Given that the mobile app has been downloaded almost 3 million times, the odds are good that you or someone that you know has downloaded ScanBizCards. So you probably know that ScanBizCards (SBC) is an industry-leading tool that allows users to scan business cards, mine them for data, manage in a cross platform library, as well as take actions such as following up through email, inviting to connect on LinkedIn, and scheduling a follow up to a calendar. Yes? Good. What you might not know; however, is how we’ve optimized the product for the entire sales and marketing team when we released ScanBizCards Enterprise Edition last year.
Wait a minute you might be saying to yourself. Aren’t enterprise (and business) editions of apps just higher cost versions with a few superficial features added on?
While, typically, that is the case (because, let’s be real, companies are accustomed to paying what individuals get for free), ScanBizCards Enterprise (henceforth SBC Enterprise) breaks the mold. We listened to needs of our corporate customers, who were recommending that sales and marketing procure their own copy of SBC and then using the rudimentary integration features to upload scanned images into Salesforce.com as a Lead or Contact. Unfortunately, there were no controls and companies’ CRM systems were inundated with random contacts and leads. SBC Enterprise is an enterprise class managed package that sits on the Salesforce.com AppExchange (getting them to bless an app is no picnic, BTW) and allows for corporate administration and ownership of inflowing contact data.
So SBC already allows for upload to Salesforce.com, why not just pay a one- time fee for my Sales guys and be done with it?
If your corporate CRM is not customized for your business, or you only have a handful of users, go for it. We don’t want to waste your time with useless tools. SBC Enterprise is about so much more than simply capturing the data via your phone and exporting to Salesforce. We’re talking about having the power, in real time, in the palm of your hands, to assign client contacts to different lead groups and different salespeople, to rank their priority and the temperature of the lead. Just imagine the kind of power you’ll have: syncing to Salesforce, managing new client-contact acquisitions, dealing with your sales team, all without having to leave the app – or stop moving, for that matter!
So, wait… is SBC Enterprise a CRM? Does it have the aspirations of a CRM?
Why no, it’s not, and it doesn’t. We don’t believe in reinventing the wheel, especially when there are already mighty fine wheels out there. What we’re invested in (metaphorically, of course) is discovering new ways to connect the wheel to the car, to reduce friction, to make your drive smoother, faster, to help you get where you’re going. All car-analogies aside, our business is to make your business run smoother. We want to help you utilize all those fancy tools you’ve got more efficiently and in new ways. Think of us as a CRM manager. That might be most appropriate.
Isn’t it a little presumptuous to think I need a CRM-M? We’ve been killing it with our current mode of client acquisition, management, and communication between networkers and salespeople.
Have you though? Have you really? Do you (or whoever you pay) really enjoy taking business cards and entering them manually into Salesforce, assigning them to people, adjusting the settings, etc.? Do you really like doing extra work (or worse, paying for it) when a simple, easy-to-use piece of technology will do it all for you with one click?
And what about importing errors? At least when I type them in myself, I know everything’s right. And, of course, I’ve heard that these scanners don’t always do like they should.
Well, you’re right and you’re wrong about this. SBC Enterprise scanners are accurate 95% of the time. Those odds are pretty good and, coupled with them, is the fact that, with an Enterprise account, you have access to human support to review and correct any card-importing errors. That’s right. Through the app, you’re able to request a human being to process the import, to ensure any data that didn’t look right when it was processed is corrected, so that you don’t have to waste any of your time.
So be real with me for a second. What are the drawbacks? Where does SBC Enterprise fall short?
- As we described above, OCR scanning is not 100 perfect. But most people are OK with the 5% scanning error (correctable manually or through requesting human support).
- SBC Enterprise works better on iOS. All religious type arguments of preferable platform aside, this is pretty common. And it’s temporary.
- Sales people still don’t like entering info into CRM systems. Sorry, can’t change that. But SBC Enterprise definitely shortens the time it takes to do so.