Re:Tooling -- Contact Management: Business-Card Shakedown

For the rest of the March 2009 issue of CRM magazine, please click here.

Dave Lee, vice president of marketing for Gilbert, Ariz.–based marketing automation software company Infusionsoft, is a recent convert to the Apple iPhone. (See one of this month's features, “CRM and the iPhone.”) Harkening back to the old days of transmitting contact information between his Palm Treo smartphone and compatible devices, he wants to be able to do the same with his gorgeous new gadget.

“I’d absolutely be comfortable with swapping contact information using my iPhone,” Lee says. “It’s fast and easy.

The problem is that even if I know the other person has the same phone as I do, I’m not sure [if] they have the right application to be able to [virtually] handshake with me.”

That’s the crux of the problem with this burgeoning space.

Since this latest wrinkle is still evolving, it’s almost impossible to find traditional market-share reports or other research covering the topic. “It is an awkward area that fits between a few different enterprise technologies,” says Vuk Trifkovic, senior analyst at New York–based research firm Datamonitor.

Denis Pombriant, founder and managing principal of Stoughton, Mass.–based CRM consultancy Beagle Research Group, explains that, in a way, this is another form of the electronic vCard that one can add to an email sent in Microsoft Outlook. “The question you have to ask yourself is how this is better than a vCard or having a bar code on your name tag at a trade show,” he challenges.

The key, according to Martin Zagorsek, executive vice president of Menlo Park, Calif.–based research firm Knowledge Networks, is monetization. “Charging prices like 99 cents or $2.99—you can’t survive,” he says. “You have to establish value in the eyes of your users, but the real challenge is going to be if you can get a sizable audience and a revenue stream you can survive on—an ongoing service. People are reluctant to add another monthly subscription, but if it’s business-funded and expenseable, it becomes much easier.”

Trifkovic says the traditional swapping of business cards is awkward enough already—making this exchange electronic has the potential to make things a bit more complicated. “You’re assuming the other person has a compatible phone,” he says. “Assuming they want to pull up their device as well, it can be more unnerving in that respect. But perhaps there’s going to be a new social context that emerges.”

Zagorsek echoes Trifkovic’s sentiments, explaining that making the electronic swap seamless is a difficult yet necessary barrier to overcome for application developers. He believes that the usability standard that must be met is extremely high because of the situation—but this could be the start of a beautiful business relationship. “It hasn’t taken off because people can’t literally—with two or three button pushes—fire off contact information to another device without looking like a geek,” he says. “That’s the standard that must be met…to cross over from novelty to mainstream.”

That promise keeps the idea of e-contact swapping afloat for now, as no one believes that this will entirely take over the traditional form of swapping information. “Will it replace handing out a physical card? I don’t know,” says Elaine Coleman, vice president of strategy and analysis for Santa Monica, Calif.–based new-media market-research firm Interpret LLC. “I don’t think it has to—both can coexist. There’s something nice about the physical nature of exchanging, greeting, and looking at cards…. This isn’t about that. It’s about ease of use, and updating contact information automatically.”

That kind of automated swap of vital information is something Infusionsoft’s Lee is looking forward to doing again at the various business functions he attends. The problem is that he needs others to feel the same way. “I’ve downloaded FriendBook and Nameo,” he says. “I’m just waiting for others to do so as well.”

    >> e-Contact Swapping Short List

Application	Prominent Feature	Pricing	Release Date in the App Store
beamME (http://rmbrme.com/beamme/about)	Send your personal or business card from the iPhone to any desktop Mac or PC, as well as to any other mobile device, including a BlackBerry, Android phone, or Palm Treo.	Free	Oct. 24, 2008
FriendBook (http://tapulous.com/friendbook/)	Strange as it sounds, physically shake two iPhones together to swap contact information.	$0.99	Nov. 14, 2008
Handshake (http://gethandshake.com/)	Can exchange contact information and photos, as well as save to contact list with one click—no manual typing of information.	Basic version is free; premium version (no ads) is $2.99	Nov. 19, 2008
Me2 (http://www.xyster.net)	Doesn’t require Wi-Fi, third-party log-ins, or an Internet connection to swap contacts.	Free	Jan. 3, 2009
Nameo (http://nameo.org/)	After starting the application, pressing the “Connect” button will locate anyone close by with whom to exchange contact information.	$0.99	Oct. 1, 2008

Contact Assistant Editor Christopher Musico at cmusico@destinationCRM.com.

Every month, CRM magazine covers the customer relationship management industry and beyond. To subscribe, please visit http://www.destinationcrm.com/subscribe/.

Related Articles

CRM and the iPhone

Mobile CRM has been around for years, but Apple's handheld device has upended everything. Now vendors are rewriting applications, companies are rethinking the BlackBerry's seeming stranglehold, and users are wondering what's next. The answer may be nothing less than a CRM revolution, and a chance for Apple to enter the enterprise.

rmbrME Looks to Take eContact Swapping Further

The release of beamME Pro strives to add more intelligence and simplicity to the electronic exchange of contact information.

Apple Takes a Bite Into Enterprise CRM

With Salesforce.com's announcement of an iPhone-specific application, will Apple finally tackle the corporate world?

NetSuite iPhones It In

The on-demand CRM vendor announces full in-browser capabilities for use on the wildly popular new Apple device; CRM on the hip could make Apple the next big mobile business tool.

iPhone: The 800-Pound Gorilla Spawns a 300-Page Bill

By sending exhaustively detailed iPhone bills, service provider AT&T could be trying to head off expensive customer-care calls.

CRM Moves to the Mobility Phase

Focusing on technology, experts at destinationCRM2007 are all about the mobility effect.

iPhone: Friend or Foe?

The June 29 release of Apple's new iPhone could be a marketer's dream come true.

New Markets and Leaders Emerge

SaaS revenue will likely remain the driving force behind the CRM industry's growth, but emerging niche markets will also play a role.

CRM Vendors Say Hello to the New iPhone

Apple's 3G update to its popular handheld has early support from big names in the industry, but little meat so far.

SAP Looks to ‘Change the Game’

On The Scene: Sapphire 2008 -- One analyst believes the latest from the German juggernaut propels the company squarely back into the CRM 2.0 battle.

SAP Refocuses on "Fun"

SAP CRM 2008: SAP's overarching theme of "customer co-innovation" goes beyond its newly launched CRM offering, according to company executives.