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Amazon Connect CTI Adapter for Salesforce – What's New & Different?

AWS Connect Salesforce Integration Capability with VoiceFoundry

Before we jump into discussing the features of the newest release of the Amazon Connect CTI Adapter for Salesforce, we’d like to mention a little bit about how we might help your organization with Salesforce. Alongside AWS, we have helped to add significant amounts of functionality to the integrated cloud telephony Amazon Connect CTI package. In short, we know it well. While the package is full-featured, your business may want or need something different to optimize customer service. We have a deep understanding of the AWS Connect Salesforce integration platform and have dedicated, certified, Salesforce team members to help with everything from consulting and guidance to building a complete Amazon Connect Salesforce solution for you. From custom screen pops to IVR-integrated workflows to Salesforce Lightning and Visualforce application development, we have your Amazon Connect Salesforce needs covered.

Amazon Connect Salesforce CTI Adapter Updates and Changes

The latest version of the Amazon CTI Adapter for Salesforce was released this past month and can be downloaded from the Salesforce AppExchange. At the AppExchange page you will find links to videos, documentation, quick guides and the installation guide, trailheads, and a pricing guide for Amazon Connect and Salesforce. This is release 3.1 of a Salesforce managed package that was first introduced in the fall of 2017. It is free to download and install in the Salesforce org or sandbox of your choice.

As described at the AppExchange and in documentation, the core functionality of the Amazon Connect CTI Adapter provides a WebRTC browser-based Contact Control Panel (CCP) within Salesforce. The Amazon Connect CTI integration consists of two components, a managed Salesforce service cloud package and an AWS Serverless application deployed to your AWS environment. The AWS Serverless application package contains a set of common AWS Lambda functions to be used in the AWS Connect Salesforce integration.

With those components - the Salesforce adapter and the AWS lambda functions - customers can build a deep integration between the cloud based Amazon Connect contact center platform and Salesforce, the leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

The key features of the adapter include:

  • Agent state synchronization
  • Call attributes display
  • Automated outbound dialing
  • Embed Amazon Connect Call Recordings in the Call Activity record
  • Use AWS Lambda functions to lookup, create, and update operations for different Salesforce objects, such as Contacts and Cases, within Amazon Connect contact flows
  • Support for Salesforce Sales and Service Console in Classic and Salesforce Lightning

The Amazon CTI Adapter for Salesforce is a managed package and most managed packages do not allow for customization. The CTI Adapter is highly configurable and there is one feature that stands out in the area of configurability and actually does allow for customization. This is the newly redesigned Call Activity Logging feature. This feature automatically creates phone call tasks and relates them to the right Salesforce object.

In previous versions of the CTI Adapter, the call activity logging feature was a fixed Visual Force page that appeared at the end of the call. It allowed the user/agent to select from two drop-downs - the “what id” (e.g. account) and the “who id” (e.g. contact) - and then fill in a subject and description before submitting the activity.

In the latest version of the CTI adapter, this feature has been vastly improved upon. In the documentation, the feature is titled “Call Activity Creation and Screen Pop”. This feature now allows for the creation of a custom call activity page. This is a Visual Force page that can be made to “pop” at either start of call or end of call in real time.

Several new configuration settings control its behavior. There is, for example, a setting that controls when the call activity page appears. This includes completely disabling a feature - something that could not be done in previous versions of the adapter.

[caption id="attachment_2218" align="aligncenter" width="456"]

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Figure 1 - New call center settings for call activity logging[/caption]

The new Call Activity Auto Create setting allows for automatic creation of a call activity. Call activities are a sub-type of Task objects and are designed to associated with “what” type objects such as Accounts or Cases and also “who” type objects such as Contacts or Leads. When this setting is true, the call activity (task) object is created automatically and call duration is automatically calculated at the end of the call. When set to “false”, no call activity (task) object is created.

Call Activity Action setting supports specifying when the associated call activity (task) will pop to the screen. When set to “start”, the call activity (task) will pop at the start of the call. When set to “end”, the call activity (task) will pop at the end of the call. When set to “none” or left empty, the call activity (task) will not pop to the screen.

Call Activity Custom Page call center config setting allows for a user provided Visual Force page to pop in place of the built-in call activity (task) page. When left empty, the built-in call activity (task) page is used. The ANI (calling number) is passed to the page as an URL parameter.

The documentation contains sample code for a Call Activity custom page. This allows for a degree of customization of the managed package.

[caption id="attachment_2219" align="aligncenter" width="600"]

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Figure 2 - Call Activity Log Screen-Pop[/caption]

The image above shows a custom call activity page popped at the start of the call. The Contact and Account were automatically selected based on the phone number passed by Amazon Connect when the call was presented to the agent. There is a text-area for comments/notes and below that the agent may select from a pre-configured list of call dispositions.

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The list of call attributes for display and the call dispositions list are maintained under Saleforce's Custom Metadata Types.

The Amazon CTI Adaptor for Salesforce can be installed and configured in a matter of minutes. Out-of-the-box features such as ANI-screenpop and click-to-dial can be immediately implemented and tested as soon as the adaptor is integrated with Amazon Connect.

Other features of the Amazon CTI Adaptor for Salesforce include:

  • Amazon Connect SSO/SAML Support
  • Media-less CCP and VDI support
  • Auto-login agent
  • Custom Ringtone URL
  • Contact Attributes Display
  • Call Wrap-up and Call Disposition Codes
  • Call Display on the Account Page

The documentation - which can be downloaded here - contains details for AWS Connect Salesforce integration via lambda functions, using omnipresence agent state sync to blend media types, and hosting Amazon Connect Reports in Salesforce.

For further information or to answer any questions you might have, please feel free to Contact Us.