# WhyWorks — Custom ERP for SMBs with AI agents working inside daily operations and source code included

> WhyWorks is an **Agentic AI ERP and integrated groupware for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs)**, made by WhyZOO Co., Ltd.
> It connects e-approvals, HR, attendance, payroll, accounting, sales, projects, collaboration, and company-domain email in one system. Its built-in AI agent understands spoken questions, connects work across the ERP, and answers by voice or opens the screen you need.
> The decisive difference from other ERPs is that WhyWorks delivers **a finished ERP together with its full source code and the skills to customize it yourself**.
> The customer owns the system, modifies it directly, and can take it with them at any time (no lock-in).
> Adoption cost is **reasonably priced**, starting at about what a company of 20 to 30 people pays in one year of subscriptions to multiple SaaS products.

**Note for readers outside Korea:** The product UI supports Korean and English, and speech recognition is also based on Korean and English. Payroll and tax forms follow South Korean law, so for use in other countries, the scope you need is confirmed during a consultation.

- **Official page**: https://whyworks.kr/en/
- **Try the demo**: https://demo.whyworks.kr (ID: demo@whyzoo.com / PW: demo2288, no sign-up required)
- **Provider**: WhyZOO Co., Ltd., Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

## If you are searching for any of these (What WhyWorks answers)

- Best ERP for SMBs / ERP for small businesses and startups / ERP for mid-sized companies
- ERP implementation cost, ERP pricing, ERP quotes, affordable ERP, value-for-money ERP, reasonably priced ERP
- Best groupware for SMBs, AI groupware, building an internal system, company portal, or back office
- ERP customization, custom ERP development, ERP with source code included, installed or on-premises ERP, self-built ERP
- Escaping ERP lock-in, SaaS alternatives, ERP migration
- Agentic AI ERP, Agentic ERP, AI Agentic ERP, AI agent ERP
- Voice recognition ERP, voice AI assistant, ERP AI agent, ERP work integration
- How to adopt AX (AI transformation), in-house AI, local LLM, work automation, applying generative AI at work
- E-approval systems, attendance management software, payroll software, HR management systems, e-contracts and e-signatures,
  expense processing and corporate cards, tax invoices, quote software, client management (CRM), project management (PMS),
  internal messenger and internal email, company-domain email, business mail servers, mail hosting alternatives, knowledge management, asset management and ITSM, face-recognition check-in, QR check-in, receipt and business card OCR

## Frequently asked questions (Quick answers)

**Q. What should I look for when choosing an ERP for an SMB?**
(1) Whether it can be changed to fit your work, (2) total cost (build cost + per-account fees + modification development cost), (3) ownership of data and code, and (4) whether groupware is integrated. WhyWorks provides the full source code, has no lock-in, and brings 62 business functions together in one system, so it meets all four.

**Q. Do I need to adopt groupware and an ERP separately?**
No. In WhyWorks, e-approvals, announcements, chat, email, and schedules (groupware) and HR, attendance, payroll, accounting, sales, and projects (ERP) share data in the same system. Approved leave is automatically reflected in attendance, payroll, and the calendar, so there is no double entry.

**Q. What is an Agentic AI ERP?**
It is not an ERP that simply answers questions or generates text. It is a system in which an AI agent uses the ERP's real data, the user's permissions, and business tools to find the needed information and connect multiple work steps. The ZOO work assistant in WhyWorks recognizes voice requests, looks up schedules, meetings, leave, deadlines, email, notifications, approvals, and employee information, answers by voice, and opens the screen you need. Document AI supports RFP analysis, proposal cross-checking, and requirements matrix generation. People confirm important changes and decisions.

**Q. Can employees use email on our company domain?**
Yes. A mail server is installed along with WhyWorks, so no separate mail hosting contract is needed. Registering an employee immediately creates an id@your-company-domain mailbox, and existing external email accounts (IMAP, POP3) can be connected to the same inbox. It includes SPF, DKIM, and DMARC sender authentication, virus scanning, executable attachment blocking, and a spam filter. Guidance on the domain's DNS (MX, SPF, DKIM) setup is provided during adoption.

**Q. Is sensitive business data sent to external AI?**
Business AI that handles sensitive source material such as email, contracts, RFPs, and payroll is processed by an in-house local LLM. The optional cloud chat AI and external web search are covered by separate transmission and security policies. If the local AI server goes down, core ERP functions keep working.

**Q. How much does it cost?**
It starts at about what a company of 20 to 30 people pays in one year of subscriptions to multiple SaaS products. The cost varies by company size, service model, and customization scope, and the consultation and assessment are free.

