Basecamp helps you grow your business by integrating productivity tools and streamlining your communications. Nowadays, there’s no excuse not to have a high-quality productivity platform.
Is it time to organize your business better and improve its efficiency and productivity? Maybe you’ve heard about digital workstations but you’re still using third-party services which seem to work for the time being. Even so, switching to an integrated digital workstation can offer a boost.
Imagine switching from a commuting schedule that involved a bus and a train to one that cuts your time in half and gets your there in greater comfort – switching your business to Basecamp is a bit like that, once you’ve made the change you’ll wonder why you didn’t change sooner.
So what’s the catch? Actually, there’s no catch, Basecamp simply brings together all the latest project management tools into one helpful software program and delivers it to you for a competitive monthly fee. Read on to learn more about how Basecamp can build your business.
Table of Contents
What is Basecamp?
Basecamp is an integrated digital workstation that helps businesses to organize projects and communicate.
The digital landscape has changed considerably in recent years, not only are more employees working remotely, but technologies have changed, especially cloud technologies and chat platforms. Basecamp brings these technologies together into one space.
Forget about using e-mail chains to stay on top of projects, these are inefficient and time-consuming; it’s much better to use an integrated workstation like Basecamp where you can chat live to colleagues, but up message boards about key developments that can be viewed by the team, and create efficient timescales and schedules for colleagues working on projects.
How Does Basecamp Work?
Basecamp is a project management platform, but in truth, it’s much more than that! Basecamp offers businesses a better way to work by integrating the latest remote technologies and delivering them on a single platform. Companies that use Basecamp can benefit from better integration, more efficiency, more productivity, and a better bottom line – what’s not to love?
There’s a further benefit to using Basecamp, it is very simple to set up and use. First, decide whether you want a business or personnel account then select the tools you need for individual projects. One of the great advantages of Basecamp is the ability to contextualize your projects so that individual projects are more focused and efficient. Each project has everything you need.
If you want to organize your home or office it’s best to decide on a place for specific items and keep them in that location. It’s the same with Basecamp. Instead of e-mail chains and third-party docs and storage, Basecamp keeps e everything organized by default so you know where to find everything when you need it. Naturally, this level of organization improves productivity.
Basecamp Pricing
When it comes to pricing Basecamp has two options, Basecamp Business and Basecamp Personal. Although each of these pricing options has its features and limitations, there are ways you can save on Basecamp services with discount bundles. Basecamp allows you to mix and match some of the services you use most often to reduce the overall monthly premium.
But first, let’s deal with the Basecamp Business premium service. Basecamp Business offers the full range of features for a flat monthly fee of $99. This might seem expensive for a software solution but consider what you get in return. Basecamp Business gives you unlimited projects and users, 500GB of storage space, and all the bells and whistles you need for a workstation.
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Basecamp Personal is a little different and a limited service for less. It gives you 3 projects and 20 users, along with 1GB of storage space – it does not give you unlimited clients, team projects, or a company HQ. Still, the Basecamp Personal service is more than enough for students, freelancers, families, and personal projects for a zero monthly charge.
Who Uses Basecamp?
Basecamp is an all-in-one toolkit for project management and team communications. It includes a message board, files and storage for team projects, group chat facilities, scheduling capabilities, and lots more. While some software solutions focus on specific features for project management, Basecamp claims to be the best solution for remote work situations.
With more and more businesses operating remotely, it’s increasingly necessary for workstations to be integrated, flexible, and secure. Businesses need a platform that allows them to communicate with employees easily through chat, check-ins, and efficient scheduling. With Basecamp, companies get all of these features in one platform, for a single monthly price.
Businesses of all sizes benefit from using Basecamp, but of course, the ones that benefit the most are the ones with more employees working remotely. There is no limit to the number of employees you can invite or re-invite to Basecamp meaning that this platform is also excellent for scaling your business. Any business needing an integrated workstation can use Basecamp.
Basecamp Features
It’s more and more necessary to have an integrated and reliable digital workstation for remote work situations. Although many independent cloud-based solutions exist, it’s not feasible to use unrelated platforms for business purposes. That’s why platforms like Basecamp are needed. Basecamp is a feature-rich all-in-one solution for businesses with remote workers and projects.
To-Do Lists
One of the most important things in business is a to-do list that tells each member of staff what they need to accomplish in a day, week, or month. It might seem obvious but a to-do list is one of the ways businesses achieve either goal and produce healthy revenue streams. To-do lists have always existed but in the past, they were made using bits of paper – now that’s changed.
The to-do lists in Basecamp are interactive and integrated. Managers and company owners can set up their to-do lists with certain timeframes in mind to accelerate projects, these to-do lists can also be optimized for particular staff members and sent out independently. The Basecamp to-do list might look like simple bits of paper but they offer a full suite of possibilities for teams.
