Microsoft Kaizala is a collaboration and communications App, originated in India in 2016 and brought by Microsoft’s outlet for experimental projects Microsoft Garage. Today it is gaining popularity and raising questions at the same time; “Isn’t it the same as Microsoft Teams?”. Well, though there are similarities, there are differences too. In this article we explain both solutions including the licensing options.
Read time: 6 minutes
Collaboration and communication
Within small and larger organizations, workers get more mobile and work more flexible than ever before. This requires new tools for collaboration and communication between coworkers, project members and other peers. Both Microsoft Kaizala and Microsoft Teams are able to facilitate people with collaboration and communication solutions. Both solutions offer secure chat, sharing of documents, pictures and video’s and a cloud-based location to store them. So far the similarities.
Differences
Microsoft Kaizala is designed around an open directory solution and only using a mobile phone number for access to the solution. With that, Kaizala is the go-to solution for frontline workers who don’t have a company e-mail address, but do need access to Apps, information and other people. Another difference with Teams is that, by design, Kaizala is the mobile solution for communication with people outside of the organization, like suppliers, customers and other stakeholders.
With the open directory structure it is much easier for organizations to add temporary workers, local hires or contractors access to the services they need, without the need to add them to the organizations tenant or assigning them an email address.
Another aspect which emphasizes the differences between the two solutions: Kaizala is an App (for Android and iOS) and a web-based interface is on the roadmap, where Teams is an application for the desktop which as an App as add-on for mobile use.
To go short, Microsoft Teams is the go-to collaboration and communications solution for in-office long term employees where Microsoft Kaizala is the more flexible solution for other types of coworkers and stakeholders.
Licensing options
Both Microsoft Kaizala and Microsoft Teams are cloud based services to which an organization can subscribe. The are no options to buy licenses. Both have a ‘free of charge’ subscription with base functionality and limited management options. For the full stack of possibilities and analysis and management capabilities a paid subscription is necessary.
Kaizala is available as a standalone subscription (Kaizala Pro) at a price of $ 1.51 per user per month offering Group Management, User Management, Advanced reporting and analytics and System integration and automation using Kaizala APIs. The Kaizala Pro subscription is also included, to no extra charge, in Office 365 and Microsoft 365 subscriptions (except Office 365 Business).
Microsoft Teams isn’t available as a stand alone paid subscription. For the use of full Teams capability organizations do need an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 subscription (again, not available for the Office 365 Business subscription and limited capabilities in the Office 365 F1 subscription).
More information
Might you want more information about Microsoft Kaizala or Microsoft Teams, including licensing options, please do contact us or go to one of the following webpages:
Microsoft Kaizala the service
Microsoft Teams the service
About Microsoft Garage (recommended)
Office 365 suite features
Office 365 Platform Service Description
Microsoft Licensing Terms and Online Services Terms