Climbing the Business Card Mountain

The new version of CardScan, the 600c with V6 Software, is eminently easy to install and use. Its main improvements are speedier card scanning and enhanced software, which is designed to work seamlessly with multiple products used for managing contacts.

CardScan consists of a small scanner and a database that resides on a personal computer. Users feed business cards into the scanner, which produces an image read by optical character recognition (OCR) software. The name, title, address and phone number from the card appear in the database along with a picture of the actual card. The user then proofs the information to ensure the OCR process was accurate.

The entire process-from scanning to verifying-can take less than 30 seconds. But be forewarned, CardScan has trouble making out fancy company logos. However, deleting the resulting gibberish is simple. Contacts can be filed multiple ways and CardScan allows users to log notes in about each entry.

CardScan is designed to work with multiple e-mail systems and contact databases. For example, it communicates and synchronizes instantly with Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook software. A quick tap of the transfer button in the CardScan database updates Outlook with any changes. "Entering in business card data tends to be a rainy day project that never occurs," says Julia Nelson Bell, CardScan's vice president of sales and marketing. CardScan is designed to change that.

Executives too busy to scale their own business card mountains might consider Corex's group product, CardScan Office, which includes a single CardScan scanner, six user licenses for the CardScan database and a label writer. An assistant can scan in cards from a single location on the network and update multiple executives' databases.

The scanner and software list for $299 while CardScan Office lists for $549. Both are available at office superstores including Best Buy, CompUSA, Office Depot and Staples. CDW Government Inc. also sells the Corex products. To find a vendor go to www.cardscan.com. Owners of the CardScan Executive Version 5 can upgrade for $199.