This might be obvious and it might have been clarified somewhere already but I must have missed it.

Can someone give the rundown on the differences? Why would one use both I guess is my main question?

Thanks again,
Galen

I don’t see that the two products are mutually exclusive, though it would be nice to see them more tightly integrated.

Thats weird, I can clearly see a difference here.

HighRise is for maintaining ongoing discussions regarding people and what they are doing for you.

BaseCamp is for maintaining ongoing discussions regarding projects and the resources they involve.

What always gets me is when to use BackPack, and when to use Basecamp, but thats another discussion for another forum.

Hey all.

We’ve been using Basecamp for quite a while now, and it is a bit disappointing having to open two different windows and having two different places for Login, to see information related to projects we manage with Basecamp.

I would prefer things like automatic sync for Contacts. Being able to see comments about a conversation my designer had with the IT dept. who hasn’t completed a Milestone in Basecamp would be great. I dont wanna go outside Basecamp for that.

I don’t feel comfortable creating a ToDo, and then.. a Task?.. about the same stuff? don’t you think we’ll have Tasks related to projects, companies or contacts at the same time?

I hate not seeing my peer’s Task on Highrise. How do I track them if I don’t assign it? How will they track my tasks? ... at least in our environment, this is important.

Don’t take me wrong, Im a big fan of 37signals, and we’re so happy with Basecamp, just like our clients. But my excitement about Highrise fell hard today.

Maybe I need to give it more time.

Cheers!

Dan.,.

As a daily user of Basecamp, I will chime in with how I view Highrise. This is also based on a brief exchange I had in a comment stream from a SvN post…

Since I signed up for a highrise account using a similar URL as my Basecamp account, I had the idea that Highrise will be used to track all prospective clients and Vendors otherwise not already in a Basecamp project. Just like the Highrise website describes it’s usage.

So once a prospective client signs on for actual project work, I would start using Basecamp. Obviously, since the “sync” between the two only goes from Basecamp, we’ll have to wait until the powers-that-be give some Highrise love to Basecamp. :)

We have been discussing today how to manage the use of highrise and basecamp i.e. what do we use for what. we have come up with the following rule:

anything which is directly related to a live project goes into basecamp.

anything to do with a prospective project or not directly connected with an actual project (or project number) goes into higrise.

but we are playing suck it and see—we might change once we have used them together for a few weeks.

Given your examples, there definitely needs to be some sort of Highrise import in Basecamp. But, I think I would manage every contact in Highrise. It’s strength seems to be tracking people and the communications with them. “People” in Basecamp just seem like accounts to me. They have to be there so that the person can access the project. Otherwise, I would manage them in Highrise. That is why the Basecamp import of Highrise contacts will be important. It would be great to do something like this:

1. Start a new project in Basecamp
2. From the people tab, select “Highrise Import” and choose the people
3. The people would be imported with contact record information

At this point, the sync option would be nice. After some time has passed, the Highrise record might get out-of-sync with Basecamp. If there was a link that said “sync contacts”, that would be sufficient.

But, even though we all use just about every 37Signals product they create, the programs still need to “stand on their own”. Many people may use only one product. So, I think there will always be some overlap that you have to deal with “manually”.

I think that Cases can be seen as more ‘people oriented’ Projects. I’m currently using two accounts, one for work and one for personal use. In the work one (which is a free account until I can get others interested) I am using a Case to manage an upcoming event. This means ordering supplies from different vendors and needing to contact different people in financial, administrative, and volunteer roles to get everything ready for the big day. Highrise is very good at this.

Could someone clarify the key similarities and differences between Basecamp projects and Highrise cases?
This info might be helpful on the 37s web site for others, as well.

Contacts in Highrise, projects in Basecamp sounds like a happy medium to me. You could use OpenID to federate it all together as well, allowing customers to use it as their authorative source for eg self service portals et al..

We use Highrise to track people before and after they’re in Basecamp. We’ve been waiting for Highrise, with the full intention of using them this way. Here’s the idea:

• We get in a client survey from a prospective client, we tag them survey.
• While we’re asking clarifying questions and preparing an estimate, they’re tagged limbo. Just sounded like an apropos tag!
• Once they’re then set up in Basecamp, they’re tagged basecamp and we can ignore them.
• After Basecamp, we often take down their project. They then move into upkeep because they don’t really need a whole project anymore.

We also have some other tags. Tags are helpful because we can essentially generate “on the fly” reports of folks at any point in our workflow. We can sit down and pull up a list of folks waiting for an estimate, which is handy. Basecamp can be heavy-duty, and as much as I love it, Highrise has a better solution for those clients who simply insist on falling back on email. Perhaps Basecamp can get more savvy about this, but that’s been a two-year issue!

As for cases? Don’t get ‘em, not particularly helpful. We’re using one, but since you can’t add a list or note to the case itself, it’s kind of a dead-end. We could just as well group folks with tags, and ignore cases altogether. But maybe I’m missing something there.

BTW, importing Contacts from Basecamp is such a PITA that we tried it once and had to delete them all because it was so crufty. You’ve been warned! A project-by-project import would be a lot more helpful than the brute-force “import everyone” method now in use.

I definitely see Highrise integration for Basecamp coming soon. We’ve been using Basecamp for years now (started just a few months after it’s launch) and they’ve integrated every major service, Writeboards… Campfire…

I know they’ll integrate Highrise into Basecamp functionality, but it may take a little time.

I like Raymonds approach. One question though, where’s upkeep? A project in Basecamp or a tag in Highrise?

Also using BC and HR at the same time gives me two to-do lists to follow—now where should go my personal one? In Backpack?? Three to-do lists to follow? I’ll need an aggregator if things continue to evolve like this …

”...Three to-do lists to follow? I’ll need an aggregator if things continue to evolve like this …”

Expect to see a new product from 37Signals…
h4. WhirlPool

Pull in all that data from our other products into one convenient place. The url will be http://whirlpoolsucks.com. (sucks as in suck in the data)

In all seriousness, aggregating the data in a certain way would be a good reason to use the API. Develop a particular workflow (“Tasks for the project go to Basecamp, Task for Personal Contacts go to Highrise, Everything else finds a home in Backpack”) or use something working with the APIs to either

1. Place the data in the right place depending on the type.
2. Mirror it to both places automatically.

One question though, where’s upkeep?

Upkeep is back into Highrise (once a project has been archived in Basecamp). We prefer Basecamp for active web design/development projects.

I’m ditching basecamp and moving to using Lighthouse (http://lighthouseapp.com) for the todo stuff. (we’re using highrise as well)

... ditching basecamp for blighthaus …

You have got to be kidding.

Adjusting scorecard …

”…Three to-do lists to follow? I’ll need an aggregator if things continue to evolve like this …”

Actually there also is my Gmail starred items I need to follow … so it would be four to-do lists for me.
Gmail + Backpack + Basecamp + Highrise …

It appears clear to me that, though some people may use only Highrise or Basecamp due to their needs, a lot of people actually need a tool which integrates Project management plus Crm.
Is this what Sunrise from 37 signals is going to be?

I read this whole thread, and I think the smartest solutions offered are the duh category: use Highrise for contacts and Basecamp for projects. I’da sure wished I’d a thunk o’ that! ;)

Ray’s post sums it up with a good strategy I hadn’t thought of: using Highrise as a much larger pond in which to manage all your people and tasks who are potentially/occasionally related to work, sifting them in and out of Basecamp when they are immediately relevant. Great idea.