Say ‘Hi’ to Highrise

37 Signals is a company with an impressive track record amongst the web-savvy communities. Like Apple they have a knack for making the complex appear simple and easy to use. Their particular market is in the project planning/organisational tools area – an increasingly popular subject in today’s ‘always-on’ world.

Another similarity with Apple is the cult following they inspire for their product portfolio: Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack and Writeboards – all easy to access (and pay for) web-hosted applications. This week saw the launch of their latest service: Highrise.

Highrise is described on their site as a ‘CRM-ish’ application utilising ‘just-enough’ functionality to allow you to get things done without drowning in a welter of software bloat.

I already signed up for the free trial and so far there’s a lot to like about Highrise, in particular the way the data can flow out from site activity via RSS feeds and into your workflow by way of a clever email inbox system.

I can see Highrise becoming as essential to my working day as Basecamp has already become. If you’re in the market for a fresh look at how you manage your customer relations (and even if you aren’t) its well worth taking a look.