Electronic Business Card Exchange via Server Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electronic business card systems lack seamless cooperation and collaboration between the business card processing and communication programs, limiting the exchange and accessibility of electronic business cards, especially when accessed outside an office environment.
Innovation Solution
An electronic business card exchange system that integrates terminals and a server via a communication network, allowing storage and display of electronic business cards on both local files and a database server, enabling better cooperation between the business card processing and communication programs, and allowing access from outside the office.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If electronic business cards are stored only in local files on office PCs, then security and control are maintained, but accessibility from outside the office is limited
Solution Approach 1:
A server acts as an intermediary between local PCs and external networks. The server stores copies of electronic business cards and receives/transmits cards between multiple PCs and external users, enabling remote accessibility while maintaining the original local storage structure and security controls.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds a network dimension to the traditional local-file storage model. By storing electronic business cards both locally on PCs and remotely on a server accessible via communication networks, the system enables access from multiple locations and devices without compromising local storage integrity.
2Ease of operation
If separate programs are used for business card processing and communication, then functional specialization is achieved, but seamless cooperation and collaboration are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the functionality of separate business card processing programs and communication programs through a unified server-based architecture. The server provides integrated services for storing, retrieving, and transmitting electronic business cards, enabling seamless cooperation between different programs while maintaining their individual specialized functions.
Solution Approach 2:
The server is designed with multi-functionality to handle various operations: storing electronic business cards, receiving cards from external sources, transmitting cards to multiple recipients, and interfacing with different communication programs. This universal platform enables seamless collaboration across different specialized programs.
3Productivity
If electronic business cards are transmitted through multiple programs, then processing capability is enhanced, but transmission efficiency and user experience are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The server serves as a central intermediary that consolidates transmission operations. Instead of multiple programs independently transmitting cards through complex coordination protocols, all transmission requests are routed through the server, which manages the actual data transfer efficiently and reduces coordination overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates and maintains copies of electronic business cards on the server. When transmission is needed, the server retrieves the card copy and transmits it directly, eliminating the need for multiple programs to sequentially process and forward the same card data, thereby improving transmission efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
To provide a user with better experience of cooperation between an electronic business card processing program and a communication program when exchanging electronic business cards. Electronic business cards are stored in a DB server, which is one of storages for a communication program, as well as an electronic business card local file. Thus, even if a PC is a company's PC, for example, the electronic business cards can be viewed by accessing the DB server from another PC or the like outside an office. Further, the electronic business card processing program operates with the communication program as backend, however, the electronic business card processing program may not be installed on a PC in some cases. Even in such a case, the communication program alone can display received electronic business cards that are stored in the communication program local file on the screen of a display.