Setting up Amazon Connect for Contact Center

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">The first step is to create a new Connect instance. You create Connect instances in the AWS Management Console. Generally, you will create the Connect instance in the AWS region closest to your customer or as required.</p>
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<strong>Add-on</strong>
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<td>Contact Center</td>
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<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">Set up Amazon Connect for your contact center by creating a new instance in the AWS Management Console. Choose between automatic setup with a CloudFormation template or manual customization. Ensure SAML authentication, telephony options, and data streaming are configured. If using an existing instance, verify identity management and customer profiles are enabled. Each client requires a unique instance for optimal functionality.</p>
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<div class="p">
<div class="note attention">
<span class="attentiontitle"></span> If you already have a Connect instance, you can skip this step.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">The first step is to create a new Connect instance. You create Connect
instances in the AWS Management Console. Generally, you will create the Connect instance
in the AWS region closest to your customer or as required.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> Not all regions support Connect. You can see <a class="xref" href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/regions.html#amazonconnect_region" target="_blank">the available regions</a> on the AWS
website.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">You can create the Connect instance automatically by using a CloudFormation
template, or, if you want to customize it, you can create it manually.</p>
<p class="p">This article contains the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="final_cc_set_up_connect_pod__ul_ujl_zwv_2hc">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ngh_xyf_3gc">Automatically creating a Connect instance from a CloudFormation template</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_y4g_bzf_3gc">Manually creating a Connect instance</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ngh_xyf_3gc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Automatically creating a Connect instance from a CloudFormation template</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">In this section, you'll discover how to create a Connect instance from a
CloudFormation template. You'll need the information provided by Zendesk in the
previous section to proceed.</p>
<p class="p">A Connect instance created using a CloudFormation template will have SAML
authentication turned on. If an application is already configured on the SAML
Identity Provider (IdP), and the metadata file is available during the deployment of
this template, the template will configure all required Identity and Access
Management (IAM) resources to integrate your Connect instance.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To automatically create a Connect instance</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_ngh_xyf_3gc__ol_krb_q1p_5gc">
<li class="li">(Optional) To turn on single sign-on for Connect instances, configure
an application in your IdP with SAML authentication turned on. Once the
application is configured, download the SAML metadata XML file.<div class="p">
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> The value for relay state in the application can be left blank. This
can be updated after the Connect instance is set up.</div>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li">Navigate to the CloudFormation service in the AWS console.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Create stack</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">On the Create stack page, select the following:<ol class="ol" id="topic_ngh_xyf_3gc__ol_lrb_q1p_5gc" type="a">
<li class="li">Choose an existing template</li>
<li class="li">Amazon S3 URL</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li class="li">In the Amazon S3 URL field, enter the following
URL:<p class="p">https://zendesk-contact-center-us-east-1.s3.amazonaws.com/connect/cfn.yaml</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Next.</strong><p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_ngh_xyf_3gc__image_acn_1cp_5gc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ig2_1.png" width="750"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">On the Specify stack details page, enter a name for the stack, a
unique value for InstanceAlias.</li>
<li class="li">If your SSO application is already configured, copy and paste the contents of
the metadata XML file under SamlXmlDocument. This parameter can be left blank if
the SAML application is not yet configured.<div class="p">
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If you encounter an error that the metadata file is too large, leave
the SamlXmlDocument parameter blank to complete the CloudFormation stack
deployment, then set up the SAML configurations manually later.</div>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Next</strong> to complete the stack deployment.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_ngh_xyf_3gc__image_d3g_bcp_5gc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ig2_2.png" width="750"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">Optionally, configure your SAML application to your Connect instance. Note the
SamlRelayState from the stack outputs and update the relay state in the SAML
application configured in your SSO for your Connect instance.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_ngh_xyf_3gc__image_pd1_ccp_5gc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ig2_3.png" width="650"></p>
</li>
</ol>
<p class="p">When the stack runs, the template creates the following resources:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ngh_xyf_3gc__ul_bqw_lcp_5gc">
<li class="li">Connect Instance</li>
<li class="li">S3 bucket for transcripts</li>
<li class="li">KMS key for S3 bucket</li>
<li class="li">Kinesis Stream</li>
<li class="li">Customer Profiles domain</li>
<li class="li">KMS Key for Customer Profiles domain</li>
<li class="li">SAML Identity Provider in IAM</li>
<li class="li">IAM Role for SAML</li>
</ul>
