an integration with their LinkedIn accounts. Evernote acquires LinkedIn and creates a searchable note with relevant information about your new contact. Scanning, optical recognition and LinkedIn search are done automatically.
This Evernote support page goes into the details. Evernote offers a trial with 5 business cards.
Main characteristics:
Download: Evernote for iOS | Android
The best Evernote solution for users who are on the free plan.
Scannable is a free app available for iPhone users looking for paperless workflow. Scannable recognizes business cards, receipts, whiteboards, and any other paper the camera points at. Scans are automatically cropped and enhanced and turned into clear digital documents.
Scannable works almost identically to Evernote Premium's business card scanning mode. You can connect it to your LinkedIn account and add details from your contact's LinkedIn profile, including a photo. You can automatically add them to your iPhone contacts.
Main characteristics:
Download: Scannable for iOS (free)
Use human transcription to turn your business cards into contacts integrated with 250+ apps like Salesforce, Mailchimp, and more.
The FullContact card reader is a complete business card scanner, suitable for maintaining large databases of potential customers. Use human transcription services to ensure conversion accuracy. As expected, the basic app is free, but the backend service is not. The card reader comes with 10 free cards. After that, you can purchase card packs for as little as $9.99 USD or pay $99 USD per year for 1,000 cards (via an in-app subscription).
This can be the ideal application for managing contacts from large networking events like sales conferences or trade shows. You can keep FullContact address book on all your devices. Small businesses can take advantage of its easier integration features with tools like Excel, Evernote, OneNote, Microsoft Exchange, and Office 365, or the humble but real Google Contacts. 10 Easy Tips To Rescue Google Contacts From Neglect 10 Easy Tips To Rescue Google Contacts From Neglect Google Contacts is perhaps the least organized of all the Google services we use. Most of us neglect it. Here is a complete guide to cleaning and organizing Google contacts. Read more.
You can also add FullContact to your Gmail inbox and add, edit or extract additional information (such as email signatures) to enrich your contact database.
Main characteristics:
Download: Full Contact Card Reader [No Longer Available]
A professional card reader app for consumers and business users.
CamCard is a popular business card reader app that is available on all devices and supports Android, iOS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and the web app. It was one of the highest paid apps on iOS in 2014. The app is designed for quick entry of card information and also for exchanging electronic cards securely. CamCard also notifies your contacts when your personal information mentioned in your electronic card changes. For example, when you join a new company. Also, you are informed when your contacts change their information.
CamCard can optically recognize card information and makes it easy to find information when you want to call, email, or browse LinkedIn from within the app. The card reader supports 17 languages, including Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. As a Chinese company, the company recognizes the everyday culture of exchanging physical cards and the clutter issues that come with it.
The basic app is free and allows you 200 card scans in the trial version. Unrestricted paid app costs $0.99 [No longer available]. CamCard apps for business users are also available at different prices.
Main characteristics:
Download: CamCard for Android (Free)
Completely free! Unlimited scanning, full features and no ads.
That's what the connector says on the download page. Haystack is a business card scanner app, but it's also a digital card maker . When you first open the app, create your own personalized card 30+ Free Business Card Templates for All Professions 30+ Free Business Card Templates for All Professions Even with smartphones and social media, use business cards has its own benefits. A well-designed business card is a great way to connect. Use these free business card templates and offer important information effortlessly. Read more . This digital card can be exchanged with any new contact, whether they use Haystack or not. If they don't have the Haystack app, they see the mobile version of the digital card, which they can then save directly to their device.
Like all scanner apps, the app quickly scans and extracts the details of a physical card on your phone. But the most useful feature? Haystack cards keep all data up to date. Your contact details are updated with every promotion, job change, or address move.
Main characteristics:
Download :Haystack for iOS (Free) | Android (Free)
Choose between scanning your own cards with OCR or sending them to the company for manual transcription.
ScanBizCards is a heavy lifter with its support for multiple CRM platforms like Salesforce and SugarCRM. The app comes in three versions:Lite, Premium, and Enterprise. The free version offers unlimited card scanning, but limits some of the card management features. All contacts are cloud-backed and can be synced across devices. In the Lite version, you are limited to 5 cloud syncs per week.
Manual card transcription costs $0.18 per card in the Lite version. You can also export it to a CSV file just as easily. CRM and CSV export is not available in the free version of the app.
Main characteristics:
Download: ScanBizCards for iOS (free, upgrade is $1.99) | Android (free, upgrade is $1.99)
One day, smartphones will integrate business card scanning as a default part of contact management. Some in the Samsung S series have it. Until then, you have your handy camera app and a river of scanners to choose from. Here are a few more that you can tweak with:
Choosing the right business card scanner will be a very subjective exercise. Pick something simple, like Scannable or Office Lens, if you're someone who comes across the rectangular piece of embossed paper from time to time. These apps are more than enough to handle small networking events as well.
But if you're a business tycoon or someone who wants to turn a lead into gold, then bring out a big gun. The FullContact card reader or the versatile CamCard could be the favourites. Because for someone with legions of people to follow, scanning is just the tip of the spear. What matters most is how the OCR scanner retrieves and organizes the information for the follow-ups.
Remember this golden rule: Our memory sucks.
Trust a good contact management system instead. Today's contact could be tomorrow's friend. That's why it's important to make business cards a routine.
What is yours? Do you scan business cards? What is your favorite app or workflow? Tell us everything in the comments..
