37signals Product Blog

How to set up 37signals Open Bar so you can quickly switch between your accounts

Reminder: The 37signals Open Bar lets you quickly switch between your accounts.

How to set it up.

"Create a kick ass intranet app using 37signals"

Travis Vocino, a South Florida based technologist, explains how to "Create a Kick Ass Intranet App using 37signals":

I use three 37signals applications: Backpack, Basecamp and Highrise (go go referral links). With these 3 excellent web apps, I’m able to rock out a seriously awesome complete intranet setup for my business.

Just using them is fine but, as usual, I like to take it one step further into better integration with my desktop workflow. That’s where OpenID and Fluid.app come in.

The article goes on to explain how to use OpenID and Fluid.app to "turn this puppy into a desktop-like application."

Having all of these applications in place really creates a great intranet-type workflow. It’s helpful even when working solo but if you have a small team like me it really shines. I also noticed my people used the various apps a lot more once I introduced them to using OpenID to bring them together — as well as putting it all together in Fluid.app...

It’s great for tabbing to your intranet window, adding a calendar entry, and tabbing back to Photoshop, to give a quick example. This is a process that just isn’t as exciting when you’re stuck in Safari.

Read the whole piece for step-by-step details on how Travis set up his system.

Convert password protected RSS feeds to emails with Feed My Inbox

Want to get your password protected RSS feeds (from Basecamp, Backpack, Highrise, or wherever) delivered via email? Benjamin Stangland, Operations Manager at Weber Marketing Group, offers this tip on converting password protected RSS feeds to emails.

I found a free solution that will convert password protected rss feeds to emails that I just wanted to share with you guys. Since this might help other 37signals customers.

Converting password protected rss feeds seems to be a challenge but www.feedmyinbox.com works.

You have to place your username and password into the feed line itself however.
https://[username]:[password]@[domain]/[path]

We use this all the time with Highrise and love it.

FYI: An email will be sent to you each time the feed is updated, but no more than every 24 hours (to cut down on inbox clutter). Whether there is 1 post or 10 posts to the feed in a 24 hour period, you receive them all in one email.

Have a good tip related to a 37signals product? Let us know.

Where to find out the status of 37signals apps

We pride ourselves on our infrequent downtimes. But if you're experiencing issues, you can visit our status page which will tell you if all systems are go or give you updates if something's wrong. (Also available via RSS feed.)

Also, 37signals Twitter feed usually offers up to the minute updates on what's happening during any downtimes. If you have other questions about anything, submit a support request and we’ll get back to you quickly.

37signals products are fully PCI compliant

The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard is a comprehensive security standard that establishes common processes and precautions for handling, processing, storing and transmitting credit card data. All 37signals products are fully PCI compliant which means an extra layer of security on top of our already state-of-the-art security. What all that means: You can rest easy knowing all your credit cardholder information is secure from any possible security breaches.

The 37signals security overview

The 37signals security overview gives you the full rundown on why our apps are secure. Topics covered: You’ll never lose important data. Your data won’t be compromised. You’ll always have access to your data. Our systems are hacker safe. Your billing information is safe and secure.

[Case study] How Hello Viking uses 37signals tools to collaborate with marketers and ad agencies around the world

Joseph Rueter, Idea Engineer at Hello Viking, writes about how his virtual company uses Basecamp to work with teams and clients all over the world.

About our company
Hello Viking provides consulting, creative and production services to marketers, ad agencies, design and PR firms and media companies. Launched in June 2007, Hello Viking has collaborated with over a dozen clients and 40 freelancers to create brand strategy, design, advertising concepts, information architecture, websites and marketing materials for PricewaterhouseCoopers, 3M, BlueCross BlueShield, Audi, Borders, GM, Pillsbury, Decora Cabinets and other organizations.

The 37signals products we use, and why we like them
We are entirely virtual, working with teams and clients all over the world. We use Apple products for calendaring and messaging, but the bulk of our project management and file maintenance is done via 37signals:

Basecamp is our core. We use the Writeboards for early strategy brainstorming. Messaging is critical—it’s how we evolve and develop presentations, IA and other communal documents with multiple authors in different time zones. To Do lists keep everyone on track, especially during QA sessions and beta launches. Our clients have also appreciated Basecamp—in fact, one of them signed up after working with it through us. The simplicity of Basecamp’s interface means anyone can figure out what they need to do immediately. We haven’t had a single client get confused logging-in or viewing and approving files; it’s very reassuring from that perspective. We really appreciate being able to turn files “on/off” for privacy as projects evolve, too. (The only thing we haven’t really dug into is Chat, as we’re all addicted to other IM platforms.)

