Create, Imagine and Build Tomorrow, Microsoft announces Build 2018 event

Create, Imagine and Build Tomorrow, Microsoft announces Build 2018 event

Microsoft announces Build 2018 developer conference dates with a Create, Imagine and Build for tomorrow theme.

Build 2018

The 3 day annual developer conference where Microsoft talks about it’s emerging technology, Microsoft Build is here. Scheduled to take place May 7-9th in Seattle, Washington this year.  The invitation to creators is to come see what’s next in Microsoft technologies. Experience emerging technologies in Artificial Intelligence, Mixed Reality, Cloud, Data, Quantum Computing, etc.

Microsoft Build Registration opens officially at 9:00 AM PST February 15, 2018. Visit the Build website and register if you want to be there. FYI it gets sold out pretty fast so you might want to brace yourself for this, lol.

Creators of all kinds will gather to spark ideas, get inspired and build what’s next.
Save the date to register tomorrow for your ringside seat.

Spend three days exploring AI, mixed reality, cloud, data, and quantum. 

Experience the keynote address by Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO. Learning opportunities via demo sessions led by leading developers behind solutions, meetups, technical deep dives etc . You will not be left out if you don’t make it physically to the event. You can join the live stream of most events, but you’ll miss out on some others.

We will bring you livestream and updates of the event, so stick with us. Check out videos and relive last years experience ahead of this years. Excited and looking forward to what Microsoft Build 2018 will offer? Share with us. 

Microsoft launches Kaizala app in Kenya to digitally transform and revolutionize the way businesses connect and collaborate

Microsoft launches Kaizala app in Kenya to digitally transform and revolutionize the way businesses connect and collaborate

In this era of Digital Transformation, Microsoft introduces Kaizala, a mobile application that enhance business agility, collaboration and organizational productivity to Kenya businesses and organizations 

KIAZALA

Kaizala enables businesses and organizations of any size to communicate with and manage workforces in a structured and secure way. It is designed for large group communication, work management, reporting and analytics and integrated with Office 365.
Businesses can connect with their entire value chain and run actions including: broadcasting announcements; sharing documents; assigning tasks and check-lists; hosting polls or surveys; sharing training content remotely; submitting expenses; marking attendance and tracking staff in the field

The mobile application officially launched in Kenya can be used on Windows devices, Android and iOS phones. The app is built with the mobile first culture of emerging markets in mind. It is also optimized to work on any network. Kenya becomes the first African country to launch and use Kaizala. Previous markets such as India and the Philippines are the only others using it. 

kaizala

Microsoft Country General Manager for East and Southern Africa, Sebuh Haileleul, during the event said; 

Today we are excited to announce the availability of Microsoft Kaizala in Kenya.
Kaizala is a mobile app designed to improve the way your business communicates, collaborates and manages workflows, using a simple chat interface. 

The app addresses several challenges faced by most businesses in Africa who manage field staff remotely. Task workers working on construction sites or in manufacturing plants, retail shops and other industries, typically don’t have a dedicated work space, computer or even email address.
As a result, they generally use pen and paper or unsecure consumer-messaging apps on their personal phones for work-related communications. This makes it hard for managers to share and collect important information. Kaizala makes it easier and less time consuming for organizations to communicate, assign and track work in real-time and create reports based on aggregated data.

Kaizala in Africa 

 

KIAZALA

The application was piloted earlier this year by some organizations in Kenya prior to its official launch.  Organizations such as Unilever, M-KOPA Solar, Mawingu Networks and Well Told Story all piloted the app. Microsoft says with 1,000 fulltime staff and 1,500 sales agents in the field, M-KOPA Solar have used Kaizala to collect real-time sales data and location information. This has cut down their data compilation from a 6 to 8 hour job, to one that takes under a minute. 

Well Told Story, another organization the trialed the app is using Kaizala as a research tool. Putting it into the hands of their youth network to run surveys and interviews on their behalf. This empowers the youth with jobs and income, while also giving Well Told Story the rich insights that fuel their youth media business. 

“As we launch Microsoft Kaizala in Kenya, we hope to help connect the complete value chain, including even the unconnected parts of organizations – from small businesses to large enterprises and governments who wants to connect with their citizens.

Microsoft Kaizala’s vision is to empower every organization and community to achieve more through purposeful chat,” – Rajiv Kumar, Corporate Vice President, Office Product Group, Microsoft.

