Project management software comes and goes. But once you find one you really like you stick with it. And Basecamp, by 37Signals, was our go-to management platform. But times change, and we grew antsy to discover something fresh and more like how we work today. We’ve found such a jewel and although it’s a bit rough still, we know that with a little polish and determination it will be a huge asset to many small businesses- including our own.

Preface

It’s been a year since we switched from a hosted Exchange environment to Google Apps. Reliability is very important to us. We live and die by email. But as we grew a shared calendar and file system became as important to productivity as reliable email. Enter Google Apps to the show.

Although email and shared calendaring was adopted quickly, it took us a long time to get into cloud hosted files. We just did not see the need for it. We were creating documents in InDesign and Pages locally and that was just fine. But as soon as we committed to writing a blog post a week we realized that we needed some sort of collaborative, document creation functionality- enter Google Docs.

The collaboration and management of documents was awesome! Add to that the ability to pop into a GTalk chat session (text, audio, or video) and you’ve got a fantastic work environment. Needless to say we’ve gone all in on Google Apps and it has cut costs and increased productivity.

Dare we touch our coveted Basecamp? It’s been with us for so long, how do you tell an old friend you are looking elsewhere for satisfaction?

Goodbye Basecamp

Let me start off by saying that we’ve been using Basecamp for six years. We watched it mature from a dead simple, great looking, hosted solution to a dead simple, great looking, hosted solution. No, that’s not a copy/paste error. What I’m saying is, the platform really hasn’t changed much and that’s because they nailed it the first time around.

Yes, the design has been refined, improved formatting of messages, and integration with some third party, hosted solutions via their API but in its essence it has not evolved. And you know, I’m sure 37Signals would agree. They wanted to keep things simple, manageable, and elegant. And they’ve done a remarkable job doing so.

But the nature of web apps and cloud hosted systems has changed tremendously over the past half decade and so have we.

Hello Manymoon

Google announced some time ago the creation of the Google Marketplace- a web-based store in which Apps subscribers could test and buy complimentary apps, gadgets, etc. We discovered Manymoon early and frankly it was severely lacking. The design was really weak, the usability was low, and it felt cobbled together. Although it integrated with Google Apps it was just a shell built around Google. We let it go after a couple of days.

About three or four months later we started picking up mentions of Manymoon throughout our Twitter stream and RSS feeds. With so much positive feedback I thought I would revisit the platform and see what improvements they made.

Manymoon Evolves Quickly

After adding the app to our domain again we noticed big changes. The usability had improved and the design was less cluttered. Bare in mind, it is not Basecamp. Basecamp has got Manymoon beat in the UI department but it was greatly improved. Their project management approach was intriguing to me- it is more like LinkedIn and Facebook- an approach of streaming in updates as they happen.

So I said, I’ll give the platform 30 days to see if it was a viable replacement to Basecamp. We moved two clients over with four projects. And at first the transition was bumpy. Clients weren’t sure how to sign up, the invite email felt like SPAM with its Manymoon advertising, and it just wasn’t Basecamp. For instance, Basecamp-speak is regular people speak- files equals files and messages equals messages. However in Manymoon-speak, you don’t have messages, you have a Bulletin which captures comments. The Bulletin is a laundry list of activities- quick updates, comments, documents, etc. all on one screen. Sounds like a mess- it kinda is.

Some of the transition issues were user issues- namely mine. I didn’t read all of the documentation. If I had, I wouldn’t have asked their support team for a calendar. They have one. It’s just not easy to find. And that’s one its issues- you have to read the documentation and watch the demo videos. Once you do, it’s quick to pick up all of the great functionality. Lots of things are simply hidden.

But after three weeks of working with the platform, creating tasks, milestones, uploading files from our cloud, and keeping track of deliverable dates via our corporate calendar, it was quite easy to work within. Clients were getting used to the emails and several began replying back with feedback.

The Bulletin was cleaned up (more whitespace), a gadget was added so I could create a task or project right from an email, and it looks like search is on its way. So they are innovating quickly. And seeking feedback just as quickly.

Which brings me to a very important point. Several weeks ago I wrote a post about Manymoon- my initial thoughts. Within half a day I was contacted by one of Manymoon’s founders who requested a quick meeting to go over my feedback. The meeting was genuine and I saw at least one of my recommendations within a few weeks of using the system.

That interaction tells me: they are interested in their users, they want to make a great product, and they do what they say they’re going to do. That’s something I can subscribe to. And although this may sound like an endorsement of Manymoon I was not paid to do so. This post is about how we made a switch from one project management platform to another which catered more to our needs and how we work in this cloud-based environment. So don’t say I’ve got some paid bias.

Making the Switch

So this week we sent an email to our clients still on Basecamp alerting them to the fact that we were transitioning to a new project management suite. We outlined Manymoon’s benefits and wrote it up like a “Dear John” letter.

Yesterday, we moved everyone over and no issues yet. We’ve purchased the Team Edition for the year and are anxiously anticipating watching Manymoon maturing just as we saw Basecamp growing. If Basecamp’s success is any model to follow I think Manymoon has great potential.

I foresee UI enhancements, a better Bulletin, revealed functionality, continued integration with Google Apps, and hopefully an Android or iPhone app. I’m interested to hear other people’s experience with Manymoon and particularly sharing tips and tricks for getting the most out of it. So feel free to comment below. We’ll be listening!

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