Microsoft has partnered with Yes Bank and MobiKwik to start digital payments services on Microsoft Kaizala in India. Tech giant said that it has integrated the payment services of YES BANK and MobiKwik using both organisations' mobile payment infrastructure to offer payments services on its Kaizala platform. Payment integration with Microsoft Kaizala will enable users to send or receive money without having to leave the Kaizala mobile application. With Microsoft Kaizala, users will have the option to make peer to peer payments in one to one and group chat conversations via the MobiKwik wallet and via YES BANK's Unified Payment Interface (UPI) integration. The UPI payment integration on Microsoft Kaizala works with all 86 banks that are already participating in UPI.
Microsoft Kaizala is also aimed at making the Firstline workforce more productive and helping them communicate in real time. There are nearly 1.9 billion such workers worldwide, and a large portion of this workforce is based out of India. Microsoft Kaizala is designed for large group communications and work management, enables organizations to take business workflows to its Firstline workforce. “By enabling payments, we are empowering Firstline workers to participate and complete business workflows on chat with payments. With the introduction of this feature, organizations will now be able to disburse micro-payments, enable bill expense re-imbursements, and pay travel allowances on the go to its mobile workforce,” said company.
“We see an opportunity for technology to give Firstline workers more intuitive, immersive, and empowering experiences – and thereby help organizations achieve greater efficiency, enhance their customers' experience, and increase both innovation and employee satisfaction. Office 365, including Microsoft Kaizala, Microsoft Teams and Outlook, aims to connect this mobile-first and mobile-only workforce for modern collaboration and teamwork.”, said Rajesh Jha, Executive Vice President, Office Product Group, Microsoft.
“When we launched Microsoft Kaizala for India in July 2017, we provided consumers as well as businesses with a secure chat platform to collaborate and be productive, on the go. Microsoft Kaizala is used by thousands of organizations across different industry verticals for their day-to-day workflows today and is growing. Payment transactions within the app was a key demand from our users for getting work done and we are happy to offer it today in collaboration with YES Bank and MobiKwik,”, said Rajiv Kumar, Corporate Vice President, Office Product Group, Microsoft.
“YES BANK has been a pioneer in UPI and we have emerged as a leader in the UPI ecosystem by leveraging our strategic partnerships, as well as the Bank's first-of-its-kind API Banking Solution. We are glad to collaborate with Microsoft Kaizala and bring seamless payments to businesses and users by employing our state-of-the-art UPI Platform. The addition of payments makes Microsoft Kaizala an even more compelling platform for collaboration,” said Ritesh Pai, Chief Digital Officer, YES BANK.
“The diversity of user base that can be reached out via Microsoft Kaizala is tremendous. With this association, we will be able to take peer to peer payments to users across hundreds of organizations in diverse industries, including government departments. This is in line with MobiKwik's mission of enabling billions of Indians with easy access to digital payments. The ease of using Microsoft Kaizala, even in areas with limited internet connectivity, is the biggest benefit since it will enable greater market penetration for us. We are thrilled to be chosen as the first mobile wallet provider by Microsoft Kaizala and look forward to offering our services to Kaizala users. We are confident that this association will go a long way in helping us reach out to a whole new set of users in the country”, said Bipin Preet Singh, Founder and CEO, Mobikwik.
Microsoft Kaizala was launched in July 2017 in India to provide a convergence of an instant messenger, a collaboration portal, and a productivity enhancer. Existing Office 365 customers through early adopter program can avail 12 months of free subscription of Kaizala Pro for their users. Users can be quickly onboarded on Microsoft Kaizala by using just their phone number as a unique ID. It has been optimized for 2G network to enable connectivity in remote locations.
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Microsoft Kaizala is being used by over 900 organizations, including YES BANK, State Bank of India, Apollo Telemedicine, Narayana Hrudyalaya, United Phosphorous, and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), an autonomous society of the Department of Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh, is leveraging Microsoft Kaizala for its frontline workforce of nearly 475,000 to share on-ground, real time information around latest welfare scheme and development projects.
Microsoft Kaizala is available as a free mobile app on Android, iOS and Windows platforms for individual users.
