Basecamp vs. Simpplr

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

It's well suited as a central point for your company. It can easily be branded for your every need and showcase everything that's going on for your users. The mobile app is excellent and gives the full package on your mobile device so that you're always in tune with what's going on at your workplace. There are loads of shoutouts and constant uploads of team photos and excursions. We work for a really active company, so there are always loads getting posted on a day-to-day basis. It breaks up the monotony of staring at a spreadsheet when you see your colleagues having fun while working.

Incentivized

• 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

• It's a great document library for everything to timesheets through to expenses
• Great friendly fresh feel to the interface
• User information is easily synced with AD/AAD and other sources
• Great 'People' section where staff can get to know their colleagues
• Great 'Apps' section where you can add links for all the sites our users need access to

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

• I don't like the name. It's actually not simpler to spell Simpplr. Nice product, daft name.
• I'd like to see the people section stand out more and have a bolder collaboration side to it. It would be awesome to collaborate on documents together via a screen share facility.
• Video calling directly via Simpplr would be awesome.

Incentivized

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

Simpplr seemed to have the most modern approach when describing what they want to achieve for the company. It integrates with all the platforms that we use and ticked all of the boxes we were looking for in a modern intranet package. It is significantly more modern and easier to manage than our old Intranet. Our comms team loves it, and feedback has been great from everyone in the company. It's hard to find any negatives about it.

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 modernized our intranet and staff outlook
• Made it easier to communicate objectives with staff
• Allowed us to show focus on events that are coming up and really showcase them
• Internal news items are always great, and we have weekly updates from our Exec Team

Incentivized