Corex CardScan Executive

This is a dedicated card scanner for people who exchange a lot of visiting
cards and need to store them electronically. It captures information from
business cards and converts it into usable information in seconds.

The software bundled with it is also called CardScan, and is in the form of
an address book. It takes the scanned card, runs OCR (Optical Character
Recognition) on it, and puts the text into appropriate fields like Name,
Address, Telephone numbers, E-mail, and URL. Whatever the OCR can’t read or
fit into a field is put in the Others field. It also lets you dial phone
numbers, send faxes and e-mail, browse Websites, and print address books and
mailing labels directly. Importing or exporting data, and searching, updating,
and editing records is also very simple.

Installing and using CardScan is easy. It connects via the USB or parallel
port of your PC, and both cables are provided in the pack. To scan a card, just
slide one into the scanner softly, and it will automatically pull the card in
and scan it. However, the OCR has trouble scanning text embedded in logos,
shaded bands, etc. Old, damaged cards will also give errors. It has other
features like scanning the back of cards, adding notes to cards, and
synchronizing information with handheld devices. It can also accurately read
international cards from UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Belgium, and Australia.
Where price is concerned, it’s rather high at Rs 19,900, but it’s a useful
tool for high flyers and marketing professionals.

Sandeep Saxena in Mumbai