What each channel needs before it can go live
Four credentials, seven finished workflows waiting on them, and what genuinely has to be true before each one can carry a real customer.
This is the page to have open when a client asks what they need to do. It is the same fact you counted in Draft and active: which workflows are actually running — which of your workflows are waiting, and on what — turned round to face the client instead of the org.
What is waiting, and on what
| Waiting on | Workflows it unlocks |
|---|---|
| a telephony number | 2 |
| a WhatsApp business number | 2 |
| a calendar connection | 1 |
| an ad account | 2 |
a telephony number
- Workflows it unlocks
2
a WhatsApp business number
- Workflows it unlocks
2
a calendar connection
- Workflows it unlocks
1
an ad account
- Workflows it unlocks
2
Nothing on that list needs building. Every one of those workflows is written, configured and tested. The gap between this demo and a working client system is four things the client already owns.
WhatsApp — start this one first
| Providers supported | How they connect | What you need |
|---|---|---|
7 | api_key | Credentials from whichever provider they use |
7
- How they connect
api_key- What you need
- Credentials from whichever provider they use
- A verified WhatsApp Business account. This is the long pole: a business verification with a queue at the other end, measured in days.
- A number that is not on consumer WhatsApp. The number a client has used on their phone for six years cannot be reused without migrating it, and they will not expect that.
- Message templates approved. Anything sent outside a 24-hour reply window must be a template that has been through review. Approval is not instant and rejection is not always explained.
Say the word “verification” in the first meeting. Of the four, this is the one clients assume is instant — they use WhatsApp all day — and the one most likely to be the reason a launch date moves. Starting it on day one costs nothing and protects the date.
Telephony — a number, and a decision about the voice
| Providers | How they connect | What you need |
|---|---|---|
2 | api_key | An API key and the number to call from |
2
- How they connect
api_key- What you need
- An API key and the number to call from
- A number the business is willing to be called back on. Whatever it dials from, people will ring it. Somebody has to answer it.
- A decision about disclosure. Whether the agent says it is an assistant. The org's own agents are told to say so if asked, and that is a business decision sitting in a prompt.
- An answer to “what happens at 9pm”. Voice runs whenever you let it. Ask before the client discovers it.
Calendar — the shortest job, the fiddliest conversation
| Providers | How they connect | What you need |
|---|---|---|
2 | oauth | A person signed in, granting access |
2
- How they connect
oauth- What you need
- A person signed in, granting access
Technically fifteen seconds; the question is whose diary. One advisor's, a shared branch diary, or a resource calendar nobody owns. Get it wrong and meetings land where nobody is looking. This is the API keys and OAuth: who has to click problem exactly: the work is trivial and the right person has to be in the chair.
Ad account — the one they will hesitate over
| Platforms | How they connect | What you need |
|---|---|---|
3 | oauth | Whoever administers the account, signed in |
3
- How they connect
oauth- What you need
- Whoever administers the account, signed in
- Admin access, which an agency may hold. Expect a conversation with a third party who has no reason to hurry.
- Their agreement to send conversion data back. It is their data going to a platform. Some clients need that in writing, and they are right to.
- A stomach for what it will show. Reporting real outcomes back sometimes reveals that a campaign somebody is proud of does not convert. That is the value, and it can still be uncomfortable.
This is the one worth pushing for. Everything else on this list makes the business faster. This one makes their marketing spend measurably better, and it is the difference between a CRM and a system that pays for itself. Telling Meta which leads were worth it is what they get.
What none of them needs
No servers, no data migration before you can start, no developer on their side, and no change to the systems they already run. The lead intake in Capturing a lead from any other system is a URL their existing form posts to — that is the whole integration, and it is the reason a first workflow can be live the same week.
Change one thing — build the client's list
- Take a real client and go through the four in order. For each, write who owns it and how long you think it takes them.
- Start the WhatsApp verification conversation today, whatever else you decide.
- Book one twenty-minute call for both OAuth grants, with the two named people on it.
- Now say which workflows go live in week one with none of the four. The answer is
5of them, and that is your first invoice.
Try it
- Work out the earliest honest go-live date for a client who has none of the four today. Justify it channel by channel.
- Decide which single credential you would ask for if you could only have one, and be ready to defend it.
That is everything the product side needs. Next: Connecting Expedify as MCP — and from here it stops being about the software.
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