37signals Product Blog

Cruise company: "All projects, meetings and ideas are now discussed in Basecamp"

Steven Macdonald is E-commerce Manager at Hurtigruten, an international cruise/travel company. The company recently decided to cut down on internal email and use Basecamp and Macdonald discusses the result in "Project Management made easy."

All projects, meetings and ideas are now discussed in Basecamp and are shared between E-Commerce, IT, Reservations, Marketing and Web. Not only are we able to track projects, it also removes the necessity of reporting as the projects provide an overview of progress. Instead of writing up summaries or completing excel sheets; we are now able to link to the project directly.

Karl Philip Lund, Hurtigruten Web team summarized our initial approach with “The secret to getting basecamphq to work in large organizations is to start small. As time goes by, the value becomes very clear.” As online sales increase, the management is becoming more interested in our web activities. We have created accounts for each of the management and they can now view exactly where their budgets are being spent!...

Basecamp allows us to track all of our projects and is the best communication tool we use at Hurtigruten. After each meeting, our action plan now begins with “Create project in basecamp”.

Peak brings Basecamp to BlackBerry

Peak is a third-party tool that brings Basecamp to the BlackBerry. Developer Ryan Nickel writes:

Over the past five months or so I've been working with the Basecamp project management system quite a bit. Maybe you've heard of it? Only about a billion people use it every day. Since using it I've been annoyed and surprised at the fact that there's no native BlackBerry application to manage these projects. So I've taken it upon myself to fill this void. Introducing Peak!

Check out Peak.

Software developer calls Basecamp "the single most important piece of project management software"

Don Schenck owns the software development company Xceeda, Inc. In Project Management, he discusses how he collaborated with others on a recent project using Basecamp.

Basecamp is, arguably, the single most important piece of project management software ever created.

"Wow, Don ... that's quite a statement!"

Yeah, well, you use Basecamp and you'll become an evangelist as I am.

Basecamp allows all the important parts of a project -- artifacts, messages, schedules, etc. -- to be stored in one place. Any "stakeholder" (BUZZWORD ALERT!) can access the project's information from anywhere: Computer, iPad, phone. Even a Windows-based machine.

(*zing!*)

As you might imagine, the old-school owner of the creating company (NOT me) was opposed to the idea. "We have Microsoft Project" ... "It's in the cloud" ... "We don't have a process in place" ... all the excuses -- and that's all they are -- you would expect.

Nixed. Shot down. Kicked to the curb.

So, like any good self-starter, I purchased my own subscription to Basecamp and started using it.

I invited the client to join my project. They did, immediately, and are already liking it.

Today, while working with an ancillary party (the usability experts), they asked me to make the latest copy of the prototype software available to them.

"No problem. I have an online project management software that I use ..."

"Basecamp?"

"Yeah! How'd you know? Did Kristy tell you?"

"No, I've used it before with _____. It's great."

So, despite the best efforts of the owner, we're using Basecamp, collaborating on this project, communicating and sharing "stuff" via one, central location.

The full piece.

Northern Colorado Business Report examines the 37signals Suite as a project management system

Michael Wailes, Interactive Developer at Burns Marketing and Communications, examines the 37signals Suite as a project management system in his Geek Chic column at Northern Colorado Business Report. The piece looks at Basecamp ("truly puts collaboration into the project management process"), Highrise ("think of Highrise as Outlook on steroids: a conversation management system"), Backpack ("your company's intranet - a repository of all those things (forms, documents, how-tos, and guides) that are currently scattered across your office"), and Campfire ("looking for a way to have three or more users in a conversation, then Campfire is your answer").

For me, two things are a must when it comes to project/collaboration management software: simplicity and portability. I don't want to spend a tremendous amount of time learning how to use a system, or even worse, learn just the bare essentials and miss the real power and productivity aspects. I also want access in as many places as I can get it - in the office, at home or on the road...If you are looking for an affordable, accessible, well-supported set of tools to help organize your team and projects, then consider giving the 37signals Suite a try.

More details on the 37signals Suite.

Real estate project manager advises using Basecamp to get staff on the same page

Real estate project manager Susan Helmer (below) offers up "Skills to Become a More Effective Manager":

You lead work projects and in order to successfully bring your projects in on time and on budget, you need your staff on the same page with you. A great way to do this is with real time collaboration. You should have a shared calendar, task list, reminders, a way to organize documents, and a journal. I am a big fan of the 37signals Basecamp project management tool. The Basecamp tool becomes even more powerful when used with the other 37signals collaboration tools - Highrise for Contacts and Backpack Organizer. Online project management and collaboration tools make it easy to organize projects around your team.

