How many hours do you spend everyday on checking WhatsApp forwards or sending messages on social media? And how much of it is actually productive?

Could have been difficult to surmise till now, but Microsoft has with the launch of Kaizala mobile app redefined productivity for the mobile world — in a secured way, Rajiv Kumar, Corporate Vice-President, Microsoft India said.

Microsoft launch

In a chat with BusinessLine , he recalled the start of the journey towards building such a platform almost three years back. “Nadella one day asked “what is productivity for mobile devices?” This made us think. We met customers in India, China, the US, Japan and Europe to understand how they were getting work done on the phone.

“We realised that people in India and China used the mobile device more extensively to get their work done unlike the developed world, where work is done mostly on the desktop and phone — used to complete the job.

The number of mobile phones, we inferred was almost double that of desktop across the world, clearly indicating that mobile devices have more capability compared to desktop. We decided to leverage on this and design a mobile application that would redefine productivity” he said.

Specifically designed

On Kaizala, he said that the app has been specifically designed for India and runs on the India data centre.

“The data is owned by the customer unlike other apps and there is no limit to the number in a group. We initially created “Action Card” on the back, which is not only unique, but helps conduct poll survey in a jiffy. It is a small programme within the app.”

Simple application

Then, the app was integrated with Office 365 to enable users build custom card and make the application simple.

These cards need not be installed or uninstalled. If the user belongs to a group — say sales group or is a traffic police, the card pertaining to the group simply pops up, and the relevant information can be got.

Offline mode too

The Andhra Pradesh government is using the app extensively in governance. Kaizala can be used in businesses, education sector, by the SMBs, for tracking purpose and a whole of lot of ways. It works in the offline mode too and is encrypted end to end, he said highlighting its functional use in government department.