Pauline D.
Creative Services Management - Experienced in Traffic/Project Management
Feedback from those project managers/traffic managers who have used FileMaker Pro?
We are looking for a software package to help with the tracking of creative projects in an in house communications department. We would like to be able to track the project, schedule task and update as completed, generate reports, etc. I would love to get any feedback from people who use FileMaker Pro or Basecamp.
Good Answers (4)
Philip S.
Business Coach at Minutecoach Business Coaching | PAYG business coaching
Best Answers in: Using LinkedIn (8), Computers and Software (6), Starting Up (5), Business Development (4), Web Development (4), Internet Marketing (3), Project Management (3), Small Business (3), Blogging (3), E-Commerce (3), Occupational Training (2), Graphic Design (2), Organizational Development (2), Planning (2), Enterprise Software (2), Facilities Management (1), Certification and Licenses (1), Freelancing and Contracting (1), Personnel Policies (1), Work-life Balance (1), Events Marketing (1), Customer Relationship Management (1), Sales Techniques (1), Search Marketing (1), Writing and Editing (1), Nonprofit Management (1), Branding (1), Positioning (1), Career Management (1), Ethics (1), Computer Networking (1), Telecommunications (1), Software Development (1)
Often for corporates (FM Global, yes?) running hosted services outside the firewall is not allowed as anyone obtaining a client's/contractor's/consultant's logon details could have access (clearly, Basecamp itself is secure). A company intranet/extranet or DMZ open to clients/contractors/consultants has control and traceability, even when logons get passed around...
In the presence of the above restriction it's FileMaker server in house, which IT may still kick back.
Background: I use and recommend both. Prior to coaching consulting, fixing and managing broken communications projects, design and development in FileMaker and web.
Generally:
Basecamp _itself_ is linear, you'll notice this within 5 minutes. You won't get lost, but you will scroll. With FM you can create the layered environments you need, if you can be asked. Mostly, people can't be asked.
Tracking:
If for creative project management you (corporately) fiddle with Gantt charts, you should stop. If you can't, being compulsive and all, then FM, with help, will do Gantts. See link.
Perhaps in place of Gantts try similar, but more creative _timelines_ to give you and clients a view of where you are. I've included a link. This works equally well with Basecamp or FM.
Reporting out of FM is superior as you design it yourself (reasonably easily), and can drive it into many more presentation tools as data for charts and tables. But, you might not need superior.
Real world interaction:
Basecamp in itself is limiting but involving, not necessarily a bad combination. There are a number of other bods making products that link to Basecamp, so you need to review the Basecamp ecosystem to see if it will do for you; note/warning, some companies live longer than others.
Getting stuff in:
People don't 'live' in FileMaker, they do 'live' in Basecamp - If your workforce (director's included) want to access and be fed the project updates wherever they are (widgets, mobiles, e-mail, sms etc.), well, you can do this with FM, it's _easier_ with Basecamp. If people want to collaborate on writing (short) copy, it's _easier_ with Basecamp.
If you want to track website development, use Basecamp. If you want to arrange and structure _large_ corporate events and roadshows, do researching/collating for press and PR, run production of annual / interim reports, build a lessons learned resource, a press contact centre, deal with multiple suppliers and inputs, produce automatic documentation, then use FileMaker.
FM is _really_ good at handling different assets and structuring data around them, pdf, images, movies, documents of _any_ type (you can use references to the data items that FileMaker will not hold natively). This includes items you might want to print barcodes to or read from such as show exhibitor and visitor badges, press passes, response cards, etc.
If you are a large corporate with routines and procedures for time sheets, project and task coding and billing you _can_ mimic this within Basecamp's ecosystem with ingenuity, but can _exactly_ replicate it in FileMaker (scan forms, overlay fields, set up project/task pick lists, fill 'em out, fire off through XSLT files to create word documents as attachments to an e-mail to personnel.)
If people are 'in many projects' sitting in front of a computer doing a bit of this, copy for that, etc. then _either_ solution tracks time as they switch between tasks/projects/clients, Basecamp is _easier_.
Cost/Value? FM development cost should be set off against additional value delivered, so excluding that it is pretty even over 24 months. Basecamp will _definitely_ need companion products so $2500 - $4000 p.a.
FM Server Advanced, clients, extras @ $4500 - $5000 + updates, accessing with richer FM clients _and_ browsers. Cheaper? drop $2500 server for hosted FM @$300-1200 pa.
FM flexes and integrates smoothly, Basecamp simplifies and imposes wisely. Truthfully? It may be wise to invest in both.
Philip
Links:
Tobias R.
Freelance Director and Visual Effects Artist
Best Answers in: Graphic Design (1), Computers and Software (1)
We use both Basecamp and FileMaker Pro. The major advantage of Basecamp is that it is already built and it works beautifully. We have used it to manage film and design projects with up to 14 remote team members and it did everything we wanted it to. The big thing that BC lacks is a robust reporting tool, but its not something that we need at the moment.
The major reasons for going with Filemaker are customizability and the reports feature. Obviously you have to build or have it built for you so that can be time consuming or frustrating if you don't have much data base experience. Ultimately building your own solution in FileMaker is the best solution if you have someone who is going to be responsible for updating and improving the structure. Eventually the person who designed it may leave your company which sometimes means that changes or fixes to the DB stop happening.
Erik W.
Small Business Marketing, Branding, Web + Graphic Design Guru, Author, Radio Show Host
Best Answers in: Graphic Design (4), Career Management (1)
Hi Pauline,
I ran a MarCom group based entirely on Filemaker and it's a terrific tool for managing large amounts of work. We would literally have hundreds of items going on at once and Filemaker was terrific for that. It was also easy to customize and create new reports. Basecamp is better though for managing collaboration on projects but I would agree that the reporting isn't that robust. And it's impossible to customize the reporting because they don't give you access to the source code.
Let me make another suggestion for you though if you're on the fence between these... Look into ActiveCollab. It's essentially Basecamp, except you can host it on your own linux web server. That means that you'll have access to the MySQL databases and could have someone develop whatever custom reporting tools you wanted. And it's fairly inexpensive as well.
Links:
I've used both, and currently we are running BasecampHQ. We use Basecamp's time tracking and I export that into tables. I then use Apple Numbers to build out my reports. It's not the smoothest possible system, but it gets the job done. Basecamp's big plus is that it is always available online, and I can get in and check on things from anywhere. File Maker is powerful and easy to use. My issues arise in getting it to communicate with other tools. The licensing issues with File Maker are also a downer. With Basecamp, I can simply add new users as needed. I've seen some of the other systems as well (and some custom agency built tools) and none are really as easy as Basecamp.
More Answers (1)
I've been a Filemaker Pro girl for over 14 years and wouldn't even consider switching.
