microsoft Kaizala— panacea for smbs
Kaizala is a mobile app specifically designed for Indians by Microsoft India. Mobile penetration in India is much deeper as compared to PC usage. Also, it is expected to increase dramatically in coming years. Which means that people using mobile as primar
Today , in India many businesses use WhatsApp very innovatively to conduct day to day business. But WhatsApp is a simple chat application, which is not very effective for Business. Kaizala comes as a much expected solution in mobile productivity & collaboration App space. It’s like WhatsApp for Business.
Kaizala offers some great features like Unlimited Group Members, Groups within groups, Like and comments, Checklists, Surveys, Polls,Kaizala Action Cards, Jobs for task assignment & management, Ap
pointment Management using “Let’s Meet”, Location sharing and Live Location sharing. Kaizala also has Pro version which is paid and comes attached to Office 365 Account. However this article focuses on using free variant of Kaizala for Business applications
Kaizala can help SMEs & startups to be more efficient and more connected on mobile phones. There are many tasks of SMEs and startups which can be very efficiently managed on Kaizala. This can save a lot of money and also increase efficiency. How can SMEs & Startups can benefit from Kaizala:
Internal Chat and Discussions
Keeping in touch. Of course, Internal team communication is the most important aspect of Kaizala App. Best part is that since the chats allow Like and comment, it can be used to create threaded conversations.
How to Steps: Send any text to initiate a chat and Just click on like button below the chat or click on comment and write the comment.
Managing tasks between Teams
There can be a lot of internal tasks and jobs assignment between team members. Jobs action is what
“Indians will find many more innovative ways to use Kaizala to increase productivity. There are lots of rough edges in Kaizala, especially in the field of tracking and analyzing the productivity but these are teething problems and with a solution”
Kaizala helps to accomplish efficiently. Unfortunately there is no way to list all the pending tasks. Ability to send reminders for pending tasks is a great feature.
How to Steps: Just create a Job and assign it to one or more person.
Manage Hierarchy
Kaizala allows using Groups inside Groups that is very useful for a large organisation. Create smaller groups for teams first and then create an organization wide group and include all other groups in that main group.
How to Steps: Just create smaller groups first and then create the larger group for organisation. When you post anything select which group you want to post to.
Sending Bills / Vouchers.
Kaizala has a very useful feature where bills/vouchers can be submitted to other management team members. Even smaller vendors/contractors can send their invoices (Image) along with other details. How to Steps: Just click on actions and select Submit Bill.
Tracking locations of Employees.
Many startups have field employees who are always on the move. They are not required to come to office daily. “Share Location”, “Live Location” and “Photo with Location” is a great way to track employees and their location. How to Steps: Just create an action of any of above type and share it.
Tracking locations of delivery staff
Do you like the way Ola and Uber share the cab’s location with you, in real time. With Kaizala you can do exactly same with your customers. Suppose you are sending some team member for delivering some product or service to your client place. That Team member can share live location with client, which enables client to see where the Service person has reached. How to Steps: Just create a “Share Live Location” with the person or a group.
Managing Meetings
Inviting team members or even customers for any meetings and events can be efficiently handled using “Let’s Meet” function of Kaizala. How to Steps: Create an Action called Let’s Meet and share it in the group.
Reminders / Announcements / News
Announcement feature in Kaizala is very useful feature, with Title, Description and ability to add Documents, Images and even an Audio file to it. How to Steps: Just create an announcement, give proper title, description, add any document/image or audio as an attachment and send it to the group.
Conclusion
I am sure, We, Indians will find many more innovative ways to use Kaizala to increase productivity. There are lots of rough edges in Kaizala, especially in the field of tracking and analyzing the productivity but these are teething problems and with a solution, they will be resolved over the time.