Android Business Card Scanner Apps

by sb (admin)
(Virginia)

Update: Cognicard business card scanner works
After I wrote my review below, I got a reply from Cognicard that I had gotten zero credits because of a glitch as they were updating their signup system. They then gave me ten credits instead of the usual five free credits (as promised).

I tested the system by taking a picture of a business card and sending it off to them. I got an email reply with an .vcf attachment that contained the business card info in phonebook format. I opened up that email on my phone and when I clicked on the attachment, I was able to add it immediately to my contacts. So this is a win.

Their service does cost money, once you use up your free credits. Their pricing chart tells you how much time they think you'll save.

The best thing about this system is that you don't even need an android phone. You just need a phone that has a camera, email capability, and the ability to open a .vcf attachment so that you can add the contact info to your phonebook.

End update.

---------------

A business card scanner is one of the first things that can have an immediate positive effect on following up with your leads. Before they were available on the phone, there were a couple of companies that actually sold (and still do sell) small separate card scanners for business cards and even receipts. However, with the advent of smart phones, you don't necessarily need a separate device anymore.

There are a couple of business card scanners and readers available on the Android marketplace. The two that come up first in the search results are Biz Card Reader from ScanBizCards, and CogniCard BusinessCard Scanner.

Biz Card Reader

The Biz Card Reader doesn't really scan or read the cards. What it does is take a picture of the card with your camera. Then it allows you to read the info on the card yourself and enter the info into the various fields so that they can be stored in the contacts. This program is free, but, really, it looks like someone could have written this program in a couple of hours.

There is a paid version of this app that stores your scan in the "cloud" and integrates with Salesforce.com so you can send it out to the, uh, sales force.

Cognicard - see update at top

Cognicard is a web-based service that you have ot sign up for first. Then you can take a photo of a business card and email it to your username@cognicard.com. The card is then supposedly scanned by an OCR (optical character recognition) reader on their backend. There is a charge for this service starting at $9 for 30 cards scanned. Unfortunately, they do NOT give you any free credits so you can not test their system without giving up your info to a third party (Trialpay). After having just given up my name and email address to Cognicard I wasn't too eager to give it up again to yet another outfit, so I don't know how well the service works.

So it looks like pretty slim pickings for good business card scanners or readers. Part of the problem is that it doesn't feel like a very efficient or viable process. It's had to get the lighting right when you take a photo. Then, even when the lighting is strong, a lot of real business cards are printed on glossy paper which causes reflections and you have to spend a while positioning the card to avoid the image of the lights in front of you.

In the end you're better off just taking the business card and entering the info manually or even better, asking the person to send you their phonebook vcard which should contain all that info anyway if they've bothered to fill it out. Similarly, if you're at a tradeshow, sign up for the lead tracking they offer. It's expensive but reliable and will usually get that data to you in a spreadsheet or as a set of phonebook contacts with notes.

In the future, if QR codes become ubiquitous, possibly business cards will also have QR codes, making scanning them a viable activity.

Regards.

Android-Powered Samsung Galaxy Precedent