“Basecamp’s focus on simplicity, clarity, and ease of use make it truly unique. You’ll love using Basecamp.” – 37 Signals
37 Signals offers a pay-for-play PPM model that is hosted on their site as a SaaS offering. For those of you who are considering a hosted model this is about as good as it gets if you have some budget right off the bat. The solution offers the users and administrators countless useful features and are continuously adding more.
For a tour, check out this site: http://basecamphq.com/tour
According to the Basecamp site:
For years project management software was about charts, graphs, and stats. And you know what? It didn’t work. Pictures and numbers don’t get projects done. Basecamp tackles project management from an entirely different angle: A focus on communication and collaboration. Basecamp brings people together.[i]
Recommended by 98% of our customers. In a recent customer satisfaction survey, 98% of Basecamp customers surveyed said they would recommend Basecamp to their friends, family, and colleagues. We work hard to make sure our customers are happy.[ii]
Basecamp supports multiple languages. Basecamp has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, German, Finnish, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Greek, Russian, Hungarian, and Japanese. More languages on the way! Learn more.[iii]
Manage Basecamp projects on your mobile phone. Basecamp mobile is especially made for popular mobile devices like iPhone and Android. No apps required! Just visit basecamphq.com on your phone’s browser, and you’re good to go! Learn more.[iv]
Basecamp has a great API for developers and ehre are some of the apps for smart phones that you might find interesting: http://basecamphq.com/extras
Another great set of features are the collaboration area and the files sharing area:
Here are my ratings of the solution (0-10, 10 being best):
Cost: 7 (Check out pricing structure: http://basecamphq.com/signup)
Functionalities & Features: 9 (iPhone app available)
Innovative solution: 10
Support & Updates: 8
Ease of use: 9
Ease of installation: 9
Overall Rating: 9
[i] http://basecamphq.com/
[ii] http://basecamphq.com/
[iii] http://basecamphq.com/
[iv] http://basecamphq.com/
I use Basecamp pretty much every day and I have been pretty impressed with it:
– Easy to pick up (has the feel of a WordPress blog and I think it was originally built off WordPress way back when)
– Great for communication
– Great for keeping track of where things are (much better than email)
It is not a magic bullet though and you do have to put the effort in to keep the whole thing organised.