Turn your chance encounters into a useful database

By Robert Cribb
18 September 2006

Scattered around the computer on which I'm writing this column are business cards obtained from hundreds of brief encounters over the past decade.

I have no recollection of the vast majority of the people whose names, titles and corporate logos sit in dusty stacks.

It is information void of context, impersonal mementos of forgotten lunches, stuffy boardroom meetings and beer-soaked evenings that ended with drunken hugs.

Some of these people are almost certainly interesting, funny and clever. Others are no doubt ladder-climbing, loudmouth bores to be avoided.

But who can keep track?

Most brains, including mine, aren't up to it. Organizing voluminous data is what computers do best.

Problem is, transferring information from business cards to a computer's hard drive would likely require 41 days of morning-till-night data inputting.

My decade of success in putting off such horror is evidenced in the mess on my desk and a leaning tower of business cards precariously poised before me.

Consider then the practical utility of a device that does all of that work for you.

The CardScan Executive is a mini business card scanner that digitizes all of that ink-on-paper information, organizes the details into contact management software ready for synchronizing with Microsoft Outlook or your handheld device.

It can create for you a digital Rolodex that not only calls up contact details of the people you want to reach, but digital maps pinpointing their location and a host of other background information.

Think of it as the repository of all knowledge about the people around you.

In a digital form, the space limitations of a small business card disappear. So beyond basic name, title, phone and fax information, there's plenty of room for notes about your contacts for future reference.

Even if it's been a long time since you last spoke with Mike, your supplier in Vancouver, you can quickly call up such details as his daughter's name and the fact that he's a huge hockey fan.

Your thoughtful inquiries about little Jennifer and the Canucks' questionable defense this season will make you appear engaged, charming and affable.

It's an example of how technology can ennoble us. There's no way you'd remember all of this on your own. You probably wouldn't even remember Mike's name let alone his daughter.

The process of moving information from paper to computer code is childishly simple with the CardScan device.

After installing the software, plug the scanner into an open USB port, pop a business card in and observe as it passes through the device.

Once through, an image of the card appears on screen. The information printed on paper is automatically organized into appropriate fields in the database. A person's name, for example, appears in the software's "name" field along with phone, fax, address, email and Web address, all in the appropriate spot on screen.

The accuracy of the data transfer was impressive in my tests. The software intuitively figured out which information goes where, generally without error. Because of the wide variety of business card formats, the software does occasionally get stumped. Even then, correcting small errors is much faster than starting from scratch.

Add any further background information you wish and categorize each entry with such pre-programmed options as "associate," "customer," "vendor," "VIP" and "friend."

(If you actually need the software to remind you who your friends are, you may require more assistance than any gadget can reasonably provide.)

Categorization does serve the useful purpose of letting you quickly view all of your suppliers, vendors or VIPs in isolation. It's a far more elegant solution than trying to do the same thing with business cards in an analogue Rolodex where the only search methodology is alphabetical.

There's more. Say you're meeting one of your contacts and need to find them on a map. The CardScan software quickly grabs the address from the database then automatically searches it on one of the Web mapping services such as Google Maps or Expedia.

In seconds you've got a detailed location map. Print it off and you're out the door.

In addition to Outlook, the data synchronizes with Palm handhelds, smartphones and Windows Mobile Devices and Lotus Notes.

Bringing this level of organization to your work life does bring a sense of calm, Zen-like peace.

The clutter of cards disappears.

Your desk becomes a model of sleek minimalism.

Your brain is finally at ease.