# How to add WhatsApp to SAP Business ByDesign > Source: https://netray.co/integrations/sap-bydesign-whatsapp > Publisher: Netray (netray.co), AI and integration engineering for ERP and manufacturing systems. > Section: Integrations ## Short answer ByDesign is a cloud-only system, so WhatsApp connects through its SOAP web services or custom OData services, exposed via a communication arrangement, and a small middleware service that talks to the WhatsApp Business Platform. Outbound alerts use approved templates; inbound replies are parsed and written back as ByDesign documents or workflow decisions. ## System SAP Business ByDesign ## Capability whatsapp ## Intro Most ByDesign customers are small and mid-sized manufacturers and distributors who run sales, procurement, inventory and production in one tenant, with a handful of people who live on their phones: the sales rep at a customer site, the buyer chasing a supplier, the owner approving purchase requests from the shop floor. Email and the browser UI are where ByDesign expects work to happen, and that is slower than the way these people already communicate. WhatsApp is the channel suppliers and customers actually answer, especially in India, the Middle East, Latin America and parts of Europe. The goal is not a chat toy. It is getting order confirmations, delivery notes, approval requests and supplier acknowledgements moving through a channel with a high read rate, while ByDesign stays the system of record. Because ByDesign has no on-prem option and no database access for customers, the integration has to go through the supported interfaces. That constrains the design, but it also makes it predictable: one communication arrangement, one integration user, one middleware service. ## Use Cases ### Sales order confirmation to the customer **Description:** When a sales order is released, send a template message with the order number, promised date and a link to the confirmation PDF. A reply of CHANGE opens a task for the account owner. ### Supplier PO acknowledgement **Description:** Send released purchase orders to the supplier contact with Confirm and Reject quick-reply buttons. A Confirm updates the confirmed delivery date on the PO; a Reject raises a ticket for the buyer. ### Purchase request approvals for managers **Description:** Push pending purchase requests or supplier invoices that need approval, with Approve and Decline buttons, and post the decision back into the ByDesign workflow. ### Delivery and dispatch notices **Description:** Notify the customer when an outbound delivery is posted as goods issued, including carrier and tracking reference held on the delivery. ### Overdue invoice nudges **Description:** Send a payment reminder with the open amount for customer invoices past due, then log the reply on the customer account as an interaction. ### Field sales order capture **Description:** A rep sends a structured message or voice note to a bot; the middleware extracts item and quantity and creates a draft sales quotation for review. ## System Surface SOAP web services published through Communication Scenarios and Communication Arrangements (Application and User Management work center, Communication Systems / Communication Arrangements views). Names of scenarios vary by release, so check the Service Explorer in your tenant. Custom OData services and custom web services built in the Cloud Application Studio (SDK), useful when you need a narrow, purpose-built read or write operation instead of a broad standard service. Report-based OData feeds from Business Analytics, handy for read-only lookups such as open orders per customer without writing a service. Workflow rules and notification hooks configured by key users, plus business object events in the SDK, which can trigger an outbound call when a document changes status. Authentication via communication users with basic auth or certificate-based auth on the arrangement, and optionally SAP Integration Suite in front of ByDesign for routing, retries and monitoring. The Web Service Message Monitoring view for inspecting failed inbound and outbound calls. ## How It Works ### Register with the WhatsApp Business Platform **Detail:** Use the Cloud API directly or a Business Solution Provider. Verify the business, register a number that is not in personal WhatsApp use, and create the message templates you will need. Template approval takes from minutes to a couple of days, so start early. ### Create the integration user and communication arrangement **Detail:** In ByDesign create a communication system for the middleware, a communication user, and an arrangement tied to the scenarios you need (sales orders, purchase orders, business partner data). Grant only those scenarios. ### Decide the outbound trigger **Detail:** Either poll a report feed or a query service every few minutes for documents in a target status, or use SDK code or workflow to call the middleware on a status change. Polling is simpler and tolerates outages; events are faster. ### Build the middleware **Detail:** A small service (Node, Python or .NET) that maps ByDesign documents to template parameters, calls the WhatsApp API, stores the message ID against the ByDesign document, and handles webhook callbacks for delivery status and replies. ### Map inbound replies to actions **Detail:** Quick-reply payloads should carry a document ID and an intent. The middleware validates the sender against the business partner contact, then calls the relevant web service to confirm, reject or comment. ### Add opt-in, logging and fallback **Detail:** Store opt-in per contact, log each message as an activity on the account where practical, and