Does this sound familiar?

You rush around at conferences collecting business cards from exhibitors and your peers. In the back of your mind you promise that just as soon as you get back to the office you’ll key in all those contacts to your computer.

Did you know there’s an easier way to enter in that contact information?

Some business cards and advertisements now contain a tiny bar code symbol called a QR code. This is Quick Response code.  They bar codes can embed more than what they’ve been traditionally used for — either inventory item numbers or tracking numbers.

Using a free web site like ZXing you can input your own contact data and create a free bar code.

Here’s my contact information that I’ve created using the site above.

Now all you need is free scanning software for your smartphone. On Android I use Bar Code Scanner and on iPhone Red Laser is good (both are free).

Once you start the scanning application on your smartphone you simply hold it over the QR image and within seconds if the QR code contains address and contact information that data will display on your phone.

There are obviously some challenges to this concept of doing away with re-keying business cards – mainly that people need to use the QR codes on their cards and your smartphone (assuming you have one) needs free third party scanner software.

Gradually we (hopefully?) ‘ll see more widespread adoption of QR codes – and less re-keying.

Via: Sage Summit 2011 Diary