Basecamp vs. OnBoard Board Management Software

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

OnBoard is an adaptable platform that could be used for most meetings. It works perfectly to build an agenda and packet for board and committee meetings. It allows for easy RSVP to ensure a quorum at meetings. All users are able to easily view the packet and can even make notations of points they want to discuss during the meeting. OnBoard doesn't work well for detailed documents such as spreadsheets. Our company has a strategic plan and we cannot use OnBoard for that committee meeting. The size of the spreadsheet simply doesn't function well within OnBoard and isn't easily navigable. The same is true of certain financial spreadsheets.

• 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

• Secure board materials - the administrator can control what board members see what materials.
• Contact information - email and mailing addresses are readily available.
• Board terms - term lengths for every board member is tracked through the system.
• Meeting feedback - simple surveys are sent immediately after a meeting to get feedback from meeting attendees for future planning.

Incentivized

• 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

• Currently, you cannot block an entire group from a topic; you need to block attendees individually.
• it would be nice to indent a section by using tabbing.
• the added button for "save changes" in each section tends to slow down progress; edits used to be saved automatically and tended to be faster.

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.

I couldn't imagine us doing our business without OnBoard [Board Management]. It has become the way we communicate with our Board and run our meetings. Frankly, I have no desire to go back even when we are meeting in person to paper binders for each board member. It truly has been a blessing coming out of COVID for us.

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

OnBoard Board Management Software appears to be very user friendly. The layout allows for easy access to a number of areas via the left side of the page. Admins are able to customized the main page so that the most vital information is available to users when they log in. Setting permissions is easy.

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

I haven't needed to contact OnBoard customer support many times because it's user-friendly and functions as it's supposed to/sold. On the occasions I've contacted customer support, they have promptly answered the phone or my email. In one instance, a board member couldn't access OnBoard prior to a board meeting and customer support was able to resolve the issue in the 10 minutes prior to the meeting. In another instance, a board member wasn't able to get the system to recognize all answers to a completed survey which prevented a compilation of results. Customer support viewed the member's screen and ran an error log to figure out the issue.

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)

Implementation was easy and I was able to do it alone without OnBoard customer support, although customer support assistance was offered and available. The platform is very user-friendly and doesn't require assistance to implement in my opinion. The biggest hurdle is getting invitees to access the invitation email and set up their login.

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

OnBoard is more user-friendly. It is very easy to navigate from an administrator's standpoint as well as for the end-user. I received compliments on a regular basis from our board members and how grateful they are that it is so easy to use. They also love having the Resources where all of our important documents are located. Other tools that I have used were very clunky and hard to navigate and the cost was greater higher.

Incentivized

• 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

• It's helped maintain board and committee involvement in the nonprofit since the start of COVID
• It has allowed our meetings to go virtual with little effect on workflow
• It allows us to better track needed association materials than we have in the past

Incentivized