Just looking to get a sense of the demand for Daylite project/basecamp project integration, or at least monitoring basecamp projects from within Daylite. Oh, and wanted to try this poll thing too..

Question:
What level of interest would you have in having some level of integration with a basecamp account from within Daylite?

Choices:
This would be the bestest thing ever!
Yeah, thats pretty cool.
Huh. Well, maybe.
Meh.
Do the what with the what now?

 

It would be very good if Marketcircle could post this kind of question to their entire user base. I have been unable to visit the forum often lately and only just came across this poll. I imagine many others that might have an interest are also not seeing it.

If you do build a good solid connection, our organization would purchase it…especially if it works with both Opportunities and Projects. The reason for working with Daylite Projects is obvious. The reason for working with Daylite Opportunities might not be so obvious. For us, it is because we work with external companies as partners on many new projects. To facilitate communications between our companies for our sales efforts, we create a Base Camp project. The ability to share information between the Daylite Opporunity and the Base Camp project would be a huge one for us.

Thank you for the feedback. I'm not sure what the crossover of Daylite users and Basecamp users is (half of the poll respondents so far aren't sure what the question is asking)

That said, Basecamp, and a lot of web apps like it, will figure more and more predominantly in company workflows, I think. Part of what makes Daylite so intriguing is the webkit stuff- Being able to work with a web app contextually from within a desktop app makes a lot of sense in a future-proofing sort of way.

Is there different data specific to opportunities vs projects as far as your use of Basecamp goes?

Thanks!
-E

Hi there everybody,

We are already waiting for Highrise from 37signals. It should be far less complicated CRM application with better support. It will be integrated with Basecamp application as well.

You should check all the previews of Highrise @ 37signals blog. They already posted five previews.

I am very dissapointed with Marketcircle support. Marketicircle is staggering, imo.

Hope they (MC) will not delete this post.

Best wishes,
Andy

Andy:

I have no problems with Marcketcircle's support. Are there features that I want that they have not delivered yet? You bet. But then that is true of just about every other piece of software out there, too. And, when 37Signals does release their CRM application that will be great. However, the people that use a Daylite, will often be disappointed with an online solution for CRM. There are many issues with on-line only solutions for CRM.

Then there is the issue of the pure power. I don't think you understand what it might take for the many-to-many link relationships that are capable in Daylite nor of capabilities. That said, you may not have the need for it. And that is fine. Daylite is not meant for everyone.

What I would like to see is the kind of connection between Base Camp (a nice tool for people not needing a full project management solution). This would provide a relatively quick solution for us in light project management communications and joint-sales opportunities with partners.

Good luck with your move to Highrise. I bet it will be a great application for the people whose feature set it fits. The development team at 37Signals is a very good.

Eric:

No idea about the numbers of Base Camp/Daylite users. However, there are many that probably don't even know what Base Camp is or the potential.

A site note is that I would absolutely love it if Marketcircle would dig into their Web Objects experience and put together a web companion to Daylite. It would not need to be a single solution that does everything. Rather, it could be several solutions that handle different aspects of the Daylite application (e.g. calendar, contacts, opportunities/projects, etc.).

The biggest difference between the opp and proj seems to be the money aspect of the opportunity. That is something that Base Camp doesn't track nor does it need to. However, it is something that we need to differentiate with in our Daylite workflow.

J. Scott:

To be honest my notes regarding Highrise are bit off topic. Nevertheless approach on support between MC and 37 is different.

37signals does it via forums. They also sharing their arguments on why they do so or so with Basecamp or whatever application they develop. Nothing like that with MC. For instance, it is not known why Projects @ Daylite lacks Estimates.

Imo, there is a big difference on approaches to support and communication with end users.

And integration. Who needs two applications from same company without integration? Who needs Billings if it is not integrated with Daylite and its Estimates, Contacts, etc.? Just google for Brins'/Pages' speak on product integration, not product differentiation.

Andy

(First post here... considering using Daylite, but not currently a user)

Basecamp is great for collaboration, but Daylite is obviously more powerful. I often run into a need to share project details, collaboratively, with a freelancer, and with Basecamp I can do that easily, allowing that person access to that project at no cost on their end. The ideal thing it seems, as someone else suggested, would be to have some sort of web component to daylite... this would be especially great if it were somehthing that could be installed on my own web server, rather than being a paid service. Bottom line: if there was a way to combine the power of Daylite with the collaborative potential of Basecamp, this would be THE product in this sector.

Hi Kevin-

Thanks for your input. What parts of your Basecamp projects do you use most to collaborate with folks? Messages, to-do's, etc?

At this point, any actual solution might be dependent on you running something on your own server. To be honest, I think there would be a lot more that could be done if the service was offered as a hosted solution, but I don't know whether the demand is there currently to go down that road.

Thanks!
-E

Probably messages more than to-dos, but also sharing files... pretty much the whole collaborative-project-management function over all. I wouldn't say there's just on feature.

As for your comment about running something on your own server, I've been using ActiveCollab, which is a lot like Basecamp, but you host it on your own server. It's currently in Beta (free) and though it lacks some of the sparkle of Basecamp, it's pretty great. A new version is coming within the next couple months, which sounds like it will be even better. Basecamp is very hot in the hear and now, but, in my opinion, if there were something to develop around for looking down the road, I really think this would be it.

http://www.activecollab.com

Speaking of which, there's a thread started in ActiveCollab's forums about integrating with Daylite. The lead developer on their project just tried out Daylite and was pretty impressed

http://www.activecollab.com/forums/topic/1664/

Guys,

I run a web team that has about 50 projects running on Basecamp. Its a great way to interface with clients, but its terrible to track things.

If there was a way of integrating the two, we really are talking a killer appt: being able to plan projects, talk with clients, and monitor how well the project has gone (profitability and ease of flow).

I need some bright spark somewhere to wake up and say "Sounds lie a good idea" and make it happen.

Is anybody using Merlin as project management with DL?

Many thanks,

I'm trying to figure out how it would be possible to integrate Basecamp with Daylite. It would be of great benefit to our team.

We use Basecamp to interact with clients but it falls way short when it comes to tracking projects, tasks, follow-ups etc.

I'd love to know if any progress has been made in this area. ActiveCollab is about to be released in 1.0 next week, and is going to take Basecamp by storm soon... this will be the platform to work with for sure (i'm not affiliated with ActiveCollab in any way).

I'd love to know if this is possible to integrate Daylite with ActiveCollab, either by Marketcircle or by a third party - anyone? I don't know enough about how that works to see if it's something to expect down the road...

Hi Kevin-

looking at the current ActiveCollab site, it doesn't look like they have published any kind of API yet. Looks cool tho.

As far as the basecamp stuff, it's still there at the edge of the desk, but currently have to take care of some paying gigs..