Message Boards
Notes are necessary for operating a business efficiently, especially when you run a team and need to communicate with everyone at once. This situation is a common occurrence, it happens during individual projects, among small team groups, and company-wide – especially at busy times of the year when it helps if people are organized and pulling in the same direction.
The Message Board app in Basecamp allows you to write short or long articles for entire teams. These can be useful for making announcements or creating a unified point of view for a project, meeting, or media engagement. Using Message Boards could not be easier, simply click on the app in your dashboard and start writing a message to your time on the handy word processor.
Schedules
Another crucial feature of digital workstations is a Schedule. Let’s face it, we wouldn’t get very far without knowing what our tasks were for the day, week, or month. Schedules not only inform your staff about what they need to accomplish and when they also help the business to run efficiently and achieve aims through structured planning. Basecamp has a scheduling facility.
The Basecamp Schedule feature allows you to add events, times, and date range that all your employees can access, this means you can easily arrange a weekly schedule, post an update to your teams and sit back knowing that the week is organized. The Basecamp schedule feature also integrates fully with conventional calendars such as Google Calendar, iCal, and Outlook.
Documents and Storage
You know what it’s like, projects require documents, files, and images. Not only do you need a place to store this data that is secure and organized, but you also need your team members to have ready access to the data when they need it. Basecamp has a docs and files storage solution that keeps everything in one place and organized in relation to the relevant project.
These days you need a file system that’s compatible with Google Docs simply because this is the most used cloud-based word processor for people and businesses. That’s one reason Basecamp includes a Google Docs storage solution that allows users to chat about the documents. Basecamp Docs and Files is also user-friendly with a simple drag and drop system.
Group Chat
These days, a group chat facility is indispensable for business. In the old days people communicated by phone, then fax, then SMS messages, today it’s all about group chats when are increasingly used for business purposes. If group chat was not available on Basecamp you can quite imagine projects using a third-party app – luckily, this service is fully integrated.
The Basecamp “campfire” is like sitting around a digital campfire and discussing the latest developments on your project or other community subjects. There’s no need to go off-topic either, not with project-specific chat rooms available, what’s more, you can @mention individuals to get their attention, and easily share files, quotes, samples, video, and emojis.
Check-in Sessions
Check-in sessions are necessary for updates on projects and team morale, without them, things can start to slide quite quickly. In the past, check-in sessions were conducted in one-to-one sessions either in person or on a video call. While these formats are still used, especially the latter, Basecamp offers an alternative that is simple, straightforward, routine, and very effective.
Basecamp check-ins involve simple questions that that can be answered quickly from a remote work desk. Managers can program the questions they want to ask individual employees and get updates from them regularly. Not only can managers choose the questions, but they can also choose to ask individuals or groups and schedule whether to ask the questions daily or weekly.
FAQs
Can I reinvite someone or update their status?
Basecamp is all about integration, that’s why you see the profile pictures of your colleagues in the team view, it’s easy to invite colleagues to join your teams but what if you need to reinvite someone whose absent? Simply go to the project and select the name you want to resend the invite to and another invitation e-mail will be sent to this colleague automatically.
Can I turn notifications on or off?
Notifications are handy, especially if you have a busy schedule and you don’t want to miss an important update of calls in late to meetings; that said, they can sometimes be inconvenient and awkward – sometimes you wish the notification would stop pinging up and disturbing you. If this happens simply click on your profile avatar and click on Change Your Settings to adjust them.
How do I migrate programs from previous Basecamp versions?
When it comes to technology updates are inevitable and Basecamp is no different, but what happens when you’re running the latest version of Basecamp but your project is stored on the older software. The good news is that older projects can be important; however, you need to be the account holder and administrator of the old and new versions of Basecamp to switch.
How can I view assignments and events?
Basecamp is an integrated workspace for remote teams with plenty of capabilities when it comes to sharing services and workloads, but what if you want to view your workload privately, can you do this with Basecamp? The answer is, yes! You can view your bookmarks, drafts, events, and recent activity in the My Stuff section of your Basecamp account, super easy!
Final Thoughts
Basecamp is one of the best digital workstations available today because it brings together the most frequently used project management tools and lets you apply them in creative ways. For instance, each project can be treated individually and contextually, for better performances.
Whether your business is small medium or large you need a project management solution like Basecamp to operate remote teams efficiently and productively. Of course, it’s possible to manage projects with conventional cloud-based tools, but this often leads to delays and issues.
Basecamp is not the only cloud-based project management software on the market today, but it is one of the best. Basecamp provides a free version of the tools for personal use or to try it out, and the Business Suite is available for a competitive monthly price – so why not try it and see?