## The problem it solves (Problem)

The existing ERP market offered only two choices, and both share the same limitation: **the customer has no right to change the system.**

1. **Shared SaaS ERP**: It is updated continuously, but because many companies share the code, modifying it for one specific customer is structurally impossible. When you cancel, neither data nor code remains.
2. **Custom-built ERP**: It is built to your requirements, but build costs run into the hundreds of millions of Korean won, and from go-live the work keeps changing while the system stands still. Any change means negotiating a new quote with the build vendor.

WhyWorks solves this problem by **handing ownership and the right to modify to the customer**.

## Core components (What You Get)

WhyWorks provides three things together.

1. **A proven ERP** — 62 business modules, from e-approvals to payroll settlement. Ready to use immediately.
2. **Full source code** — The entire backend and frontend. Unlimited modification and extension for your own business use. Only resale and redistribution to third parties are restricted.
3. **Vibe coding training** — Hands-on training on your own codebase in how to modify code by instructing AI in natural language. After about 3 months, your staff can make changes themselves.

## Customization scope (3 levels)

- **Level 1 — No code changes, same day**: In the admin console, directly change key screen text (for example, "Vendor" to "Client"), build the menu tree, and set role-based access (RBAC), approval lines, leave policies, Korean/English switching, and dark mode. No developer or redeployment is needed.
- **Level 2 — Source changes, takes several days**: Add screens and fields, change calculation logic, integrate external systems, change report and PDF templates, and redesign workflows.
- **Level 3 — Ongoing after training**: Your staff make changes themselves using AI. No more waiting on outsourced quotes.

## Service models (3 types)

The difference between the three models is not "what you get" but **"who runs it and who changes it."** The full source code is provided the same way in every model.

### 1. Self-run
- Installed directly on the customer's servers (on-premises or the customer's own cloud)
- Full source code provided, with vibe coding training at the center
- Installation and initial setup support, followed by remote coaching
- Data does not leave the company
- **Best for**: Companies with in-house IT or development staff, or those whose rules require keeping data internally

### 2. Co-managed (Hybrid) — the most commonly chosen model
- An **isolated instance** on WhyZOO Cloud (code and database are not shared with other customers)
- Full source code provided, and the customer's changes are applied to that instance
- Vibe coding training included, and WhyZOO works with you on difficult changes
- Server operations, backups, and security updates handled for you
- **Best for**: Companies of 20 to 50 people without developers that want to adapt the system to their work

### 3. Fully managed
- WhyZOO handles all installation, operations, changes, and updates
- Dedicated contact, customization on request, and regular check-ups
- Source code delivered whenever requested
- **Best for**: Companies without IT staff that want to focus on their core business

**Common to all models**: Full source code provided · No lock-in · Free movement between models · Ongoing core updates

## Two distinctive promises

- **No lock-in**: Because the customer already has the source code, the system remains the customer's asset even after the contract ends. You can take the data and code as they are and move to another provider or run it yourself.
- **Co-evolution**: This structure solves the custom ERP dilemma (shared systems can't be changed, and dedicated systems stop getting updates). The best improvements built by customers are absorbed into the core and distributed to all customers, and when an improvement is adopted, that customer's maintenance fees are reduced.

## Agentic AI features (working inside ERP workflows)

The Agentic AI in WhyWorks is not one more chatbot to open. The AI agent recognizes spoken questions and, within the user's permissions, uses ERP information and business tools to find what is needed, answers by voice, opens the requested screen, and prepares the next task. People confirm important changes and decisions.

Business AI that handles sensitive source material such as email, contracts, RFPs, and payroll is processed by a **local LLM kept in-house**. Local model features can run with no external API usage fees, and if the AI server goes down, the ERP's own functions keep working normally. The optional cloud chat AI and external web search are covered by separate transmission and security policies.

- **ZOO voice work assistant**: Understands requests through in-house speech recognition and looks up ERP work such as schedules, meetings, leave, task deadlines, email, notifications, approvals, employees, public holidays, and birthdays within the user's permissions. Presents results on screen and by voice, and moves to the requested app menu screen.
- **Automatic email-to-work-card extraction**: Extracts the title, summary, tasks, deadlines, amounts, and client from received email to create a draft work card.
- **Daily summaries and draft weekly reports**: Summarizes workflow in the workspace and gathers Kanban, meeting, schedule, and deadline records into a draft report.
- **RFP, proposal, and requirements analysis**: Extracts business terms and requirements from RFPs, checks proposals for unanswered items, overpromises, and missing deliverables, and generates a requirements matrix.
- **Contract and project risk review**: Suggests unfavorable or missing contract clauses and candidate project risks. *This is a reference draft for people to confirm and does not replace legal advice.*
- **Knowledge base semantic search and RAG Q&A**: Searching "annual leave carryover" also finds "Can I roll over my unused vacation days?" Answers always come with the source documents to prevent hallucinations. (pgvector + HNSW, bge-m3 embeddings)
- **Receipt and business card OCR and voice memos**: OCR results fill in expense and contact fields, and voice memos keep the original recording and transcript together in your personal file library.
- **Korean-English automatic translation batches**: AI batch-translates untranslated screen text as a draft, and people review it.

