Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool. Basecamp offers features standard to project management platforms, as well as mobile accessibility, unlimited users, and 3rd party integrations. Basecamp is priced by space requirements and concurrent projects.
$15
per month per user
Flow (discontinued)
Score 9.7 out of 10
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The Flow task management app featured a range of tools like kanban board, checklist, timeline, and other features for tracking projects from start to finish. The product is discontinued, and the company Flow Technologies is no longer operating.
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Simpro
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Simpro, headquartered in Brisbane, provides business management software for the trades and services industry. The solution combines field service management with asset tracking and maintenance, project management features with resource scheduling, and invoicing. For enterprises, Simpro helps manage business complexity such as franchises, multiple companies or multiple locations with a tailored Simpro framework that aims to handle complexity while maintaining the simplicity of working with one…
Flow is the best all-in-one solution. It is better than Todoist because of it's more robust features and the ability for project nesting and is way easier to use than Basecamp. It is not as effective at content management as Trello or Airtable because it is not designed for …
Basecamp is a wonderful tool for teams of varying degrees of technical knowledge, teams managing lots of different types of "agifall" and waterfall projects, and teams that are remotely distributed. It's probably less useful for more strictly agile-focused development teams, compared to other more flexible software applications like Jira and Asana.
If you are used to using apps such as Slack, Box or Harvest, you will have an easy time getting use to Flow's UI. Drag and drop features, messaging between users, @tagging for notifications that alert you not only on your desktop but your as well email are particularly useful. If you need projects done fast and easily between multiple teams this is a great application for your business. A particular scenario where Flow is NOT suitable would be if you are used to working soley from your phone. Flows mobile app is slow, not user friendly at all and hard to navigate. Also, you cannot use a mobile site because it directs you to using the app. This IMO is a great desktop project manager, but NOT mobile.
Simpro is well suited for job and team management, tracking inventory and the workflow is very logical. The mobile app for our field technicians works very well to clock on and off and then being in a position to report to a customer based on factual information has made invoicing a breeze! Reporting can be a bit frustrating especially on materials used on different cost centre numbers as you can only specify a job number, but not a cost centre number.
Task management - It is very easy to add, organize and discuss tasks within Basecamp's interface.
The "Campfire" function is great for communicating when you just have a quick question for someone on the team.
Notifications - Basecamp lets you decide how often and about what you'd like to be notified. The ability to respond to messages in Basecamp directly via email saves a lot of time.
High Learning Curve. It's true that it can be easy to use, but to use well and effectively takes some time to learn. It's recommended to have an agreed-upon system in your team of what tools to use and when.
Notification Overload. If people aren't careful they could send a notification to everyone when only a couple people were meant to be prompted. And since emails are sent by default, you could have your mailbox overloaded with unnecessary updates. This is where it takes a bit of training in your team to have an agreed-upon system.
Lack of organization with Archived Projects. I will often need to reference an archived project to make a new one, but there is only a list of archived projects in alphabetical order, with no way to organize by archive date, or even search.
When I bring new people onto a project, it's immediately obvious how to use Basecamp. I don't have to worry about teaching them the features or walking them through it, it's just incredibly user-friendly. For this reason, I'll continue to renew my subscription even as new people are brought onto production jobs or the client changes.
It is easy to use, even for clients who have no experience with the platform. It can only get a little cumbersome to ensure that a client can't see certain documents you might want to keep in the Docs & Files folders. And sometimes, getting a client to actually use an unfamiliar platform can be a challenge.
As mentioned before, materials reporting could use some work as one cannot report by cost centre number, only by job number. It makes it difficult with large jobs with multiple cost centre numbers to easily extract information for reporting. Other than that the system is user friendly and easy to understand.
I've never experienced downtime while using Basecamp, or been unable to access it when I needed it. That's not to say they've never had downtime, but I've been lucky enough not to encounter any, and I work odd hours, including late nights when maintenance is often undertaken.
For the many reasons I've given, Basecamp is a very strong program. There are a few features I can imagine that might make it even better, but I don't have a basis for comparison to be able to say that there is definitely a better one out there. I've noticed that Basecamp has evolved a bit from the time I started using it until now, so that makes me think that the producer of this program values it and believes in continuous improvement. If you could use the features offered by Basecamp, I would think you could use it with confidence.
It is a great option for solar project management. It needs some improvements for real-time one-page reports, inventory management, scheduling and custom views. I believe these will come because they listen to their customers. I would also like to see some better training and not be expected to pay out of pocket for it.
Decide the process before implementation - i.e. when it's due 8/9 does that mean 8am, noon, 5pm, 11:59pm? Check your to-do list frequently Set-up templates - just not with the dates (they can be funky)
Pretty good, but [Basecamp] has its drawbacks. Honestly I find the interface non-intuitive and sometimes have trouble figuring out how to change the status of a task. Perhaps it has something to do with the way it was originally set up by the admin, but I'm not sure. I liked Jira's drag and drop obvious functionality, but the project management side of the software was lacking. Smartsheet has excellent project management functionality, but the task management isn't as good.
Flow, unlike Trello, offers its users a more organized interface and much more complete tools to carry out project management, which is why I consider that for the management of business projects of medium or large companies this tool covers the needs of each. In addition, its ease of use makes it much easier to adapt to this tool because it does not require a very learning curve
monday.com was easier to set up and you can create boards with loads of subtasks which helps manage a project. Also, the ability to integrate with google was much better as we could link it to the calendar and also store documents that the engineers could see easier onsite. Overall we could make monday.com work better for our business based on how we are set up but simPRO will be great for other businesses with more specific needs.
It has saved me time when having to get the same message out to multiple restaurants
It has helped us make smarter operational decisions because we can all collaborate on an answer in a shorter amount of time (instead of calling a meeting!!!)
The calendar function allows us to plot out our marketing agenda for the month and add/change it together as needed. The chef will post his recipe, the managers will cost it out, the social media manager will post pictures on it, and ultimately we will get that information out on an info sheet to the staff by printing the page.
Our biggest issue prior to flow was scrambling at the last minute to meet a project deadline. Flow has helped us manage tasks towards a deadline to execute more successful events and projects.
Since Flow is being used across our entire organization, the speed at which we can collaborate cross-departmentally has increased. This is especially true of our communication and collaboration with our Marketing team.
Flow has allowed our leadership team to be able to see the progress of a project at any time just by looking at that projects dashboard. This has both given them confidence as well as let them know when they need to intervene.
