When I decided to take my agency 100% remote, there were a number of challenges that we needed to overcome:
- Time zone differences
- Language Barriers
- No in person onboarding process
Running a remote agency is no easy task and needs various different tools including a robust project management system.
I looked at a number of different project management systems and tried a few different ones also, but ultimately we decided that Basecamp was the best fit for our needs.
The main reasons we felt Basecamp would work best for us include:
Ease of use
Even users who don’t have a full working knowledge of English can figure out Basecamp and find their way around with very little training!
I have onboarded many freelancers and full time staff around the world with next to no training on how to use Basecamp and they can easily understand what they need to do, the priority of their tasks and how to complete the task when they are finished.
Mobile App
Basecamp’s straight forward Android and iOS app makes it so easy to manage my agency on the go and no matter where I am, I can always track where my team are up to, add tasks, notes or comments.
Pricing
One of the best things about Basecamp in my opinion is the one level pricing, get unlimited pricing and unlimited users all for the same price. I’m pretty sure that not many other project management software companies offer that deal and just recently a new free version has been introduced which is ideal for freelancers.
Customer Service
Everytime that I’ve had reason to reach out to Basecamp for help or support, which to be honest hasn’t been that often in the 3 – 4 years I’ve been using it, the support team have got back to me within minutes. Unlike many other software companies I have found their customer service to be both understanding, willing to solve the issues and fast!
What would make Basecamp even better for me?
The only real addition that I would love to see in Basecamp is the ability to prioritise tasks which need to be done on the same day.
For example:
Monday Task 1
Monday Task 2
Monday Task 3
Although, we do have a pretty easy work around for this by basically adding the priority level of high, medium or low in brackets in the task title.
Features & Integrations
According to reviews of the Software, one of the areas which Basecamp falls down is in advanced features & integrations. Currently at PDS Consulting, we only use one integration which is Everhour for staff time tracking. This enables team members to track their time both directly in the Basecamp dashboard and from a Google Chrome extension.
Looking at the list of available integrations it seems extensive and for every advanced feature that Basecamp is missing compared to other more advanced and expensive project management tools there is an integration available – https://basecamp.com/extras
Overall, we have found Basecamp to be the perfect solution to running a remote agency and would even go so far as to call it the ‘brain system’ of our company. We have considered trying other software which comes highly recommended, however we also operate on a ‘if it’s not broken don’t try to fix it’ theory.