Keeping Our Bases Covered.

Because our team juggles so many open projects at any given time, we needed a place and way to track the progress of these various projects. It had to be a centralized area that each team member could access at any time, it had to be a tool that was easy to use, and it had to allow us to share information directly with our clients. We needed the ability to store and share project files, set up and assign tasks, and communicate with each other within the context of each project.

Enter Basecamp, www.basecamphq.com.

Basecamp by 37signals (www.37signals.com) is a fantastic and intuitive web-based project collaboration tool that allows us to do everything we need to do for our internal and client projects, plus more. It resides strictly on the internet hosted by 37signals’ web servers.

Our Basecamp account is safe, private, and secure – it’s password-protected. The beauty of this arrangement is that all we need is an internet connection and a web browser and we can access our projects from virtually anywhere. The same goes for our clients.

It’s easy to add our own team members to various projects or to add client members to various projects. We can restrict access of each individual using a simple permissions system that allows us to specify who can see what.

There is also a handy Messaging system that works very much like email and we can either share a message or make it a private so that internal communication can only be read by our team.

Here is a breakdown of some of the various sections and features our team uses the most:

The Dashboard
The Dashboard serves as our home base. It gives us a bird’s-eye view of our various projects and any new developments.

From here, we can view all our clients and projects on one screen. In the main content area on the left is a Late & Upcoming Milestones box. Any late items show up at the very top of this box. Anything due in the next 14 days shows up directly below this within a snapshot of a calendar in days format. Then right below this, all latest activity across projects is listed. Anything from the newest Milestone to the latest Comment, or from the most recent message to the latest revision of a File, is listed here.

Directly to the right of the main content area is a column that contains our company logo (this was uploaded by us) at the top. Below this is a “Create a new project” button. Then below this is the list of Your Projects.

Create New Project
The Create New Project button is obviously very important and is the starting point for using Basecamp. Once we click the button, we’re able to name the project and choose who can access it. We usually name a project by company name. If the company has us working on more than one project, we’ll create a new Basecamp project for each, while using any client-provided acronyms or subtitles for the new projects’ names. Basecamp then gives us a choice as to who should be able to access the project: “just our company for now” or “a client or another company, too.” We leave the default radio button “just our company for now” checked and click “create this project.”

People & Permissions
Using the People & Permissions tab, we can go into a new project and add access permissions. From here we can add people, remove people, and change permissions. Basecamp has it set up so we can add the client’s company and its team members, as well as our own internal team members. We set up a team member by filling out his/her email address, creating a Basecamp username and password, and sending a Basecamp invitation to that member’s email address. The invitation contains a default welcome message providing a link to the specific Basecamp project page for that company and the member’s username and password. The invitation is sent from Basecamp with a single click. Other member information can also be filled in including title, phone number, fax number, etc.

File Sharing
File sharing for our group is crucial. We share internal documents for the team’s eyes only (files set to private) as well as documents for our clients. Files like sitemaps, powerpoints, meeting notes, and project plans are the kinds of things we post. Basecamp allows us to save new file versions without overwriting the originals. All file versions remain accessible by whoever has permission. We can add, delete, and edit a description line for each file and each file version. We can also delete an entire file or file version. Files can also be attached to messages.

Messages
Messages in Basecamp work just like email only they are project-specific. We click to a specific project, write a message in Basecamp, click send, and the message will arrive at whatever email address(es) we have specified in Basecamp for that individual project’s members. We can specify who receives and who doesn’t receive a message by checking or leaving blank a checkbox next to member names. If it is a public message, anyone who has access to a particular project can sign into the Basecamp project page and view the message even if the message wasn’t sent to him/her. However, just like with files, we can set a message to private which means only our internal team can view and respond to it. Any replies, whether sent via email or added as a comment within Basecamp, post directly to the project. It’s a great way to track and record any and all project-related communication without crossing over into non-related projects and causing confusion.

Additional tools on Basecamp (depending on which package you subscribe to) can include To-Do Lists, Milestones, Writeboards, Chat, and Time Tracking. While just as intuitive and feature-rich as the other tools, our team rarely uses these, opting for other applications and custom methods to get the job done.

Pricing
As of this writing, there are three monthly plans to choose from. Taken from the Basecamp website, here are the plan descriptions:

Basic $24/month
Built for smaller businesses.
15 Active Projects
3 GB of space for files
Unlimited Clients/Users

Plus $49/month
Most popular, best value
35 Active Projects
10 GB of space for files
Unlimited Clients/Users
Time tracking
SSL Security

Max $149/month
The best, top of the line
Unlimited Projects
50 GB of space for files
Unlimited Clients/Users
Time tracking
SSL Security
Free Campfire Premium

All plans come with a 30-day free trial. If you’re looking to get your business communications organized, centralized, instantly accessible, and secure, give Basecamp a try. Our team is very happy with it.

