Tim Wall, Director of Product Marketing for Element Fusion, says, "Basecamp is truly at the center of our business operations." He sent us a note describing how the company uses Basecamp:
1) New projects - As new business comes in, we setup these projects in basecamp and use the system to initiate communication with our new clients. We post milestones, communicate via messages, post design comps for review ... etc. At any given time we have between 50-100 of these active new projects at work within Basecamp.2) Ongoing services - Many of our clients continue to utilize our services beyond an initial project. In this situation, the client is able to initiate communication through Basecamp. We maintain over 300 open projects for ongoing services.
3) Internal management - We have two dedicated project managers and a team of ten developers. We use basecamp to schedule all milestones, track all time, and facilitate all communication internally.
4) Product development - In addition to professional services, we also develop a line of web-based products. This is where Basecamp really helps us
We followed up with Tim to find out more...
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How do you use the product and why do you like it?
We love Basecamp because it does exactly what we need it to do without all of the bloat of other software. Also, it has proven to be robust enough to handle the growing needs of our business even as we maintain a large project load.
We run between 50-100 new projects at any given time and use the system to initiate communication with our clients, track milestones, and present design comps and other work for approval. We also maintain over 300 ongoing services projects in which our clients are able to initiate communication with us whenever they have need of our services.
Our two dedicated project managers and ten developers utilize Basecamp extensively to communicate, track milestones and track time for professional services. Plus, we also develop a line of web-based products and Basecamp really helps us keep our eye on the bottom line as we have developers working on both billable client time and internal products time.
Which features do you use most?
The critical features to our business are messages (including attaching files to messages), milestones, and time-tracking. We couldn't exist without them.
What did you use before and why did you switch?
We used the phone and email for communication, but it wasn't centralized or team-based, it was just one to one. We used Excel to track projects and milestones, and we used a custom app we built for time-tracking.
Without a doubt, the primary reason we switched was to enable team-based, centralized communication. This revolutionized our process.
Get specific: Tell us a story about a project or situation where the product helped you out.
One unexpected way Basecamp has helped us has been in front-end sales. Our sales team demonstrates our "project portal" to prospective clients during the sales process and it has really turned out to be a major selling point. Clients are very impressed with the system which reinforces our commitment to communication and customer service. So, Basecamp adds practical value to our company which, in turn, drives revenue to our business.
If anyone out there has not considered using Basecamp as a selling point for their services, we highly recommend it.
Element Fusion Project Portal (click for larger version)
Any tips or tricks for other customers?
Keep everything as simple as possible. Even a beautifully elegant product like Basecamp has some features that we just don't need to use. For example, we don't use Writeboards or To-do lists. One time we tried to use them just because they were there and it didn't work out too well.
Don't force it, and don't feel bad about not using everything available. Just find the things that work for your business and stick with them.
The nice thing about Basecamp is that in the way it is designed, the things that you aren't using just stay out of your way. It's really quite amazing in that regard.
What is the custom message manager? How has it helped?
Our "message manager" is a simple, external application we developed using the Basecamp API. It is solely for our own internal use and its purpose is to ensure that no message left anywhere in Basecamp goes unanswered.
Clients often post messages but forget to have them notify someone by email. This wouldn't be so hard to manage if we only had a few projects, but with literally hundreds of active projects, there is no way within Basecamp itself that we can quickly find these "orphan" messages, and that leaves the potential for messages to go unanswered.
Fortunately, the Basecamp API made it easy for us to throw together a simple application that pulls in any message in any project to which a reply has not yet been posted. Our project managers check the message manager several times daily and by the end of each business day we ensure that no message has been left unanswered, whether or not the message notified anyone by email.
Element Fusion Message Manager (click for larger version)
Our business has a reputation for a very high level of customer service and Basecamp is a major reason we are able to maintain such a position.
Anything else?
On a personal note, Basecamp and all of 37signals' products have been a great inspiration to us as we have worked to develop our own product line. We have learned a great deal about web-based products simply by using Basecamp.
In the development of our own products, in particular the Light content management system for designers, we have tried to model many of the same characteristics of simplicity, ease-of-use, and accessibility, and we continue to grow and learn from all that we observe in 37signals and their products.
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Thanks for the all the great info Tim! If you think you're ripe for a case study, let us know.
