ConnectMachine scans the paper business cards electricians collect from suppliers, general contractors, and other trades into clean digital contacts. The AI reads the name, company, title, email, and phone, keeps the original card image, and files each one so you can search it later. Scanning is unlimited on the Individual plan, so no card ends up lost in the truck.
Electricians end up with cards. The rep at the supply-house counter, the general contractor who wants a reliable sub, the plumber you shared a jobsite with, the manufacturer rep at a trade show: they all hand you paper. Most of it ends up rubber-banded in the truck console or run through the wash in your work pants.
Business card scanning with ConnectMachine turns that stack into contacts you can use. Point your phone at a card and the AI pulls the name, company, and number into a clean entry, keeps a picture of the card itself, and files it where you can find it. The GC who could feed you steady work stops being a bent card in a cupholder.
Where electricians pick up cards
The cards come from the same handful of places every week. Each one is a supplier you might need or a source of the next job, and on paper none of them is searchable.
- The supply-house counter, where a rep hands you a direct line for pricing and stock.
- Trade shows and manufacturer booths for panels, breakers, and EV chargers, where reps push a card at every aisle.
- The general contractor or builder on a job who wants a licensed electrician to call again.
- Other trades on the site: the plumber, the HVAC tech, the drywall crew you will see for years.
- Home inspectors and property managers who send steady referral work to an electrician they trust.
Every one of those is worth keeping. The trouble starts the second the card goes in your pocket.
Why the stack in the console never gets called
The problem is not that you throw the cards away. It is that a paper card is a dead end. It sits in a cupholder, a toolbag pocket, or a kitchen drawer until the ink smears or it goes through the wash. When you finally need a good GC or the rep who quoted your last panel, you are digging through a rubber-banded stack instead of a searchable list.
Retyping is no better. Sitting in the truck thumbing a number off a bent card, getting one digit wrong, and never knowing until the call fails. Most cards never get typed in at all, so the contact is only as good as the day you can still find the paper.
Scan a card in the time it takes to read it
ConnectMachine's AI scanner turns a paper card into a contact on the spot, right there at the counter or in the truck before you pull off. No typing, and nothing for them to install.
- Open ConnectMachine and point your phone camera at the card.
- The AI reads it and fills in the name, company, title, email, and phone for you.
- Glance at the fields, fix anything that looks off, and save.
- The contact lands in your list with a photo of the original card attached.
- Add a quick note while it is fresh, like 'counter rep at City Electric, good on panel pricing.'
On the Individual plan the scanning is unlimited, so a whole trade show's worth of cards goes in one booth at a time, and the stack never makes it back to the truck.
Every field off the card, not just a photo
A photo of a card is still a dead end, because you cannot call a picture. The scanner reads the card and splits it into real fields, so the phone number is tappable and the email is ready to send the moment you save.
- Name and company, so you know who the counter rep at City Electric actually is.
- Title, so the manufacturer rep and the branch manager do not blur together.
- Phone and email, pulled clean and ready to tap, with no thumbing digits off paper.
- The original card image, kept on the contact in case a logo or a cell number scribbled on the back matters later.
It reads cards in five or more languages too, which helps when a supplier's rep or a specialty manufacturer prints in something other than English.
Lose the paper, keep the contact
Once a card is scanned, the paper stops mattering. It can go through the wash, fall out of the toolbag, or get tossed at the end of a trade show, and the contact is still in your phone with the card's picture attached. The one thing you used to lose is now the one thing you cannot.
Your contacts stay private by default and are never sold, and the data is encrypted in transit and at rest. The GC's direct line and the rep who gives you good pricing are yours to keep, not something that leaks out to anyone else.
Find the right sub or supplier months later
A scanned card earns its keep months later. When a customer needs a panel upgrade and you want the rep who quoted you the best price, or a remodel needs a plumber and you met a good one on a site last spring, you do not dig through a drawer. You ask.
The AI Concierge searches your contacts in plain language: 'who was the counter rep at City Electric?' or 'which GC did I meet on the Oak Street job?' It pulls the answer from the cards you scanned, so the people you crossed paths with keep working for you long after the paper would have fallen apart.
