I’m researching online collaboration software/websites for my company and am looking at eRoom and Basecamp. We have some experience using Basecamp, but I’m used to eRoom via Wharton.
After a few minute call with EMC(2), who owns eRoom, here’s why I’m definitely recommending Basecamp to my company:
- I don’t want to answer a 5 minute survey about who I am, where I work and where I’m located before I get transferred someone else.
- I don’t want an overenthusiastic sales guy to them transfer me again, when I ask for a pricing list. (Really. I know eRoom. I don’t need a demonstration or up-sale. )
- I REALLY don’t need to be THEN transferred (for the second time!) to another automated menu and THEN an answering machine.
It’s quite obvious that you don’t need my business. Your marketing person was smart enough to hook me early in college, where I’ve grown accustomed to your programs. But your sales team and website suck and are not intuitive. Now, I despise you. kthxpoopface!
12 Comments
May 27, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Hi, fellow Tumblr here. Just curious, how are these different from say… Google Docs and the services offered by Google?
Stupid question perhaps, but “inquiring minds wanna know!”
May 28, 2008 at 4:54 am
I had similar experiences with some of these “web 2.0″ companies when I was evaluation collaboration tools. I do have to commend OnStage for their excellent customer service– even though the tool doesn’t seem as mature as basecamp. Although basecamp has its own quirks. Also, there is a pretty thorough list of other project management/collaboration tools here: whybasecampsux.
May 28, 2008 at 9:12 am
Hi other fellow tumblr
These sites usually help you trade documents, notes, give surveys and discussions, etc. to help when working with a project. It’s a central repository for everything. Personally, I don’t go for Google just because I don’t trust them with any sensitive info, much less anything to do with work.
Thanks, Jules. I’ll have to see which is the less of many evils.
Cheers!
May 29, 2008 at 8:25 am
I’ve had sales contacts at EMC and direct relationships with the product and marketing team and have never run into the horrible issues you’ve faced with calling the “front desk” at EMC. Sounds like a pain.
Anyways, I’ve been using eRoom for years, before they were bought by Documentum and EMC. It’s a great product. We have clients who use it out of the box as a RAD application development tool. Non techie users can point and click to create an eRoom database to track anything from document libraries to training requests without having to call for IT support. You can build simple approval process databases as well. What’s neat is that everything in eRoom is a “container” so that a database has database entries. A database entry can have a folder, caendar or another database in it’s attachments area. That embedded folder in the database entry can contain other folders, files, poll, calendar, or another database. You can use all of the native eRoom objects/items to map pretty closely to your business, program, project, process or people.
Sorry, sounding too much like sales.
Take into consideration that EMC is going to come out with Magellan later this year which will add wikis, tags, blogs, rss, etc and web 2.0 interface to many of the existing eRoom objects. Add to that that EMC is a 50 billion ollar company and they are putting quite a bit of research and development into user interface and experience, as well as the back end ECM infrastructure. You can’t go wrong really.
May 29, 2008 at 8:52 am
Thanks for your input. A few comments:
1. If you’re in anyway associated with the company (other than previous mentioned) in terms of working there, representing them or in partnership with them, you should disclose that now.
2. LOL, your comment does sound a little pitchy/sales focused.
3. I don’t doubt that ECM has an amazing products; it’s the service that irks me.
4. For all the PR professionals out there and for ECM, here’s some tips about how to respond/approach bloggers… http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/bloggerrelations.pdf. You might also want to check out Todd Defren’s blog.
Cheers!
May 30, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Hi Jany,
I have never worked for EMC, but I do work with their eRoom product. The company, where I am a managing partner, is an EMC partner. Having said that, I don’t disagree with you about having poor customer service from a large company. The problem is that they don’t cater to small or even medium sized companies. Once you have an account executive assigned to you, it’s a completely different story. I have found the same thing with other large companies, especially IBM. I once was interested in buying one of their products. I could not get anyone there on the phone with me and no one would call me back. It was horrible.
I apologize for my first comment being too sales focused. I was just defending the product that I have used for years. I am a tech focused guy - developer, meaning that I write code. I’m not a PR professional, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
In any case, thanks for posting my comments.
Ciao
May 31, 2008 at 2:44 pm
hi
I guess in a round about way, I did find out in the end that the eRoom service is not tailored to my current company? Hmmm…
Thanks for your input and for defending a product you enjoy using. I don’t think we don’t get enough of that. BTW, you’re pretty witty for a tech guy ;-P…
Cheers.
June 1, 2008 at 6:10 am
Did you look at SharePoint? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really like SharePoint, but lots of people do.
I also just came back from EMC World where they announced a replacement for eRoom that is code-named “Magellan”. It is connected to the content server, but the UI (User Interface) is sooo much better. It is Web 2.0 with Flex. It is eRoom but with Wikis, blogs, RSS, Tags, etc. Their document view tool is similar to the iTunes store where you can scroll through contents and the doc with current focus gets large… you can read the first page of a document. If you click on it, you will see meta data about the document or file, along with comments and attachments or you can click to open up the target document/file. Very cool stuff that will be out in the Fall.
Good luck with your quest for the right software.
BTW, your post on Fizza Hut was a bit amusing. I used to manage a Domino’s Pizza when I was 19 years old, so I have always thought of Fizza Hut as the enemy.
Too funny. All those pizza delivery companies did so much better when they kept it simple. Just pizza.
July 23, 2008 at 10:02 am
You may want to check out Clarizen (www.clarizen.com) as well. Good collaboration capabilities with solid project management.
July 25, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Thanks, Ameal. I will.
I’ve still been looking for a great site that’s able to cater to a growing SME.
August 29, 2008 at 6:37 am
You can also use eRoom as a hosted service through one of their partners.
Check out http://www.eroomhosting.com
October 25, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Hey Jany,
I work on a product called GeniusRoom. Internally we had some trouble with eRoom and Basecamp.. so we built a company around solving the problem in our own way. It may be a better fit for you depending on whether you’re trying to manage projects or improve relationships with your clients (GeniusRoom is probably better for the latter). My gf uses it at her web design studio to keep in touch with each of her clients. Anyway, it would be great to hear your feedback.
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