Customer Reviews

CardScan Executive 700 Compact Business Card Scanner

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am glad I purchased my Cardscan 700, but there are some significant unfortunate missed opportunities and because of that some important functions cannot be done at all. My impression is that this is the best product on the market, due to its scanning properties, which are quite good. There are some serious deficiencies though in the rest of the software which would be nice to have fixed, and which in some cases render the device somewhat useless, since the output cannot be transferred to a useful place.

PROs: It does a pretty good job of scanning. The algorithm is well developed and is actually quite impressive. Even cards that catch and rotate as they go through, producing a funny smeared image, have some of their contents scanned correctly. The superiority of this recognition software is the strong point of this product. There is also an ok database management product that one can use to maintain and look up cards. Operationally the product is especially nice- I can just sit there feeding cards in and typing carriage return after each one, glancing at the screen to catch errors. The card image is retained in the record in the Cardscan database, which is important.

CONs: 1) the exit path has places that cards can hang up, and they can catch as they go through. This happens fairly often unless the card is new and flat, so part of the operation is to try to prevent that, by straightening out bent corners ahead of time, and by adding a little force keep the card from catching and rotating as one corner goes forward and the other is stuck. Quite needless- if the exit path was smooth and continuous, this wouldn't happen - the problem is in the rear of the plastic case. 2) Although the product retains the image of the business card, there's no way to pass that through to Outlook or export it to any other format. This is very unfortunate. I could laboriously do that by hand by cutting and pasting each one, except that Cardscan software does not permit copy / paste functions on the image. Why not? It's easy to implement. 3) Every time I start the program it harasses me about registering, even though I've been specific that I do not wish to. It also harasses me about logging in the online backup facility even though I've asked it not to do that. It therefore ignores the user wishes. 4) The data exchange function allows only extremely crude export to a file, in a simple text or csv format. There is no way to create an Outlook format .pst file, which would simplify importing, and allow for the future option of including an image. Outlook can hold an image in the comment section of the record, but apparently Cardscan folks aren't even close to thinking about this. 5) If I indicate that a data export for a file is destined for Outlook, the field names are not set up correctly, so unless I do some heavy editing of field names, nothing much other than the contact name gets across. If I export directly to the running Outlook program, it isn't perfect, but it's close enough to be usable. Why did Cardscan get one right and not the other?? In neither case can I send the card image over. 6) I was forced to install Microsoft .NET software even though I intended to do all my exports via files. I didn't get a choice- if I didn't install .NET, the installer stopped and exited without installing any Cardscan software.

Great product. It does what it says, and does it well. Most cards are scanned and recognized perfectly, including ones with non-white backgrounds and ones printed vertically. The software has almost all the features I could want, like the "find duplicate cards" feature. (Because if you go to the same trade shows and see the same people, chances are you have more than a few duplicates in that pile of cards.)

I do wish the scanner itself was a tad smaller. Or, for the price, I think it should have a feeder so it could scan a stack of cards at once, instead of hand-feeding each one... But it still works well and saves tons of time as it is.

I've seen and heard about the CardScan product line for years but never thought to buy one. Well, I started a new sales position a few weeks ago, making 20-30 calls each day. Those business cards pile up quickly but the CardScan fixes that real quick. Well over 95% of the cards I scan in get all the information transitioned to the program (you might have to do a little typing). This can allow you to do many other tasks such as address labels, FranklinQuest address books, letters, e-mails--you get the idea. I bought the more expensive unit that does color but the footprint on my desk is quite small and there's a travel case (free for me) that allows you to take it on the road. *****FIVE STARS *****

This scanner is fast and the software is very intelligently designed. The user interface is intuitive and the documentation is excellent. Both surpassed my expectations. These folks should write more software, perhaps expanding into the contact management field. ACT! could use their help! The reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is that the OCR leaves a bit to be desired sometimes. Standard fonts and white backgrounds work great, but as soon as a picture is in the background, or the background is dark and text is light, the OCR starts having trouble. This is understandable, and I wish it were a bit better. Customer support seems to be pretty good, well beyond my expectations as well. I sent an email to them suggesting an additional feature and within a couple of hours they responded saying that I can easily do what I want to do right now, and here's how to do it. Feedback at all, and that fast, really amazed me. So I rate this as a strong buy, but expect to have to check the accuracy of the OCR conversion on fancy cards.

This was my second CardScan system, both have been great. I purchased this one more for the new software than the scanner. I needed the new software so it would interface better with Lotus Notes, which it does. The scanner is great also; it provides fast and clear scans that work well with the included OCR software to load the data to the CardScan database. The Cardscan database interfaces with many contact database systems to provide updated contact information through exports or synching of data. If you need to contact customer service for CardScan they are fast and efficient in dealing with issues. Overall a great product and efficiency enhancement tool.

Simnply stated: it works - and well. I was amazed at how well it interpreted data on many different business cards and correctly assigned the info to the correct fields. In spite of graphics, totally different layouts & other potentially confusing items on the BCs, the Executive 700 made very few errors reading almost 200 cards collectd at a recent trade show. Those arrors were easily corrected durign editing. Finally, integration into Act! 2006 was flawless. It did what it was advertised to do, with few - easy to fix - read errors. When I encountered a small problem setting up the Act synchronization due to a driver issue, their Tech Support was quick, responsive and - most importantly - provided correct info. I highly reccomend this device.

This review will be biased but very honest. I sell this scanner on Amazon and use it for work. Store name Jo Louis Limited. There have been several reviews on Amazon that stated inaccurate and very misleading information about this product. The sealed Cardscan Executive 700c packages will come with a 7.0.3 version for XP/98/ME/2000/& Vista 32 bit. Cardscan 700c is compatible with Windows 7 and Vista 64 bit but only if you buy the version 8 software. Dymo charges $119 as of 12/12/10. Version 8 software is not included in the box with CardScan 700c. You must check your operating system before buying.

Version 7.0.5 software [..]
Driver [...]
Lost serial number [...]

This product is flat out amazing. I can't tell you how much time it saves me every week. I have had no problems scanning any card. Old or new. Sometimes you have to edit but not very often. The software is excellent and easy to use. It's so easy to sync that information into ACT, EXCEL, Outlook and many more. The only drawback I can see in the 7.0.5 version is that you can't transfer the image. But you can go back to the CardScan database and view the scanned image. I'm a marketing and sales person and don't ever need the image, just the information on the card. If you need to use the scanned image then you must to upgrade to the 8.0.5 version. Feel free to ask me a question from my store. I'm happy to help. Tech support for cardscan is very helpful too 203.588.2500

Hope this helps someone. Take Care

Note this will not work with a modern operating system (64 bit) and the company has decided not to every write a driver for x64 machines.

So unless you use XP, don't buy this one.

I have the CardScan Executive 700, and have used it for about a year. It works great, but I always had a couple of minor issues with the CardScan software v7. Recently purchased the v8 software upgrade, and it work so much better. The scanner just does what it should, and the v8 software works very well.

The CardScan Executive 700 with the v8 software work very well. Most cards in a traditional layout will scan and be recognized. If the color contrast is poor, or the fonts are two flowery, you may have to type in or correct information, but you will have the information and the image of the card (you can scan front and back). The new v8 software adds the ability to replace cards, when you get a newer card from an existing contact. The lookup feature is very fast even with 1500+ contacts, and the synchronization with Outlook just works (once you get it setup).

Tried to install. No driver included apparently. Couldn't find a driver down load on the site. Tech support is "closed" at 3 pm PDT. Can't return it either because I opened it.