New Software Helps Manage Business Contacts

Programs offer ways to keep track of contacts and sync them among sites and devices

The rise of social networking has made meeting new people—both socially and professionally—easier than ever.

The same can't be said of keeping track of them.

Open software standards mean the most popular services that store people's names, numbers and email addresses work on almost any device.

But these services don't always speak the same language. Translating a stack of business cards into digital profiles often involves hours of tedious typing. The task becomes even harder once complex data from social networks like Facebook Inc. and LinkedIn Corp. are added to the mix.

Making It Work

Developers at Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. are aware of the mismatch and all provide ways to export contacts to other systems. Microsoft Outlook users, for example, can download their contacts to a "comma separated value" file that's palatable to Google applications like Gmail.

Most software providers also offer special programs or plug-ins that sync contacts automatically. Google, for instance, sends its contact information through a free-to-use format that devices like iPhones can read. Those iPhone users can configure their Mail application to translate Apple's address-book entries into Google-friendly data.

LinkedIn's CardMunch turns photos of business cards into digital contacts. ENLARGE
LinkedIn's CardMunch turns photos of business cards into digital contacts. LinkedIn

Yet even the solutions present their own problems. Syncing one set of names with another often causes duplicates that clog your directory.

Microsoft also charges other companies fees to use its well-established ActiveSync service, which usually works well on a technical level but sometimes inflames old turf wars: Google recently backed out of its Outlook-syncing program, restricting it to companies and institutions that pay for Google's apps. The decision left millions of casual Gmail users who also rely on Outlook in the lurch.

Third-Party Problems

One alternative is to keep contact information on social networks, which let users store much richer details—birth dates, family relationships, work histories and common friendships—than a business card ever could. But some services still aren't good at sharing. Facebook is unlikely to sync with LinkedIn's profiles, for example.

LinkedIn also owns CardMunch, a scanning app that gives users a less labor-intensive way to file hundreds of new business cards into directories with a simple snap from a smartphone camera. The service is only available for Apple devices, but CardMunch has already enhanced LinkedIn's value without needing too many users: The more than two million contacts scanned to date offer LinkedIn the chance to add even more names to its 238 million-member social network.

CardMunch has a low-tech twist: It relies on human beings to ensure its uploaded files' accuracy, which means a data-entry worker, not a line of code, puts contact information where it belongs. LinkedIn spokeswoman Julie Inouye says employees entering the data adhere to strict privacy rules.

Another solution: Third-party apps from wireless carriers and independent developers can sync phone contacts with Outlook entries and Google profiles. But these types of services carry risks that are less likely to dog larger software makers.

Giants like Apple or Microsoft can tweak their products and give independent developers little to no warning, causing glitches that punish those startups' customers. Third-party address books are also vulnerable to the realities of a cutthroat software market—as customers of the syncing services Smartr and Soocial recently discovered.

The developer behind Smartr, a contact aggregator for Gmail and iPhones, recently revealed plans to scrap many of its features next year after Yahoo Inc. acquired the company. Soocial decided its best option was to shut down, using its data instead to serve as a resource for French social network Viadeo SA, which acquired the syncing service in 2011.

"We figured out that approach of just having an address-book manager wasn't something that people were going to be willing to pay for" en masse, Soocial co-founder Stefan Fountain says. "It was really too technical a problem for people to really care about."

Avoiding duplicate contacts—or names that fall through the cracks—depends on a central address book that other directories can use. If you're comfortable keeping hard-won contacts online, the Web is the best place to do that. Otherwise, a secure server is usually more secure than a smartphone or personal computer. That involves putting at least some of your eggs in one basket.

Mr. FitzGerald is a staff reporter in The Wall Street Journal's New York bureau. He can be reached at .

Gregory Frost
Gregory Frost

In iOS 7 the native contacts app is good enough for business. It is not worth installing third-party apps. I've passed through rapportive, smartr and what not, but they don't cut it. I doubt this software would either.

Otherwise, to manage the native iPhone contacts on a PC, there exists an impressive computer program called copytrans contacts: which works directly with the native contacts app on the iphone.

Ellery Kurtz
Ellery Kurtz subscriber

There is still nothing like your own personal information manager program. Programs like ACT! are great when you want to share or when you want total stand alone privacy. Easy to transport from any device to another once you are loaded up with ACT!

But some of these do get a little corporate in their usefulness and don't always work well with small businesses that are service oriented for clients.

ACE7 is another program like ACT that is geared to smaller businesses.

When you don't want your client's private information all over the cloud where it might get lost or stolen, then these stand alone programs are the way to go as far as I am concerned.

Bryan Conn
Bryan Conn

Don't forget about @scrubly - a cloud address book cleaner with social integrations that is still growing into its potential. Http://

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