Read the full piece.

Game design studio calls Basecamp "Project Management Software without equal"

Reality Blurs is a game design studio founded in 2004 by Sean Preston. Recently, Preston offered up his "dirty, little secret" for project management: Basecamp.

I began searching for Project Management Software and I looked at a number of programs which don’t bear mention. Most of them were overly complicated, had too much overhead or not enough, or would not prove worth it in the long run. I could master them. I’ve had to do it in the past, but I couldn’t expect anybody coming on board to have an obstacle in the path of creation. Project Management Software needs to facilitate the work process, not suffocate it...

My quest eventually brought me to Basecamp and I fell in love. This is the online Project Management Software without equal. It allows projects to be set up, workflow templates to be created with lists of to-do items, an excellent messaging system, a way to tag entries, and a great way to upload files (both drafts and art) into their respective projects, and it has a change management system so the various iterations can be centralized in case a file is corrupted or it is necessary to compare or roll back to a previous version. I loved all these features and after giving it a test-spin, I was hooked. The whole team was hooked. It’s easy and intuitive and it resides securely in the cloud, so files can be accessed anywhere, anytime as needed. This last feature alone made us wave good-bye to Dropbox in the rear window. Is it really as good as I’m saying? Yes...

This looks like a paid endorsement, but it’s not. I truly believe in what these guys have come up with. This has enabled us to more rapidly deploy and grow the Reality Blurs brand than any other tool we’ve used. For those who’ve asked how I manage to get things done, and there have been a number of you who’ve emailed me in the past asking how I do it, now you know my dirty, little secret.

Read the full piece.

Nomad brings Basecamp to the BlackBerry PlayBook

Nomad brings Basecamp to the BlackBerry PlayBook. The Nomad site says, "Optimized for the PlayBook, Nomad provides easy access to all your Basecamp projects in a simple native application." You can access one project for free or use the Pro Version (unlimited access) for $9.99.

Learn more about Nomad.

Marketing agency lists tools to keep you organized

Marketing agency True Hero asks, "As business grows, client lists expand, taxes are due, and calendars filled up, how do you keep organized?" The answer is a list of tools to keep track of people, places, and things — and Highrise, Basecamp, and Backpack make the cut.

1. Highrise is Customer Management, Assistant, White-Board, Email, To Do all in one. TrueHero recommends Highrise to all our clients. It’s a one stop place for answers when responding to sales managers, accounts and reps. Each user can see who talked to the client last, when and what was discussed. Schedule a meeting, Task or Follow-up by Company, Brand or Client. You don’t have to bother Bob on his vacation for Client X’s info – it is right there in Highrise. Easy, efficient, and effective. Love this tool and it’s inexpensive...

3. Backpack is part of 37signals like Highrise. If you have the $99 package, Highrise, Backpack, and Basecamp is included. No need for Google Calendars – Backpack has a group calendar. A great alternative to mass emails, notifications and group organization. The 37signals tools work well together – one place, one app, easy.

The rest of the list includes tools like MailChimp, Mint.com, and Quickbooks. Check it out.

Paying in advance

If you’d prefer to simplify your billing, you can pay for 37signals products in one lump sum. We’ll then pull from that credit instead of charging your card every month. We’ll email you when your balance runs low so you can recharge it.

To set up lump sum payment, click the “Account” link at the top of any screen. Then click the link for lump sum payments.

You’ll still get an invoice each month. When your lump sum is running out, we’ll send you an email to let you know.

New in Basecamp: Share files with your Free plan

By popular demand we’ve added 10 MB of file storage to every Free Basecamp account! Now you can share files, documents, images, and designs with your clients or team.

All your project files in one place.
Basecamp supports popular file formats including Word, Excel, Photoshop, PDFs, PNGs, you name it. You can upload and share any kind of file with Basecamp. Basecamp can even send an email notification to other people on the project when a new file has been uploaded.

Automatic image previews.
When someone uploads an image (PNG, JPG, GIF), Basecamp will automatically generate a preview so you can see what the image looks like without having to download it first. Clicking on the preview magnifies the image to show more detail. You can even see the image at full size without having to download the file.

Keep track of every version of every file.
When you upload a new version of a file, Basecamp can keep a copy of the old version around for safe keeping. This makes it easy to go back and see what changed and who changed it.

We hope this new file storage helps you get that project done on time. Thanks again for using Basecamp!