Highrise helps Inchoo follow-up with prospects

In "Manage your contacts effectively – where have all my post-its gone?", Aron Stanic of Inchoo discusses Highrise.

Let’s say I’ve just received an email inquiry from a new prospect. When sending a response, I can instantly Bcc the email to my Highrise dropbox making the communication transparent and easily trackable for myself and, most importantly, for the rest of the team as well.

I’m able to upload and/or import basic contact information about the new client together with her/his picture (sometimes being good with the names simply doesn’t cut it), corporate information, other notes and – yes – even feed the profile with their Twitter updates so I can see what the client is up to in real time.

While some of these features can strike you as purely cosmetic, there are others that really stand out. I can create task lists for each contact (making sure I don’t forget sending that quote or a follow-up email), add pending and any previous deals to them and tag them accordingly.

It happened a couple of times that I’d make a follow-up on a prospect who needed some small Magento tweak a month ago and decided to go with another developer. He had experienced some problems and was very much relieved to hear back from us and ask for our help with a larger deal that we would then land. Who knows if I’d have remembered to make that follow-up had I not created a task two months ago.

Read the full post.

Burndown: Generate burndown charts for Basecamp milestones and to-do lists

Burndown is a simple tool that takes your Basecamp milestones and to-do lists and generates burndown charts with them.

With Burndown you don't need to repeat yourself. A simple synchronization process is all you have to do to keep daily track of your iteration and generate helpful burndown charts. Forget about bloated so called "agile" software, that requires training to be used. If the "agile" tools you're using require a certification... well probably you're not being as agile as you think.

New File Uploading features in Basecamp

We're excited to announce a batch of improvements to File Uploads in Basecamp. Now it's easier to attach multiple files at once, we've improved our progress bar to show you as each file is uploaded, and you can click thumbnails to zoom image attachments without leaving the current page. These new features make it faster and easier to attach, review and discuss files in Basecamp. Here's a demo video to show you all the improvements.

We hope you like the new file upload features in Basecamp. Thanks as always for your support!

Timy: "An easy-to-use desktop application to fill out your Basecamp timesheet"

Timy is "an easy-to-use desktop application to fill out your Basecamp timesheet."

Complete your timesheet the easy way!
Completing your timesheet can be time-consuming. But no more!
Timy is an easy-to-use desktop application to fill out your Basecamp timesheet.

Efficient and with surprisingly clever features, using a quick and simple interface. Time tracking in 7th gear, so to speak.

Timy is a free downloadable product.

How to adapt Basecamp to an agile methodology

High Notes offers a blog post called "How to do SCRUM with Basecamp?"

About 2 years ago we were sitting at the office trying to figure out which tool to use for project management. I mean, being agile is about being simple, but index cards were starting to get messy...

Of all the tools we tried, the one that gave us the best results was Basecamp. These are the two reasons that we believe make Basecamp great for agile project management:

Simplicity: There is no need for training when you start using Basecamp. In essence Basecamp is a set of message boards, blogging tools, calendars and to-do list trackers. All these tools combined in an intuitive way is what Basecamp is all about. If your team can't figure out how to use Basecamp... you're in troubles. Being agile is about using the simplest tools available.

Interactions instead of Process: The purpose of Basecamp is to promote and enhance collaboration between a team. Basecamp doesn't try to force you into a specific workflow as most project management tools do. You can pretty much do whatever process or workflow you want, and still, Basecamp is going to be helpful. Guess what's the first line of the Agile Manifesto? Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. So instead of thinking "Is ticket 4137 assigned to David or to Paula?", you will see the discussion of a real issue between your team.

The post goes on to give a detailed explanation of how to adapt Basecamp to an agile methodology (they use a mixture of Scrum and XP). Check it out.

Backpack is used to publish points of contact and resources during Toronto's garbage strike

There's a garbage strike currently underway in the city of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. As expected, the citizens of Toronto are left with only questions about what to do about the garbage that is piling up. Luckily Danyl Sobolev used Backpack to quickly publish a list of useful contacts and resources for this difficult situation.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.

Basecamp: Keep track of the hours spent on a task with time tracking

Basecamp time tracking lets you keep track of the hours spent on a task or a complete project (for plus or higher accounts only).

Watch an audio/video tour of Time Tracking to learn more.

Always remember with Backpack Reminders

Backpack can send reminders to you via email or as a Mobile SMS/text message. That means you won’t ever forget to attend a meeting, make a call, or any other task that you have to do. You can even set and schedule reminders for your co-workers too.

You can schedule reminders for you or your team by clicking on the Reminders tab in your Backpack account.

1. Give the reminder a name.
2. Choose a time for the reminder.
3. Select the people to notify.

Backpack will automatically send an email message or mobile text message to the people that you selected on the time and date you have chosen.

Watch a quick video on Reminders.

Getting Real is one of Tim Ferriss' five must read books

Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose Discuss Their Top 5 Must-Read Books:

On Ferriss' list: Getting Real. He says, "It has the potential to change your life and your business...It does have a software focus but all of it can be applied to entrepreneurs in general."

Seth Godin: "Basecamp is the perfect tool for coordinating"

Seth Godin recently launched an alternative MBA program. Unaccredited, residential, free and six months long. A new way to learn about a new way of doing business. One of the lessons of the experiment: Use Basecamp.

Another lesson: We used Basecamp. It’s the perfect tool for coordinating this sort of work.

Read more of the lessons Seth learned from what he called "an extraordinary learning experience."