by Sylvester Addo | Aug 27, 2018 | General, Microsoft Africa
Microsoft’s large group communications and work management application, Kaizala Pro now commercially available in Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.
Kaizala Pro became commercially available recently in Kenya where it had also been in testing. Microsoft has confirmed the chat and management based solution is now commercially available in the Middle East and Africa region. Microsoft’s Collaboration Product Marketing Manager for Middle East and Africa, Oray Erkus announced this in a blog post.
Microsoft’s Kaizala app is a mobile app that helps businesses connect with their workforce and supply chain. A platform for large group communications and work management. Businesses can organize and allocate tasks with built-in and custom Actions. They can also get actionable information and insights to accelerate decision-making.
One way Microsoft says Kaizala thrives is how easy it is to connect and coordinate work with an entire value chain. That includes field employees, vendors, partners and customers wherever they maybe.
Microsoft Kaizala makes it easy to connect and coordinate with your Firstline workers. – wherever they are – using a simple-to-use chat interface. Efficiently manage work or collect data from individuals or large groups, even if they’re not in your organization. View built-in reports to get insights for faster decision making. Kaizala is available with Office 365 and works on iPhone and Android phone.
Dux Raymond Sy of AvePoint describes Kaizala as a tool that “empower and make firstline workers more productive. Firstline workers are those employees who are crucial to the success of a business but don’t necessarily work at a desk”. He shares on Microsoft Kaizala vs WhatsApp and Kaizala in Office 365, if you’ll like to know the differences and integrations.
Microsoft Kaizala is the Workplace of the Future
Oray Erkus says Microsoft’s Kaizala app is the workplace of the future. “When you hear the phrase “workplace of the future”, you may think of futuristic robotic office assistants, virtual company meetings and 4D presentations. However, mobile technology is enabling businesses to digitally transform their operations and adapt to the workplace of the future in tangible, workable ways, right now“.
Read more about Microsoft Kaizala Pro to understand how it can help your startup, SME or large organization. As well as the benefits that come with using it.
by MCGH Admin | Aug 15, 2018 | General, Microsoft Africa, Microsoft Kenya
PRESS RELEASE: MICROSOFT LAUNCHES ‘KAIZALA PRO’ IN KENYA
A mobile app for large, secure group communications and work management
Nairobi, August 14th, 2018 …. Microsoft’s latest mobile offering, Kaizala Pro, is now commercially available across Kenya. Microsoft Kaizala is a mobile app that improves the way businesses communicate and collaborate. It’s designed for large group communication, workflow management, reporting and analytics, and is integrated with Office 365.
Sebuh Haileleul is the County Manager for Microsoft in Eastern Africa says the app addresses several challenges faced by many businesses across the region who manage field staff remotely.
“Mobile technology is enabling businesses to embrace the fourth industrial revolution and digitally transform their operations. Microsoft Kaizala is ideal for organisations that need to communicate with large numbers of task workers to enhance business agility, collaboration, and organisational productivity,” he says.
Kaizala also provides actionable information through analytics and reports, while complying with industry security best practices.
Impact of Kaizala on businesses
Unlike other chat-based apps in the market, Kaizala extends beyond a mere communication function. Because many workers in the region often don’t have an email address, Kaizala only requires a mobile number to sign a user up. The app is also optimised to work on any network – including slow 2G networks. Some of its other unique features include the ability to:
1. Communicate with and manage an unlimited number of users. This includes employees, front-line workers, customers, suppliers and citizens. Organisations can create flat, hierarchical or discoverable public groups in minutes from contact lists, directories or ad hoc sharing. For users in remote areas, the app is optimised to work on slow 2G networks and users don’t 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 attendance; and tracking workforces using location tracking.
3. Gather rich insights from data with built-in analytics. Organisations can view results in real-time, organise large amounts of information with an aggregated view of user responses and get reports at each level of the organisation.
What is included in Microsoft Kaizala Pro?
Microsoft Kaizala Pro has premium features that include, user and group management, system integration and automation using Microsoft Kaizala APIs, advanced reporting and analytics,
ability to publish custom Actions, ability to create public groups, organisational profile and directory, and support.
Security is paramount
With Kaizala, customer’s messages, photos, video files, audio files, documents, polls, surveys, and other data is protected by encryption in-transit and at-rest. Managers can decide who has access to company data. All Kaizala data is stored in Microsoft Azure datacentres, which adhere to industry standard security and compliance certifications.
“This means only you and the people with whom you are communicating can see what you have sent them,” says Sebuh. “Microsoft Kaizala is currently Tier-A compliant and our engineers do not have access to any customer data,” Sebuh adds.
Using Microsoft Kaizala, organisations can connect with their employees and the extended value chain. The product offers a simple and familiar chat interface but goes beyond this to make everyone more productive.
Kenyan-based solar energy company, M-KOPA Solar, now has more than half a million customers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. M-KOPA Solar couldn’t have achieved this growth without providing the underlying communication and payment technology that people can access easily by phone. M-KOPA uses the Microsoft Kaizala app to connect its sales team and provide essential resources to rural communities.
The company has grown from 5,000 customers in its first year to more than 600,000 as of January 2018—more than 120 times the original customer base. The app that helping fuel M-KOPA’s growth is Microsoft Kaizala.
Another company taking advantage of the benefits provided by Microsoft Kaizala is Well Told Story, which is using the app as a research tool, putting it into the hands of their network of young people to run surveys and interviews for them. This empowers the youth with jobs and income, while also giving Well Told Story the rich insights to fuel their youth media business.
“As we roll out Microsoft Kaizala in Kenya we hope to connect the complete value chain, including the unconnected parts of organisations. Microsoft’s vision for Kaizala, is to empower every organisation and community to achieve more through purposeful chat,” Sebuh concludes.
Learn more at www.microsoft.com/kaizala.
Ends
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.
Visit the Microsoft News Center Middle East & Africa
by Sylvester Addo | Dec 13, 2017 | app, Editor Picks, General, Microsoft Africa, Microsoft Kenya
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
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.
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
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
