Business cards are still considered standard practice and the most acceptable way to connect with people in real life. But in the age of LinkedIn, Facebook and even Twitter, many of us are opting for increasingly effective electronic means of contact.
Card2Contact is an Android application that’s designed to cleverly bridge both physical and digital worlds by seamlessly integrating physical business cards into an eminently more useful digital scenario.
The Waterloo-made application uses cameras in Android devices to capture business cards. More than this, it takes all that valuable contact information and converts that data into actionable and relevant information through Card2Contact’s cloud service.
Card2Contact can seamlessly merge business card information into existing social media information so that there are various ways to contact and share information with significant personal as well as business contacts.
If you’re a networker by nature or because you need to for your work, you have no doubt amassed dozens of business cards, many of which lie forgotten unless someone physically types in all the relevant information. Card2Contact, which is available for free from the Google Play Store, can even reference where you met that contact using event-based Contact Management, which is critical information for reconnecting. It also automatically adds contact details to your smartphone.
Setting up Card2Contact is easy and straightforward. After downloading the app on Android, you need to set up an account and provide a secure password. After this, you are sent a special code with which to access the features. To scan a card, simply press the camera icon and take a photo of the card in well-lit conditions. This is then uploaded and marked as Pending for Conversion. You also have the option of typing in short notes as well as connect the contact to a specific event (i.e. seminar, meet-up, conference, cocktail party).
Keep capturing cards and queue them up and the system works in the background to get the information to Card2Contact for transcription.
Of course, having a large collection of contacts doesn’t really amount to much if you don’t put it to good use. Once a contact is added, Card2Contact provides an option to flag the contact for follow-up, specifying the perfect time or day to receive a reminder. This is an excellent feature for sales professionals looking to quickly convert leads into new business by ensuring they’re not forgotten.
Card2Contact synchronizes all contact and calendar data, as well as follow-up reminders with a secure cloud-based server. Users can download Card2Contact to any Android smartphone and access their data via a secured connection.
This allows for seamless data transfer between Android devices and ensures that your contacts are never lost with a lost smartphone.
With Card2Contact, Android devices now become ideal tools for capturing and securing vital contact information that can now be easily integrated into mobile and social networks.