Highrise is our new business lifeline. Keeping the phones ringing is a constant pressure, and everyone on the core team is responsible for developing leads. Highrise helps maintain order and facilitates a unified system and organization for business development. Of course, you need to provide the effort—it’s only as good as the information and time you put in; but Highrise has made it very easy to stay on top of leads and prepare for pitches. We love the BCC “dropbox” feature.

Getting Real is one of our top five recommended books to collaborators and clients alike. We really appreciate the concise, clear perspective—even when we don’t necessarily agree with it. There are several copies floating around the Minneapolis office and it’s not unusual for someone to quote Getting Real at some point during strategy and early project definition planning.

It’s pretty easy to say Hello Viking would not exist as strongly as it does without 37signals. The tools we use require almost zero training to use, which (again) is wonderful when we’re bringing a new employee or client into an ongoing project. Your team gets to work immediately, versus spending time figuring out how to use the project management system or track hours. The best compliment we could make about Basecamp or Highrise is that they require very little thinking to use.

Oftentimes, when we’re architecting an idea or even as far along as coding an interface, we refer to 37signals products: “Make the tabs open like they do in Basecamp.” There’s such a universal clarity to these products that we aspire to emulate in our own work.

Web dev company compares web apps and says "none of them hold a candle to the suite that 37signals offers"

CHROMATIC, a web design and development company, recently shared the most important web-based tools that it uses to run its operations. Three 37signals tools made the list: "There are tons of different collaborative, organizational, and contact management applications available on the web. However, none of them hold a candle to the suite that 37signals offers."

Basecamp is the ultimate project management application (it’s also the most popular - a status that is very well deserved). Our clients are constantly blown away by our ability to communicate quickly, organize project-related information efficiently, and maintain punctuality with our project milestones and deliverables on a consistent basis...Our clients love Basecamp, we love Basecamp, you’ll love Basecamp. Period.

Backpack is an invaluable business-organization tool that will help keep you organized. If I had to choose a favorite from the 37signals suite, Backpack would be my choice.

Each time we get a call or e-mail, whether it be for a RFP request, a designer/developer/marketer looking to join our team, or a discussion with a client about their project, we use Highrise to take notes. We then assign specific tasks to the contact’s file (create a proposal, schedule a conference call, etc) and set SMS/e-mail reminders so that we never miss an event, task, appointment, etc. It streamlines the entire process of contact and lead management...Highrise will make your life a lot easier. Count on it.

The rest of the list offers some other great tools too.

1/13: Jason Fried demos 37signals products at Chicago Apple Store

Join Jason Fried, founder of 37signals, as he demos Basecamp, Highrise, and Backpack at the Apple Store at 679 North Michigan Ave. in Chicago. January 13 at 7pm.

[Case study] BootStudio uses 37signals tools to build websites for large organizations in Central America

Jorge Arango of BootStudio writes in about his team's use of 37signals products:

About our company

BootStudio creates and manages engaging websites for large organizations in Central America (and beyond). We have a passion for simple, eloquent, standards-based interfaces that get the job done with a minimal amount of fuss. We've been around since 1995, when Internet access was starting to become commercially available in this region, so ours was one of the first web design firms in this part of the world.

The 37signals products we use, and why we like them

Ours is an (almost) entirely web-based business. We manage our day-to-day work on the 37signals suite (along with Google Apps and a few other web-based apps):

• Basecamp is our main project management space; it's where we share files, project notes, deadlines, pending tasks, checklists, etc. We love that all members of each project team—including clients—can have access to the latest information at any time, from anywhere.

• Highrise is where we manage everything "meta" about the company: contract negotiation, business development, human resources issues, etc. Most of these threads are centered on people, so Highrise makes an excellent control center and filing cabinet for these activities.

• Backpack is our intranet. It's where we update each other on our availability ("working remotely this afternoon"), document processes, and interesting news and developments about our industry.

• We also use Campfire as a replacement for IM, although much of our use of this app been overtaken by Backpack's Journal feature.

Last but certainly not least,

• Getting Real has been influential in the way we think about our work. Central America is a "developing market": a euphemism that means that expectations are high, and budgets low. We've had to learn to be nimble and efficient, and the Getting Real ethos has inspired and influenced us.

We like that the 37signals applications have consistent, elegant interfaces; it's been very easy for us to get new team members up-to-speed. The apps also have a well-considered feature set that strikes a smart balance between power with usability. For example, while Backpack isn't as flexible as Google Sites (which we evaluated, given we'd paid for it as part of Google Apps), the former provides the features we need without the complexity that comes with the richer feature set of the latter. We've found that with a bit of ingenuity we can do pretty much anything with these tools. (The one thing we haven't been able to work around is that the app UIs are presented exclusively in English. While this hasn't been too much of a problem for our clients, we can see it becoming more of an issue as we start doing more business with folks in other Spanish-speaking regions.)