<p class="p">See your AWS documentation for more details about these resources.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_y4g_bzf_3gc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Manually creating a Connect instance</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">If you want to customize your Connect instance, you can manually create
it.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To manually create a Connect instance</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_y4g_bzf_3gc__ol_jrk_pcp_5gc">
<li class="li">In your AWS console, open the Amazon Connect service. You’ll see a
page listing any existing Connect instances in the selected region.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Add an instance</strong>.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_y4g_bzf_3gc__image_yl5_d2p_5gc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ig2_4.png" width="750"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">On the Set identity page, choose your preferred identity management
method (typically SAML 2.0-based authentication for client environments).</li>
<li class="li">Enter an access URL instance name. This name becomes part of the
instance’s URL.<p class="p">For example, if you name it “MyDemoConnect”, the instance URL
will resemble MyDemoConnect.awsapps.com/connect/. Choose a name that
identifies the client or purpose, such as "ClientName-ConnectEU".</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Next</strong>.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_y4g_bzf_3gc__image_tl4_l2p_5gc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ig2_5.png" width="750"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">On the Add administrator page, specify whether an administrator user
for Connect needs to be created. To make things easier, you can create an admin
username (for example, “admin”) and a password. This will be the login used to
access the Connect dashboard initially. Customers often integrate with their
single sign-on using SAML, but for training and sandbox purposes, you can
configure a manual admin user.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Next</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">On the Set telephony page, under Telephony and data settings,
configure how your contact center will handle communications and store data:<ul class="ul" id="topic_y4g_bzf_3gc__ul_krk_pcp_5gc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Telephony Options:</strong> You can turn on inbound and/or
outbound calling. For most uses, turn on both Inbound and Outbound
calling (so the instance can receive and make calls).</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Data Storage:</strong> Connect creates an Amazon S3 bucket in
the background to store call recordings, chat transcripts, and other
data. In the setup wizard, make sure that Enable customer profiles is
turned on.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Next</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">On the Data storage page, set the profile creation policy to Associate
only.</li>
<li class="li">Deselect the Enable email option. This is not used by Contact
Center.</li>
<li class="li">Make sure the Custom data storage (Advanced) option is
unselected.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Next</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">Complete the wizard and review the configuration. Once everything
looks good, click <strong class="ph b">Create Instance</strong>.<p class="p">Connect will begin provisioning the
instance. It usually takes a couple of minutes for the instance to be ready.
During this time, AWS is setting up the service and resources in the
background.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note important">
<span class="importanttitle">Important:</span> To ensure successful installation, don't close your
browser or navigate away from the status page until the provision
completes.</div>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li">When the creation is complete, the console will show your new
instance. If you have set up the environment not to use SSO, you can click the
Access URL (the instance URL), which opens the Connect login page. Use the admin
username and password you set to log in. This will bring you to the Amazon
Connect dashboard, a web-based interface where you can manage your contact
center (configure contact flows, users, etc.). On first login, you might see
some default sample contact flows and a basic dashboard screen. At this point,
Connect is up and running.<div class="p">
<div class="note important">
<span class="importanttitle">Important:</span> If you have set up the environment to use SSO for
login and authentication, you will need to complete the steps in <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9459000058010" target="_blank">Setting up users and access</a>
before you can log into Connect.</div>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li">Before proceeding to create the Contact Center account or the
CloudFormation stack, make sure that Kinesis Data Streaming is turned on in your
Connect instance. In the AWS Console, navigate to your Connect instance, click
<strong class="ph b">Data Streaming</strong> &gt; <strong class="ph b">Enable data streaming</strong>, and select Kinesis
Stream. Create a new stream if needed. <div class="p">
<div class="note tip">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> Make sure to turn on "Kinesis data streaming" and not
"Kinesis Firehose".</div>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_y4g_bzf_3gc__image_mcm_n2p_5gc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ig2_6.png" width="750"></p>
</li>
</ol>
<p class="p">You now have a Connect instance. Every client needs their own Connect
instance to use Contact Center.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> It is the AWS account owners responsibility to ensure that service limit
increases are logged with AWS as required, for example, concurrent call limit,
number of numbers that can be claimed, and whitelisting outbound
countries.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">If you're using an existing Connect instance, make sure the following are
configured:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_y4g_bzf_3gc__ul_lrk_pcp_5gc">
<li class="li">An identity management method</li>
<li class="li">Customer profiles are turned on</li>
<li class="li">The profile creation policy is set to Associate only</li>
<li class="li">Kinesis data streaming is configured</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
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