Comments on: Internal Project Management: Backpack Is Our Choice

By: Matthew Scott

Matthew Scott — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:47:55 +0000

Matthew,

I appreciate your insight.

I’m going to send you a link that I believe will answer your question about providing access to only certain people. For example, we sometimes have contractors involved in a project. On occasion, there is info that they should not be privy. So, we provide access to only certain people. We have not experienced the same problem as you indicated about people still having access to messages when we restricted them to certain pages.

Matthew, check-out this link from Backpack and see if it helps you out.

===>> CLICK HERE

Let me know if it helps you out.

By: Matthew Lane

Matthew Lane — Sat, 16 May 2009 05:21:48 +0000

I currently use Backpack as a personal calendar and place to store documents for the business on the solo plan. I use Basecamp to manage all of my clients projects, as well as Highrise to manage client information and internal tasks. I was interested in upgrading my Backpack account to use as a means for team communication, however so often I communicate privately with various freelancers during different parts of the process. I know you can do this in Basecamp, but I didn’t notice a way to do so in Backpack, only openly with everyone. I know you can set it to only notify particular individuals, but when I ran some tests with dummy accounts, they still had access to the messages when logging in. I was hoping to use it as a central system for all internal communications, in which case not everyone is privy to the same information. Did I simply overlook a feature of the service which makes this possible?

By: Matthew Scott

Matthew Scott — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:29:36 +0000

Don,

You offer great insight about the challenge of using Basecamp, Backpack, and Highrise synergistically.

At first we struggled with our intended use of Basecamp and then Backpack.

Once we decided to use Backpack as our internal project manager and Basecamp as our client project management tool, then we were good to go.

The open bar menu feature allows us to easily switch from Basecamp to Backpack without having to log-in. Also, the newsroom function on Backpack easily lets us know when someone has provided an update.

Thanks—Matthew

By: Kyle Hunt

Kyle Hunt — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:02:48 +0000

Got it!

By: Matthew Scott

Matthew Scott — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:40:43 +0000

Kyle,

Think…

Backpack-Manage your internal project efforts. (Information you would not share w/clients, but your team.)

Basecamp- Manage your client project. (Information you would expect to share w/clients.)

Hope this helps.

By: Don Mann

Don Mann — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:14:14 +0000

You can download a free BaseCamp trial form 37 Signals. That is the best way of determining its capability vs your needs.

In my view Backpack is a personal or group information manager (calendar, journal, etc wheres Basecamp is a project manager. It has Milestones rather than a calendar for example.

Unfortunately the programs don’t integrate very well at all, nor does Highrise, another 37 product! They are all good products but there is very far too little linkage between them and there is some overlap. If you buy all three . . . in some cases you will have difficulty deciding which program to use.

By: Kyle Hunt

Kyle Hunt — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:42:50 +0000

Matthew,

We currently use Basecamp to manage client projects (as well as our own internal projects) – should we consider switching and using Backpack? I know they are both 37signals products – just a bit confused on how they play together…

Thanks!