SKYPE for 2009

SKYPE Review by ResTeam

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is a general term for delivering voice communications over the Internet. In layperson terms, this means you can talk on the “telephone” via your computer as long as you have access to the Internet.

One of the big-name service providers in the VoIP arena is Skype. Our company has been using Skype for about a couple of years now. While it’s far from perfect, it has come through for us in a positive way about 90% of the time.

I’m going to provide a brief overview of our experience with Skype including helpful tools as well as a list of pros and cons.

Skype offers a myriad of services, some of them bundled and some of them a la carte, with either a pay-as-you-go plan or a subscription plan. While their website is all cheery and nice-looking, it can be a little difficult to navigate, and even harder to determine exactly what services you need.

We’ve kept it simple by subscribing to the service called SkypeIn which enables our team to receive incoming calls from phones and mobiles. Subscriptions are in 3 to 12 month increments. (Skype to Skype calls are always free which saves our company money when we have any internal conference calls or one-on-one calls.)

A very cool feature of Skype that comes in handy in this increasingly mobile world is the forwarding feature. You can have your Skype calls forwarded to your mobile phone/device number after a predetermined number of rings set by you. You can then answer the call from wherever you are.

You can also have your Skype calls go into voicemail after a certain number of rings (again, set by you) and you can retrieve your messages through your Skype interface.

There are some general tools that have been helpful to us when using Skype such as:

A VoIP headset microphone. Many third-party companies make these. We generally go with Logitech. These allow you to hear the party on the other end of the line as well as speak to them through the microphone hands-free. You can get headset microphones that have a cable that splits into two separate plugs, one for the microphone jack and one for the headphone jack on your computer. Other slightly pricier models offer a usb cable which simplifies things. Comfort level, pricing, and to a lesser extent sound quality vary so shop around.
A VoIP handset. If you already have a headset microphone, you don’t need one of these, and vice versa. Again, third parties make these and they operate similar to a standard handset phone except for the fact that they respond and work with Skype. I typically like to go hands-free but if you feel you need a more traditional approach to talking on the phone, go for it. Again, shop around for the features you desire.
A broadband internet connection. Skype can work just fine over 56k dial-up according to what I’ve read, but our experience has been with broadband.

Not everything is peachy keen with Skype. Though rare, sometimes the quality of the calls suffer. We have experienced the following issues when using Skype:

Dropped calls in the middle of a meeting
Echo
Sound going in and out resulting in randomly dropped words
In one-on-one calls, one party cannot hear the other resulting in hanging up and redialing
Also, another thing I found irksome is the business administrator panel user interface. It’s not the best user interface and requires a little digging before you find the areas you need to access. When you finally learn your way around, you can access your entire team’s profiles and Skype information. You can also renew individual subscriptions here with a valid credit card or with Skype credits still remaining on your account.

Finally, the subscription lengths max out at 12 months for a service like SkypeIn. If you forget to renew, you can risk losing your SkypeIn number, the one you might’ve already had printed on all your marketing materials. If you lose your number, it’s released into the open where it may be assigned to any new subscriber or even a consumer purchasing telephone services from another provider. Thankfully, you’re given a grace period before this happens and allows you a chance to renew.

Other than a few gripes here and there, Skype has been a very useful tool for business. It has allowed our team to stay in contact with clients as well as each other, and to remain fast, light, and mobile. If you need a quick, easy, and fairly inexpensive way to outfit your business with VoIP, look into Skype.

Based on our team’s subscription plan and our experiences, here’s Skype at a glance. Be sure to check their website for specific details, pricing, and the features you desire.

Pros
Offers free services
Skype-to-Skype calls
Transfer calls to people on Skype
Video calls
Instant messaging and group chats
Conference calls with up to 25 people
Forward calls to people on Skype
Offers independence and mobility
Easy to use
Can view online status of fellow Skype contacts
Forward your Skype calls to your mobile phone/device
Voicemail
Requires only a VoIP headset microphone or handset to start using it
Fairly inexpensive plans
Ala carte services
Pay-as-you-go or subscription-based (subscribers save more)

Cons
Sound quality can sometimes be subpar
Dropped calls happen (but are rare)
One side cannot hear the other (again, rare)

More Pros then Cons and we recommend this product as a needed services for your business in the new year.