e-business card becomes the new marketing tool

Radhika Bhuyan

KOLKATA: With the technology undergoing a rapid change, so is the means to do
business. The Kolkata-based Indusnet Technologies is packaging a CD-ROM business
card called the e-IndusCard, a business card, that is slowly gaining popularity
as a marketing tool.

The e-IndusCard is similar to ordinary business cards, in terms of shape and
size, except, it has a specially designed CD-ROM that fits into your wallet. The
card holds up to 50 megabytes of interactive multimedia and plays in a standard
tray loading CD- ROM or DVD drive, allowing the card to play just like a normal
CD.

The disc, among other things, can deliver multimedia annual reports, company
profiles, product information, special offers and electronic catalogs. The card
can functions on several operating systems including Windows 95, 98, NT, and
Mac.

The card can also hold a variety of media including audio, video, and text,
in addition, to standard CD-ROM media according to the requirements of clients.
The business card will not only entertain and inform potential clients, but also
provide Web site navigation and email.

CD ROM business card is expected to gain high novelty value in India as an
effective tool that can communicate a company's profile and presentations in
accordance to the demand. This apart, the sizes of the cards also make them easy
to distribute at a cost-effective price.

Elsewhere such card presentations have been built to launch a viewer's
default Web browser, dial an Internet Service Provider, and take the viewer to
one's Web site or send an e-mail, with the mere click of a button.

These cards are also popular in Europe, as these have been effective in
directing traffic to Web sites that deal in e-commerce. Popularity of these
cards would also mean that customers would be brought to the virtual doorstep of
a Web site through a direct link.

The discs made at any optical disc manufacturing unit and developers, can be
packaged and customized for use. The product presently available in Kolkata, has
been imported and later packaged and customized by Indusnet Technologies. Each
disc costs less than Rs 110, depending on the quantity ordered by the customer.