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CloudContacts Turns Business Cards Into 'Cloud' Cards

September 16th, 2009 @ 9:00 am

1 Comment

Categories: Business, Time-Savers, Web Tools

Tags: Card, Business Card, Rick Broida

Even in this Facebook-LinkedIn-Twitter-ified world, business cards are a fact of life. Have you ever managed to escape a trade show or business meeting without a pocketful of new ones? (If so, count yourself lucky.)

CloudContacts saves you the hassle of manually processing business cards. The service turns your cards into Web-savvy data that you can view online, integrate with CRM apps like SalesForce, and connect with social-media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. (You can also export the contacts to Outlook or another desktop app.)

How do the cards get from your desk to your, um, cloud? Two options: You can ship a batch through the mail or take pictures with your camera/phone and upload them.

Pricing for the postal option starts at $29.95 for up to 100 cards. If you go the e-mail route, pricing starts at $4.95 monthly (for 20 cards per month) or $49.95 annually.

I’m honestly not convinced this is a better option than, say, a business-card scanner, or just manually typing the info into Outlook or whatever. That can’t be any more time-consuming than snapping photos of each card (and making sure they’re in focus), uploading them, and so on.

On the other hand, CloudContacts might be just the thing for busy executives who don’t have time to deal with cards but do want the information transcribed and absorbed.

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    cloudcontacts

    09/16/09 | Report as spam

    RE: CloudContacts Turns Business Cards Into 'Cloud' Cards

    Hi Rick - thanks so much for the post about CloudContacts - a couple notes....

    -- typically our customers will start with the mail-in service to get caught up and then signup for the email upload going forward - our larger customers just scan the cards on their company copying machine and email them directly from the machine but we accept any style and the new iphone 3g S model works great as well.

    -- I can't speak directly to the card scanner but many of our customers tell me they have scanners but prefer our service

    The most important thing is to do something with the cards that are collected - whether you manually type them in, use a scanner and verify the data or use our service, get those connections working.

    Happy to chat more about CloudContacts or business cards in general anytime.

    -- Allen
    CloudContacts

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  • Blogger Thumbnail Rick Broida A technology writer for more than 15 years, Rick Broida is a regular contributor to CNET, Popular Science, Wired and other publications. He's also the author of numerous books, including How to Do Everything with Your Zune. When he's not chained to his keyboard, he's usually shooting hoops or watching quality television. more »

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