Cardscan Executive (Cardscan $259) isn't the newest gadget on the planet, but I recently took one for a spin, and was so impressed that I thought it merited special praise.
This mini-scanner, designed primarily to scan and organize business cards, a chore that I tended to put off until, well…never. I came to the product skeptical of its price and claims. It seemed too expensive and too good to be true. It turns out that by reliably cleaning up my contact list, it more than earned back its not inconsiderable price.
I have to admit, now that I have the Cardscan Executive, taking care of the cards I collect at business events is kind of fun. It takes almost no time to run through a stack of card – the company claims 3 seconds per card, but it feels faster. Each card is scanned and then “read” – the program attempts to place the information it finds into fields into a database.
After you’re done scanning the cards you get a chance to review the data.
The program shows you a “picture” of the card and data fields where it has placed the interpreted data. In my tests, and using cards in a wide variety of formats and styles (including vertical and horizontal layouts), the program got the proper results nearly every time. The only thing that tripped up the scanner were two sided cards; this scanner only reads one side of each card. The supplied software scans for duplicate entries, can print labels and makes it easy to export data to other programs.
I appreciated that the scanner is relatively light and small and requires no power other than that supplied by the USB cable. It is not inexpensive, but if you have a Windows based system and a desk drawer full of cards growing stale under your relentless procrastination, the Cardscan Executive will rapidly pay earn back its investment. Simple to operate, this speedy little scanner will get you organized fast.
