Following a series of test runs in India, Philippines, and Kenya. Microsoft’s Kaizala chat application is now available worldwide.
The Kaizala chat app is designed for businesses and comes with rich features such as the ability of a group administrator to create a group within a group. By filtering out participants and selecting a few based on their interest and the target audience of the administrator.
Kaizala also allows users to send not just messages, but also conduct surveys and polls. You can even geo-locate team members and manage the company’s data through the app.
The app is integrated into the Office 365 suit and can also tap into other business apps including Power BI for more productive business analysis and insights. Microsoft says the app can integrate small teams and big teams (over 1 million people) into one group with ease and without the members feeling exhausted with over-messaging. As is the case with WhatsApp and Viber groups currently.
“This is the very first mobile first application and product by Microsoft. It is designed for mobile workers, citizens, and customers and we get to connect this special group of people to the productivity world,” said Amr Kamel, the Country General Manager, Microsoft East, and Southern Africa.
Kamel alleyed any security concerns saying Microsoft has invested heavily in securing the chat platform to meet enterprise-grade security levels. The application also caters to emerging markets needs where 2G connectivity is still widespread; worst case scenario, the app still works offline.
Microsoft is investing big in mobile
It is said that within the next 3 – 5 years, 6 billion people around the world will be on smartphones. Desktop users will account for less than 1 billion; perhaps less.
“If you look at Philippines, India, and Kenya, majority of the people have smartphones. A small segment of the population has desktops, so people are using their phones to get their work done. Kaizala as a product in any of these three countries fit the need of the people who are on the go,” said Rajiv Kumar, the Corporate VP, Office Product Group at Microsoft.
Kumar also lauded Kenya for the pioneering steps it has made in the mobile money payments front.
“I think India can learn a lot from Kenya as the leader in digital transaction.”
