SDK’s WhatsApp Integration: Ensuring a sustainable solution to an understood problem.

Today we announced the upcoming release of Secure Data Kit’s WhatsApp Integration! When we decided to explore the possibility of integrating SDK and WhatsApp, we wanted to make sure we weren’t just creating something because it sounded fun to build (because it sounded really really fun to build), but that we were creating something that mattered and would bring true value to our customers. To determine this, we considered the following before we made any big decisions:

• What problem are we trying to solve? SDK is being used by the public health community in over 50 countries around the world to collect and manage data to research communities, assess the prevalence of a disease, track the distribution of drug and more! One of the biggest problems we hear our customers mention is the difficulty they have communicating with their team in the field from wherever they’re stationed, whether it be a lab at the CDC in Atlanta, a WHO regional office in Brazzaville or a home office where their NGO operates from. In many cases there is one individual responsible for communicating with hundreds of people who are scattered across multiple countries. Texting, emailing and calling is just not logistically feasible. By integrating SDK and WhatsApp, we could create a way for these individuals to communicate with their entire field teams without ever leaving SDK, alleviating all those logistical hurdles!
• Is a WhatsApp integration a sustainable solution for that problem? WhatsApp is everywhere — it’s the most popular messaging app on the entire planet, and there’s no sign that’s changing anytime soon. We learned that many field teams were already communicating to each other via WhatsApp, so there’s virtually no adoption barrier to worry about — enabling field teams to receive messages via WhatsApp meets them exactly where they are. And the cherry on top is that all communication done through WhatsApp is encrypted, so we can keep the Secure in Secure Data Kit 👍

After hours spent with customers over coffees, lunches and phone calls, we were confident that we understood the problem and did in fact have a sustainable solution for it… and the WhatsApp Integration was born! Now our customers can communicate with their teams in the field without ever leaving SDK, and the field teams will receive this communication in the format they know best — WhatsApp. We can’t wait to see how our customers put this to use!

You can learn more about SDK’s WhatsApp integration and sign up for early access here.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on September 4, 2018.