fall back to email if the number is not on WhatsApp or the template send fails. ## Example Flows ### Supplier confirms a purchase order **Trigger:** A purchase order is released in ByDesign. **Steps:** - Middleware polls for newly released POs and finds the supplier contact mobile number. - It sends the po_confirmation template with PO number, first delivery date and a Confirm button. - The supplier taps Confirm; the webhook hits the middleware. - The middleware validates the number against the supplier contact and calls the purchase order web service to record the confirmation. **Result:** The buyer sees the confirmation on the PO without chasing by email, and unconfirmed POs older than two days surface in a daily list. ### Manager approves a purchase request **Trigger:** A purchase request needs approval under a workflow rule. **Steps:** - The workflow task triggers a call to the middleware with request ID and approver. - The approver gets a message with requester, cost center, total and two buttons. - On Approve the middleware completes the ByDesign task through the integration user, recording that the decision came via WhatsApp. **Result:** Approvals that sat in the inbox for days close within the hour, with an audit note on each decision. ## On Prem ByDesign itself is SaaS, so there is no on-prem ByDesign to protect, but the middleware does not have to live in a public cloud. Run it in your own network or private cloud with an outbound allow-list to the ByDesign tenant and the WhatsApp endpoints, and keep message content and phone numbers in your own database. If you add an AI layer to interpret free-text replies or voice notes, an open-weight model on your own GPUs keeps that text off third-party APIs, which matters for customer pricing and contract terms. ## Security - Give the communication user only the scenarios required, and rotate credentials or certificates on a schedule. - Validate every inbound webhook signature from WhatsApp and match the sender number to a known business partner contact before acting. - Never put full document content or prices in a template that goes to a group or a shared number; send links to authenticated pages instead. - Record opt-in and opt-out, and honour opt-out immediately, including in automated reminders. - Log every write-back with message ID, sender and ByDesign document so decisions can be audited. ## Options ### Marketplace or partner add-on **Fit:** A ByDesign partner or BSP may offer a prebuilt connector. Check scope carefully: many cover outbound notices only, not two-way approvals. **Effort:** Days to configure, plus licence cost. ### Build with SAP Integration Suite and a BSP **Fit:** Good if you already run Integration Suite and want monitored, retryable flows with minimal custom code. **Effort:** 2 to 5 weeks for a few flows. ### Custom middleware with Netray or another partner **Fit:** Best when you want AI-assisted free-text handling, voice notes, or a private model, and tight control over data. **Effort:** 3 to 8 weeks depending on flows. ## Pitfalls - Free-form messages are only allowed inside the 24-hour customer service window; everything else must use an approved template. - Polling too aggressively against ByDesign web services can hit tenant limits; poll by changed-at timestamp, not full lists. - Mobile numbers on business partner contacts are often unformatted or missing a country code; normalise to E.164 before sending. - Document statuses and service names differ by release and scenario, so test in a sandbox tenant before assuming a status transition fires. - Two people replying to the same approval message creates a race; make the write-back idempotent and reject the second decision. ## Faq ### Does SAP Business ByDesign have a native WhatsApp integration? **Answer:** Not as a standard built-in feature that I would rely on. The usual route is a middleware service or SAP Integration Suite flow that calls ByDesign web services on one side and the WhatsApp Business Platform on the other. Ask your SAP partner whether a packaged add-on exists for your release. ### Can approvals happen over WhatsApp and still be audited? **Answer:** Yes, if the middleware completes the ByDesign workflow task through a named integration user and stores the sender, timestamp and message ID. Some companies restrict WhatsApp approvals to low-value requests and keep high-value ones in the ByDesign UI. ### Do I need the WhatsApp Business app or the API? **Answer:** You need the API (Cloud API or a BSP). The Business app is for manual chat and cannot be driven reliably by a system. The API also provides templates, webhooks and delivery statuses. ### Can customers place orders through WhatsApp? **Answer:** They can start one. A bot can capture items and quantities and create a draft quotation or sales order for a person to review, which is safer than writing directly to confirmed orders, especially for pricing and credit checks. ### Is customer data safe if it passes through WhatsApp? **Answer:** Messages are end-to-end encrypted in transit to WhatsApp, but the platform and your BSP still process metadata and content for business messages. Keep sensitive pricing and contract terms out of messages and send secure links instead. ## Search terms sap business bydesign whatsapp integration, whatsapp for sap bydesign, sap bydesign whatsapp api, send whatsapp from sap bydesign, bydesign order confirmation whatsapp, sap bydesign approval via whatsapp, whatsapp business platform sap bydesign, bydesign supplier whatsapp notification --- Talk to an engineer: https://netray.co/contact?intent=erp_ai | Machine catalog: https://netray.co/agent/catalog.json