Red Pony is an Australian company that provides writing, editing, and training services to businesses. Below, Peter Riches of Red Pony explains how his team uses Basecamp:
As a provider of corporate writing and editing services, Red Pony had always relied on email for sending documents and managing project communications, particularly as our clients are often located in other cities, states and sometimes in other countries.
As our business grew, our project management needs also became more complex, including collaborating on projects with editors, proofreaders, graphic designers and other suppliers who were working remotely. Inevitably we found that we needed a more sophisticated solution that would enable us to exchange files, maintain version control and collaborate online with clients and suppliers.
After a year with Basecamp, we think we’ve found it.
One of Red Pony’s areas of specialisation is assisting clients to produce tenders for their products or services. The nature of these projects is that they tend to have challenging deadlines, require the input of multiple contributors and often represent a significant business opportunity (and investment) for the client.
Basecamp provides us with an ideal way to streamline project communications and maintain version control when the pressure is on.
The Writeboards feature is great for creating an outline of the document structure, updating it as the content evolves or the requirements change. We can share this structure with the client to get their input and make changes instantly. We particularly love the option to create minor versions and so avoid cramming inboxes with details of every little change, while still tracking the major amendments.
The To-Do’s lists and Milestones are useful for keeping an eye on who is responsible for what deliverable and when, particularly when working with offshore teams. For us though, the ability to share files in a secure environment is where Basecamp really comes into its own.
We’ve found that Basecamp makes it easy for us to impose version control and establish a ‘master’ version of the tender document. This way, whether we are incorporating new material or editing existing content, we remove the risk of duplicating work and ensure everyone in the project team is on the same page—often quite literally.
And because Basecamp can be as simple or as complex as you like, we feel comfortable introducing it to our clients as a collaboration tool they can start using immediately. The intuitive interface design means there’s no time lost learning how to use it, so we can start working together straight away. We love that, and so do our clients.
Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting way? Let us know.