Below: James Stevenson, the managing director of Virtual Aviation, explains how the UK-based flight simulation business uses Basecamp.
What does your company/business do?
Virtual Aviation is a UK-based flight simulation specialist, operating a fleet of $20-million Boeing and Airbus full-motion flight simulators from bases at London Heathrow and London Gatwick.
Established in 1998, the company offers professional flight training for commercial pilots, and simulator experiences for aviation enthusiasts. And its innovative new ‘Mayday’ talent development courses are designed to help businesses improve individual and team performance, as well as reduce error and risk, by learning leading-edge ‘human factors’ lessons from the aviation industry.
Why do you need Basecamp?
As many of our office team work remotely much of the time, Basecamp provides us with a highly effective way of working together when we’re apart. We also use Basecamp to collaborate on training projects with our 70-strong team of instructors, so it has become absolutely invaluable.
How do you use Basecamp and why do you like it?
Collaborating with staff on internal projects such as new product development and marketing.
Collaborating with instructors on developing training programs.
Collaborating with our accountants and bookkeeper on financial matters.
Collaborating with web developers on ongoing development of our booking system and website.
Collaborating with graphic designers on producing brochures, and other marketing material.
We like it for these projects as it keeps everything in one place and makes projects that include many people much easier to manage.
What did you use before and why did you switch?
We didn’t use anything like Basecamp before; just email and phone. A couple of years ago, when we hired a web development agency to re-design our website, they used Basecamp to manage the project, and gave us access. We’d never heard about Basecamp before, but the website developers raved about it and it was incredibly simple to use – without the need for any training. We could immediately see how Basecamp could benefit our business, and signed up ourselves.
Any specific situation where Basecamp helped you out?
We’ve just developed a new product called ‘Mayday’, which is a talent development course for business people, and Basecamp has been invaluable throughout the year-long development process. It has allowed the numerous people involved with developing Mayday to share messages, ideas files, and documents. Without Basecamp, I doubt we would have been able to complete the project so quickly and efficiently.
Any tips for other customers?
Encourage collaborators to keep everything in one place on Basecamp rather than sending endless emails and copying in lots of others. It will make your life simpler, whilst reducing error and miscommunication.
Anything else?
We now use Highrise in addition to Basecamp, as they both complement each other. Whereas Basecamp allows us to manage projects and keep in touch with fellow staff, Highrise is a great ‘customer relationship management’ tool which allows us to keep in touch with customers and prospects, and track Deals.
Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting way? Let us know.