Using Kaizala

Microsoft says unlike other chat-based apps in the market, Kaizala extends beyond a communication function.  It enhances business agility, collaboration and organisational productivity. Some of its unique features include the ability to: 

  1. Communicate with and manage an unlimited number of users, including employees, front-line workers, customers, suppliers and citizens. Organisations can create flat, hierarchical or discoverable public groups in minutes from contact lists, organisation directories or adhoc sharing. For users in remote areas, the app is optimised to work even on slow 2G networks. Users do not need an email address to sign up, only a mobile number.
  2. Broadcast and collect information in a structured way through action cards. This includes sharing announcements, photos, videos or documents; hosting polls or surveys; assigning tasks; providing training content; marking geo-fenced attendance; and tracking workforces using hyperlocal location tracking.
  3. Gather rich insights from data with built-in analytics. Organisations can view results in real-time as they come in, organise large amounts of information with an aggregated view of user responses, and get reports at each level of the organisation.
  4. Have full ownership and control over the data, insights and information. Managers can decide who has access to company data, which is all protected by encryption in-transit and at-rest. All Kaizala data is stored in Microsoft Azure datacenters, which adhere to industry standard security and compliance certifications. 

kaizala kaizala

Is Kaizala available in other African Countries?

“Microsoft Kaizala’s vision
is to empower every organization and community
to achieve more through purposeful chat”

Although the app is available for download through most app stores, Kenya is the first African country to benefit from an official launch and roll-out.  Kenya was chosen due to having one of the highest mobile penetration rates in sub-Saharan Africa. The pilot also received a lot of interest and positive feedback from local organizations, which is why the team decided to officially launch the service to all local businesses.

 Kaizala will be rolled out to other countries in a phased manner. However, there are no confirmations on additional African countries at this stage. Anyone can download the app but the premium paid version  is only available in Kenya. This version is about $2 USD per month. The premium version offers added functionalities and dashboards. 

 To use the app, download Kaizala through your device app store. You can also email KaizalaDev@microsoft.com to get a preview (after NDA and Terms & Conditions) of the developer SDK to build your own extensions to Microsoft Kaizala.

Excited about the Application? Have you had the chance to use the app? Share your thoughts with us. 

#AfricaCom – Microsoft says Digital Transformation is critical to the success of African businesses at AfricaCom 2017

#AfricaCom – Microsoft says Digital Transformation is critical to the success of African businesses at AfricaCom 2017

At AfricaCom 2017, Microsoft shared on Digital Transformation and how it can accelerate the growth of African Businesses. 

AfricaCom

Lillian Barnard, Director for Public-Sector at Microsoft South Africa. shares on the ‘Digital Difference’ during the Vision for Africa keynote session.

AfricaCom is one of the continents focused telecommunication, technology and media event. With this year’s being the 20th and themed around the 4th Industrial Revolution. 

Participating strongly in this years event, Microsoft sponsored the new Technology Arena. The new Technology Arena showcased innovations and technology solutions from start-ups from across the continent. It also housed the Africa 20/20, AHUB sessions and Innovation stage. 

Microsoft says Digital transformation is critically important to the success of businesses across Africa and we are focused on helping our customers successfully achieve their digital business transformation.  Powered by our people and our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, we have been driving cloud innovation and growth across Africa for a number years. 

We also recently announced a significant investment into data centers in the African region, which expands on our existing investments aimed at: unleashing innovation to solve some of the biggest problems facing humanity; building and developing small businesses; and alleviating unemployment and poverty on our continent.

AfricaCom 20/20 Digital Transformation, IoT, AI keynote session 

AfricaCom

From One Day to One Day, AfricaCom 20/20 Keynote session by Clifford De Wit, CSE Lead Africa, Microsoft

We run the most open cloud of all big cloud providers and we run most solutions on top of our cloud, with high security. – Clifford De Wit 

Hitting it off on the first day with the 20/20 Digital Transformation, IoT, AI keynote session, presented by Clifford De Wit.
Clifford also Chief Innovation Officer at Microsoft South Africa spoke on Microsoft’s Cloud offering. An intelligent cloud with an intelligent edge and shared on what is being achieved with the cloud.

“We are excited to have these data center capabilities in Africa because it connects the world to Africa and Africa to the world. We will be able to export solutions from the continent to the world”. He talked about express routes and partnerships with companies like Liquid Telecom. “express routes allows us and our customers to connect between our data centers with very low latency and very high speed”.

AfricaCom Enterprise ICT session 

AfricaCom

 The executive think tank round table event focused on infrastructure in Africa. Led by Microsoft SA’s Cloud and Enterprise Business Group lead Ravi Bhat. 
Conversations centered around infrastructure limitations in Africa, challenges presented by lack of fibre and low grade connectivity in many areas and how Microsoft’s wide scale data centre roll out will impact the enterprise market in Africa. 

AfricaCom Vision for Africa keynote session  

AfricaCom

Finally on day 3, Lillian Barnard, Director for Public-Sector at Microsoft South Africa shared on the Digital Difference and the Transformation driven by the cloud during the Vision for Africa keynote session.

