Basecamp vs. LeadDelta

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.

Incentivized

I signed up for LeadDelta because I heard they were the best CRM for business professionals using LinkedIn. I spent hours getting it set up and configured. I wanted to update my CRM contacts with the contact information from my Google account. So I went through the effort of migrating my Google contact data. But it created duplicates of all my contacts. I then tried to delete the duplicates, but the only option is to hide the imported contacts, there is no way to remove them. But hiding them does not remove them from the dashboard data. I reached out for help and had to argue with the customer support that my dashboard was indeed showing data for the hundreds of contacts I manually selected and hid. I was told they could not remove the contacts from their end. As a software engineer, I know it is not that hard to update a database. But I was told it was impossible. I politely asked for a refund, twice, but they refused, even though I had just subscribed 2 days prior and was never able to use the software to track my contacts. I had to contest the charges with the credit card company, and now LeadDelta is fighting the refund. I cannot believe their lack of customer service and care.

• 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.

Incentivized

• Update contacts from Linkedin
• Displaying data
• Tagging Contacts

• 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.

Incentivized

• They should not require payment to clean up data when uploading from Google
• They should allow deleting contacts and cleaning up the dashboard
• They should allow rolling back failed merges with external databases

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

LeadDelta was supposed to be easier to use and update. It was recommended to me as a better way to track my contacts and organize my followup. But with data corruption, LeadDelta became unusable for me, and they were unwilling to make it right.

• 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.

Incentivized

• Cost me 2 days of work before it became unusable.
• Cost me $300 which they do not want to refund despite their inability to fix my dashboard.
• I wish I had never used LeadDelta in the first place.