Press Release

TYPING IN CONTACTS WASTES 57 MILLION WORKING DAYS EACH YEAR

London—February 2004: Office workers each spend, on average, 23 hours and 12 minutes - or nearly three full working days - every year typing contact information into our address books or PDAs1 , according to Corex Technologies, the maker of CardScan business card scanners. With 18 million office workers in the UK, in total the UK loses nearly 57 million working days every year typing contact details. Corex has released the research to mark the launch of its new direct sales website for Europe: www.cardscan.com/eu.

Research conducted by Corex into its user base shows that 16.8 percent of office workers have more than 1000 business contacts in a PC or PDA address book. 71 percent have more than 100 contacts; while less than 28 percent have 100 or fewer.

“We waste three working days every year typing in contacts - and that's before you factor in the time wasted when a contact has been incorrectly input to an address book,” says Fred Mullen, Corex' head of sales. “If everyone got themselves a business card scanner, they would all have an extra three days a year – and imagine what you could accomplish! Scanning in business cards takes just a few seconds and gives you accurate data.”

CardScan is the world's number one business card scanner. It scans and uploads accurate contact information to a database or address book quickly and efficiently. The scanner interprets the data on the business card into name, company, contact details and any other information. This is then uploaded to a PC from where it can be synchronised to a PC address book (such as Outlook), company database, PIM (personal information manager), PDA (personal digital assistant) or Smartphone.

CardScan accurately interprets data from 12 countries, even taking into account regional differences between shared languages (eg. Portuguese in Portugal or in Brazil). It has been tested for accuracy in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, the UK and the USA. It reads and interprets information in five languages: English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish.

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Notes to editors:

CardScan is made by Corex Technologies, a privately held company that was founded in the US in 1993 by Jonathan Stern, the company's CEO. It is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and launched in Europe in 1999. In 2004 it launched a concerted drive to augment European sales.

CardScan is now available to buy online in Europe from www.cardscan.com/eu. It costs £179.95 / €259, including VAT, or Swiss francs 379.95.

To review a CardScan scanner, or for further press information, please contact:

Kate Hartley / Sarah Wilkinson
Carrot Communications
Tel: +44 207 386 4860
Email: kate.hartley@carrotcomms.co.uk / sarah.wilkinson@carrotcomms.co.uk

Research was carried out by Corex into its user base. The average time spent typing in a single business card is estimated at 1.4 minutes

Source: National Statistics Office