United Telecoms, a South African provider of PBX, VOIP, unified communications and contact centre solutions, has connected its omnichannel contact centre platform directly to Meta’s WhatsApp Business Platform. This move allows businesses to run WhatsApp messaging without a third-party WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP) in the middle.
Historically, connecting a contact centre to WhatsApp Business has meant routing every message through a third-party BSP sitting between the contact centre and Meta. This extra link in the chain creates practical issues for businesses, such as delayed issue resolution and limited access to new features.
Direct Connection Benefits
With the direct connection, issues can be diagnosed and resolved directly with Meta, rather than through a third-party support queue. New WhatsApp Business Platform features are also available as soon as Meta ships them, without waiting for a BSP to catch up.
The change is additive, not mandatory: existing BSP integrations continue to work without any changes required. Businesses that want the direct route can set it up themselves, or use a centrally managed connection if they would rather not run their own integration with Meta.
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Infrastructure and Control
According to Ryan Lumley, Director at United Telecoms, “For us, this is mainly about owning the connection end to end. Fewer intermediaries means fewer things that can go wrong, and more control over how the integration evolves.”
Agents still manage WhatsApp customer conversations from the same interface used for voice calls, live chat and SMS, with a single customer record behind each conversation, regardless of channel. Reporting, permissions and CRM integration work the same way as before.
Pricing and Availability
Businesses on United Telecoms’ platform still pay their usual subscription and user fees. The direct connection option is available to businesses on United Telecoms’ omnichannel cloud call centre software. Existing customers can request it through their account manager, and new customers can enquire about it when scoping a contact centre package.
The direct connection to WhatsApp Business Platform is a significant development for South African businesses, as it allows them to communicate more effectively with their customers. For more information about United Telecoms’ contact centre platform and its direct WhatsApp connection, businesses can contact United Telecoms directly.
