The folks at 37Signals, makers of Basecamp, have been quietly working on a CRM application that promises to be as simple and effective as everything else these guys put out. Originally the name of the program was Sunrise (nicely aligned with their camping themes in Basecamp, Backpack and Campfire) but the newly announced name is Highrise. (Rather than thinking they’ve gone urban I think they are talking about mountains.)

Jason Fried has been dropping some blog posts and screenshots at Signal vs. Noise blog.

• Introducing Highrise
• Highrise Permissions
  

• Highrise Welcome
• Highrise Add a Contact

For now, you can go here to get on the Highrise release list

Online CRM is a crowded, and growing more so, space. With the exception of Salesforce.com’s lead, it’s still pretty open for the small business. Funny thing is, as more folks jump into CRM with more and more features, what’s missing, based on feedback I get, is a simple CRM system – one that does the handful of things that the typical small business will actually use and benefit from. It doesn’t matter how cool a technology is for the power user, it’s the huddled masses, the ones that won’t use 75% of the functionality, that are crying for help. We shall see if that’s what Sunrise can bring.