MUMBAI: Zoho has announced the launch of Card Scanner, an online business card scanning application for Zoho customer relationship management (CRM).

With this application, users can take a photo of a business card and Card Scanner converts the image to text that is automatically saved either as a new contact or lead in Zoho CRM or as a new contact in Card Scanner.

Card Scanner is currently supported iPhone and will support iPad and Android devices going forward.

With the launch of Card Scanner app, Zoho users can now eliminate the process of manually entering data into their CRM module. The Card Scanner extracts names, company information, phone numbers, email addresses, Twitter handles and other card information - regardless of business card size, font and format.

Users who don‘t use Zoho CRM can store card information in the Card Scanner‘s native contact manager.

To avoid errors (poor lighting conditions, multiple photo angles, complex logos) that could impact the quality of data extraction, the application highlights unclear images in red. This allows users to easily identify and rectify information before saving.

The key features of the app are- saves time and resources, eliminates importing from spreadsheet, automatically locates address on the map, scans business cards in five languages and increases social connections. If the business card includes a Twitter handle, it automatically downloads the photo from the Twitter profile and syncs it with Zoho CRM.

Zoho chief evangelist Raju Vegesna said, "Entering data manually into any CRM application is a daunting task. Automating this process and making it simple for our users is the primary idea behind the launch of our new mobile app for Zoho CRM - Card Scanner. The App lets users save business cards on their iPhone while at meetings, events, conferences and trade shows - thus saving time and digitizing the process."

The app is currently available for the iPhone at $4.99.

Zoho is a division of Zoho Corporation a privately-held company, with offices in California, Austin, New Jersey, Chennai, Singapore, Tokyo and Beijing. Customers use Zoho products to run their business processes, manage their information and be more productive while at the office or on the go. Zoho has online products - from CRM to mail, office suite, project management, invoicing, web conferencing and more.