BenBishop.me.uk

37 signals officially launched Campire today, a real-time chat service that can add further productivity to your business or support for your products. After the last month of testing Campfire joins a stable of other great 37 signals web based services such as Basecamp and Backpack.

Offering a number of different pricing plans to suit your needs there is a free 30 day trial available that offers up to 4 chatters and 10 MB of space. It appears that they are sensibly limiting sign ups to 500 a day to monitor performance, although I was fortunate enough to try this while spaces were available.

Signing up you choose the account type and being web based pick your url, www.yourname.campfirenow.com. Next send out you invites to your url via email and create your ‘chat’ rooms. All chats are stored online and space is available for uploading files for sharing with the people you are chatting with. Images are previewed within the chat window and other files are have an icon representing them. While uploading your chats can continue and while I haven’t tested the service with the maximum people allowed (up to 40 in the premium package) there doesn’t appear to be any lag or performance drains while all this is taking place.

Clearly a 37 signals product, Campfire has a simple, clear layout and intuitive interface offering a well thought out service. The system is incredibly simple yet offers much of the functionality that you could want. While 37 Signals don’t release products in the ‘beta’ guise this is still a first release yet the service is completely functional and does what it offers. With incredible potential in an internal business model for brainstorming, problem solving and as an alternative to email it can also be of benefit to as a support service for your customers. My only personal gripe might be if the system is intended to be used as real-time chat based support for your products it appears to lack any ability to add company branding and so might be commercially inappropriate.

It is interesting that this is the first service to only offer a 30 day trial not a permanent free service like Backpack or Basecamp. As a service clearly aimed at businesses this trial is understandable, though I would expect them to make made the basic tiered features permanent once the level of people trying this product evens off. With a permanent free based service you are always going to find people signing up after 3, 6 or even 12 months of use as their business expands and grows.

Much like Backpack, the productivity gains of Campfire become immediately apparent from the first time you use it if they are not already. This is another 37 signals product that shows their acute understanding of business services that can increase efficiency yet still be incredible value for money. I look forward to their next offering.