CardScan Executive v8 Card Scanner

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by: Patrick S. Pope (Chicago, IL)
on: Wednesday, 16-June-2010

After years of delaying the purchase of a business card scanner, I decided to make the plunge after amassing a pile of 300+ business cards. Generally, I am an early adopter of any technology that introduces additional efficiency in my life. However, I was a bit skittish about obtaining a business card scanner as the general impressions I have received regarding the product category has been quite negative. However, despite a few of its shortcomings, the CardScan Executive has been a worthwhile investment.

In the past, coworkers have argued that the accuracy of such products is so low (<90%) that they offer little value beyond the manual entry process. While the OCR accuracy of scanning complicated multicolored business cards is in fact only 85% to 90%, the CardScan software facilitates very rapid manual correction of the data. Not only are all of the relevant fields laid out in a consistent tabular form regardless of the original order, but the CardScan software highlights questionable data. At the same time, it allows the user to compare this data to the saved scanned image of the card. This juxtaposition is an important element of the value proposition of CardScan Executive solution. Regardless of the accuracy, the scanned images can be flipped through while inspecting the estimated OCR text. It is important to note that the user can scan hundreds of business cards, rapidly one at a time, before any of the time consuming manual correction takes place.

This automated process capability is one element of the software that I didnt fully understand before purchase. Assume you have 500 business cards that have elaborate graphics, which leads you to correctly guess there may be a high error rate. This isnt necessarily a problem as you can 1) scan all of the cards then 2) process (i.e. OCR)then 3) verify manually. The manual step can be done weeks later if you chose. In my case, I often dont know if I will need any of the cards, so the ability to scan and throw away the paper cards is important. Unfortunately it does not have a multi-card sheet feeder so assume that 5-10 seconds per card must be devoted to the original scanning process.

Another shortcoming of the CardScan Executive solution is that it does not learn as it goes. For example, if you have several business cards with crazy graphics from employees of a single company, the software does not recognize that you already identified key text on the previously manually verified cards. Moreover, where it can correctly recognize URLs and email domain names, the software cant intelligently determine the company name with this information. The difference between the domain name and the spelling of the company name is most notable with companies that have elaborate icons embedded in their company names.

The limitations of the device and software are most likely driven by cost. For several thousand dollars, the afforementioned limitations could be addressed. Yet, at this price point, most individuals who place a value of their time of greater than $20/hour (very low bar for white collar workers) and who want to digitize more than 225 business cards throughout the life of the product will receive a positive return on their investment.

Calculation
3 minutes saved per card for 225 cards = 11.25 hours
11.25 hours @ $20/hour = $225 > $200 purchase price


Pros
Relatively fast scanning
Easy Setup
Software productivity aids for manual verification

Cons
No automated sheet feeder
Does not learn from previous verifications or intelligently extract data from the different parts of the card to improve OCR (i.e. company name matched to URL/email domain)

by: T. Cohen (Tallahassee, Fl)
on: Tuesday, 15-June-2010

Overall, this is a huge time-saver for us. My sales person uses it to manage his contacts, and he can now get rid of his boxes and boxes of business cards. The process is really easy and installation was a breeze, but the data collection isnt perfect - it requires a little bit of editing on most cards. However, given the alternatives, its worth the little bit of time it takes.

by: Roger Jackson (Cape Coral FL)
on: Wednesday, 14-April-2010

This is an excellent product. It is easy to set up and use. The card scanner captures the information off the card with very little error and when it does make a mistake it is easy to correct. I reccomend this product for anyone who collects business cards and needs the information for later. It is much easier than typing into a database. The database that comes with the card scanner is easy to look up contacts that you have scanned in.

by: R. Potter (Ohio USA)
on: Sunday, 18-October-2009

Given the vast range of business cards styles and terms (example Cell v. mobile) the scanner does an excellent job of reading the card and interpreting the information. I scanned 1300 business cards in just under an hour. Less than 150 had minor scanning errors. In all, I had corrected and saved the digital file in about 2 hours. The only consistent difficulties the scanner has is (1) when the business name is only written within a graphic, and (2) when the card text is in light fancy script.

by: Patrick Lechtenberger (Southern California)
on: Saturday, 29-August-2009

This is an excellent investment if you are in a profession that requires you to keep in touch with a large number of people. I set mine up and had it working in minutes and scanned in 43 cards immediately. It syncs with Microsoft Outlook, which then syncs with my iTunes/iPhone. It easily got over 99% of the data correct and the ones it missed were because of odd graphics on a business card, which no machine could read. Hugely efficient.

by: David Tanaka (Orange County, California)
on: Monday, 24-August-2009

Fantastic. Saves many hours and gives peace of mind. Very accurate but not 100% perfect. Compact, light, attractive, simple to use. The included software and website backup is worth the purchase. The best one on the market.

by: J. Green (Tokyo, Japan)
on: Thursday, 13-August-2009

I am very happy with this card scanner. The scanning part is strong, it does make mistakes though so you need to validate everything.

What is good is the software and the online service.

The online service is what I now use as my central customer database. I synchronize between PC and MAC, pull exports to pull into my Outlook client at work.

The service polls people every quarter and gets updates. Just great.

When you buy one of these devices, do not just look at the scanning. The software and the online service makes the product.