Neat Business Cards Turns Piles of Paper Into Digital Gold

I'm not exaggerating when I say I have over 10,000 business cards from people I've worked with or met in passing over the years. They're all alphabetized by company name and contact name... and they sit in row after row of emptied card boxes, completely unused and gathering dust. "You ought to scan those!" everyone says, without question.

Neat Business Cards is a product from the makers of NeatReceipts, which I reviewed last year. As with other business card scanners, it's a pocket-size device with minimal complexity. You feed cards into it through a slot (as opposed to a flatbed), which lets you scan cards at a healthy clip if you're in a hurry.

While there's nothing new about the concept, Neat Business Cards is probably the most advanced card scanner I've seen. It includes a plug-in for Outlook that lets you instantly import scanned cards, so you don't have to use a third-party app to do the work. It also includes a plug-in for ACT! and even comes with a free copy of ACT! (a venerable contact management program that I didn't even know was still being sold). Cards can also also be exported to Plaxo, if you're one of the dozen or so people still using it. (Idea: How about a way to search LinkedIn and Facebook for the profiles of people whose cards I scan?)

I can't comment on Neat's claim of being the "most accurate reader of US business cards." I didn't have any notable problems with it to speak of, and speed and quality both seemed fine to me. At nearly $200, it's a little pricey for such a one-trick pony, but if the executive in your life is even more anal than I am about keeping a history of everyone he's ever dealt with, this is the gizmo for him.