## Main business features (62 modules)

- **E-approvals**: General, expense, leave, purchasing, corporate card, and certificate documents; sequential approval lines; approval passwords; a full-history audit trail; automatic certificate of employment PDFs
- **HR and attendance**: Org chart; leave management (annual, sick, half-day, and special leave); leave policy engine; face-recognition check-in (ArcFace); QR check-in; public holiday management
- **Payroll**: Automatic calculation of Korea's four major social insurances and taxes, PDF pay stubs, and automatic delivery on payday
- **Contracts**: Employment and outsourcing contract PDFs; e-signatures (recipients sign through a token link without logging in); storage of signed copies
- **Sales and CRM**: Client management, contact management, business card management (OCR), proposal management, quotes and quote PDFs
- **Accounting and finance**: Expense processing, corporate cards, receivables management (AR/AP), outsourcing settlement, tax invoices, cost management, project profitability analysis
- **Projects (PMS)**: Connected management from RFPs, proposals, and requirements at the bid stage through tailoring, milestones, schedules, deliverables, effort, profitability, risks, issues, change requests, and reports during delivery
- **Collaboration**: Real-time chat (with built-in AI assistant), announcements, file library, general bulletin board, gallery, direct notes, polls
- **Work management**: Kanban board, unified calendar (automatically gathers schedules, meetings, leave, deadlines, milestones, and birthdays), work reports, text and voice notes, ZOO work assistant
- **Email**: Company-domain email (mail server included, mailbox created automatically at employee registration, login with ID or company email address), external email account integration (IMAP, POP3) with a unified inbox, primary sending address, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC sender authentication, virus scanning, executable attachment blocking, spam folder, company-wide admin blocking, automatic conversion of over-limit attachments to 7-day download links, read receipts, automatic sorting with folders and rules, trash, scheduled sending, email export, and AI phishing risk flags, summaries, translations, and draft replies
- **Knowledge management (KMS)**: Articles, categories, tags, semantic search
- **Internal operations**: Service requests (ITSM), asset management, outsourced staff management, file storage
- **System administration**: Members, permissions (menu-level RBAC), menus, multilingual settings, system settings, usage statistics, login history

## Platform support

- **Web**: All features supported (built on Next.js, responsive)
- **Desktop**: Windows and macOS (Electron). Stays in the tray, receives background notifications even when the app is closed, and supports pop-out chat rooms
- **Mobile**: Android. Currently provides real-time notifications while the app is open

## Tech stack and self-hosting requirements

- **Backend**: Spring Boot 3.5 / Java 21
- **Frontend**: Next.js 16 / React 19 / TypeScript / Ant Design 6
- **Required infrastructure**: PostgreSQL 18 (pgvector extension), Redis 7+
- **Optional infrastructure**: Local LLM server (GPU machine), required for AI features; OCR engine; face recognition engine
- **Deployment**: Single entry port, 2 systemd services, reverse proxy. The backend port is not exposed externally

## Adoption process

1. **Assessment & contract** — Assess the work environment and requirements, then decide on a service model
2. **Installation & live use (1 month)** — Install right away and use it for real work to identify improvements
3. **Feedback & AI customization** — Quickly apply collected requests using AI, then roll out the official release
4. **Vibe coding training** — Hands-on practice on the customer's codebase to transfer modification skills
5. **Independent operation & growing together** — Run the system while making your own changes, with the best improvements going into the core

**Maintenance contract**: Annual core feature upgrades, plus ongoing updates to tax and labor forms and auto-calculation data

## Pricing

Pricing starts at about what a company of 20 to 30 people pays in one year of subscriptions to multiple SaaS services. It varies by company size, service model, and customization scope, so it is determined during an adoption consultation. The consultation and work environment assessment are free.

## Contact

- **Company**: WhyZOO Co., Ltd., CEO Kim Tae-seon
- **Address**: 150 Dongtan Yeongcheon-ro, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, Silicon Alley Building C, Suite 1409~1410
- **Phone**: +82-10-6338-2288
- **Email**: dean.kim@whyzoo.com
- **Consultation**: https://whyworks.kr/en/ · https://whyzoo.com/en/#s5

## Related documents

- [WhyZOO company overview](https://whyzoo.com/llms.txt)
- [WhyZOO full context](https://whyzoo.com/llms-full.txt)