Item: Basecamp
Rating: 7
Author: James Underwood

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I'm part of an IT team and our department uses Basecamp for IT team tasks and also with other departments to manage communication and tasks for (1) weekly on-boarding of new employees, (2) large on-boarding events, and (3) longer term projects like installing new tech in schools. There are about five to six teams, around 50 people total in our Basecamp environment.

Pros and Cons

Basecamp is relatively easy to use. Some of our users are not especially comfortable or adept with technology, so having a relatively simple tool was important for us. Project Management tools are tricky, they are only useful if everyone gets on board. Basecamp's ease of use helps everyone get on board.
Since Basecamp is pretty widely used, there are a fair amount of online resources and training available. As IT people, we didn't want to implement a system we would have to train everyone on and support constantly. Our Basecamp users can get a decent overview and have their questions answered really easily by searching the web.
It's quick and cost-effective. You can set up an account and start using it within a few minutes. Since it's priced according to how many "projects" you set up and not how many users you have, it's really cheap to use. We never have more than 10 projects going at once, so that means we pay $20/month *total* for unlimited users. We're a non-profit and didn't really have the resources to devote to more sophisticated (expensive) Project Management tools, so this was a big deal for us.

My biggest overall complaint with Basecamp is that, although the interface is pretty simple, it's also pretty clunky. The point of Basecamp is to keep teams organized and working fluidly, but sometimes the rigid simplicity of Basecamp is as frustrating as it is useful. The project pages can start to look cluttered if a lot of people are involved in a project and they're creating a lot of discussions and posting a lot of files. If you have a lot of people to invite at once (like us, 50+), the interface for inviting them to Basecamp and organizing them into teams and groups is tedious. If you don't keep up with this tedious task as new users are added, then you risk having them lose out on communications. Some level of Active Directory integration or even just a simple email list import function would be a welcome addition.

Return on Investment

We've been able to improve communications between teams in our company (Talent, Marketing, Education, IT, HR).
We've cut down on redundant messages and meetings and made it easier for people to find the info they need without having to send yet another email.

Alternatives Considered

Asana,slack

Likelihood to Recommend

I think Basecamp is ideally suited to smaller teams and companies (like 25 users or less) looking for something quick, easy, and cost effective. It's seems that's what it's designed for. It's great for small freelancing teams or individuals. It can improve the signal-to-noise ratio of your team's communications and cut down on redundant emails, texts, meetings, and phone calls. It provides a one-stop repository for shared documents, discussions, and tasks. It's easy to learn and use and even basic users can identify some functionality in it.

If you have a larger team like we do, it can still be useful, but it becomes a bit harder to get everyone to adhere to it consistently. While this is true of just about any Project Management tool, Basecamp's lack of robust user management and clunky interface exacerbate it's weaknesses for larger teams.

Users and Roles

HR, IT, Training & Development

Basecamp is great for small teams, somewhat useful for larger teams.

Overall Satisfaction with Basecamp

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros and Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Likelihood to Recommend

Basecamp Feature Ratings

Using Basecamp

Users and Roles