When businesses and governments fully capitalize the power of technology they can run more effective and efficient businesses as well as transparent and productive businesses. – Lillian Barnard, DPS, Microsoft South Africa 

“Wherever we go and whatever we do, we touch technology and it is fundamentally shaping the way businesses think about innovation and growth. Sharing on three things that change how businesses work today. She said; 

  1. Getting intelligent and actionable insights on data
  2. Cloud computing – limitless storage
  3. Ubiquity of mobile computing 

Read the full scope on what she shared on Digital transformation is real and it’s urgent  

 

What AfricaCom also did was to provide a platform for people in diverse sectors and ecosystems to come together, share ideas, network, sign deals, and forge healthy relationships. 

 

An amazing Opportunity that leads to Great Things, The Microsoft #Interns4Afrika story of Edwin

An amazing Opportunity that leads to Great Things, The Microsoft #Interns4Afrika story of Edwin

Edwin Maye shares his experience of being selected for an Interns4Afrika internship program. On how amazing the opportunity was and doors that opened and have opened. 

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The Microsoft Interns4Afrika internship program offers young individuals a unique experience with a Microsoft partner organization in your home country. Microsoft believes this is a great way to kick start your future. With six months working with a real company, on real projects learning and applying new skills.

When I joined the university in September 2014 for a BSc. Computer Science degree at Moi University I had no idea what Computer Science was. In fact, I thought I had just wasted my “A” grade score in High School. I took time to get myself convinced that this was a dollar course.

When I met Somet, the 4Afrika official in Kenya, he enlighten me on the 4Afrika program. I learnt of the 4Afrika Internship program and I was so interested in joining the program just after i finish my fourth year.(The Interns4Afrika internship program requests that applicants should be a graduate).


In 2016 between July and August, I received an email from the 4Afrika team requesting me to apply for the 2016-2017 internship program. I had just finished my second year at the university. I applied though with no much expectation since I was not yet a graduate as required.
A month later I received a call from Lucy of the 4Afrika Team who informed me that I had qualified for the internship and that I was going to be contacted by a Microsoft Partner organization for my interview. I was so happy. That was a BOOM!

The Internship Opportunity

I received interview requests from two Microsoft Partner organiations, E-Momentum Systems and Magtech Solutions. Both based in Nairobi, Kenya. I felt great. I had the Magtech Interview first and made it. When the second Microsoft partner called, I had already received an appointment letter from Magtech Solutions.

Since my first day at work for my internship, I really learnt and gained a lot. Team work being the most important of all. My professional aspect of life has grown better than before. From writing to field work, that is technical aspect with Microsoft Azure and Office 365.

The Microsoft 4Afrika Sales and Technical Trainings empowered me so much. The trainers were great and we could exchange ideas and engage positively during the training sessions.
One of the epic training was the Microsoft 3 day Office 365 Training that took place in Nairobi at Microsoft offices. The trainers, Charles and Ben from the United Kingdom were great and resourceful.

During my Internship, I got a client during my freelancing side hustles who wanted to have a marketing file that would be something like an “offline website” which would be used by their sales team instead of using a mobile app or having brochures. At first I had no idea but I took the job.

I managed to have it done and to me this was one of the greatest achievement I made during the internship. I am looking forward to having more clients in the near future. The pay was good!

I represented Magtech Solutions Ltd at the NexTech Africa event held in Nairobi. A 2 day meeting of the minds designed to engage, empower, inspire and see African technology creators building it for Africa.

Currently am back to school for my third year semester and looking forward to working at Microsoft and 4Afrika in the near future. I thank the Microsoft 4Afrika team for their support all through and I am glad to have gained more than I anticipated.

Edwin has only finished his 3rd year and had an amazing Interns4Afrika experience. The applications are opened from time to time.

Internship opportunity in Ghana with Microsoft 4Afrika Interns4Afrika Initiative

Internship opportunity in Ghana with Microsoft 4Afrika Interns4Afrika Initiative

If you are in Ghana and looking for a Real opportunity, Real experience and Real training this is for you. Microsoft 4Afrika is hiring winning interns. 

Ghana

Are you looking for a way to kick start your career? Looking to build some work experience in a thriving environment? The Interns4Afrika internship program offers young people with a unique experience. One that is dynamic and agile with organization on the African continent.

Whether you’re aspiring for a future in sales, marketing or technology, this is your chance to kick-start your future. – 4Afrika

With this offer you will work for 6 months with a Microsoft partner organization in Ghana on real projects. You’ll collaborate and learn from your colleagues. Have more question to ask about the Interns4Afrika program, check out the FAQ’s

A few things you need to note though to avoid being disqualified. 

Your application will be disqualified if you fail to reveal or disclose truthful information.

Do not apply if you:

  • Are not a Ghana citizen
  • Have not completed your degree
  • Are employed
  • Have not completed your National Service 

These are the Ghana opportunities available;  

 
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All the best with your submission.