Setting up Amazon Connect for Contact Center

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.


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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.






If you already have a Connect instance, you can skip this step.

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.


Note: Not all regions support Connect. You can see the available regions on the AWS
website.

You can create the Connect instance automatically by using a CloudFormation
template, or, if you want to customize it, you can create it manually.
This article contains the following topics:

Automatically creating a Connect instance from a CloudFormation template
Manually creating a Connect instance



Automatically creating a Connect instance from a CloudFormation template

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.
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.
To automatically create a Connect instance

(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.

Note: The value for relay state in the application can be left blank. This
can be updated after the Connect instance is set up.


Navigate to the CloudFormation service in the AWS console.
Click Create stack.
On the Create stack page, select the following:
Choose an existing template
Amazon S3 URL


In the Amazon S3 URL field, enter the following
URL: https://zendesk-contact-center-us-east-1.s3.amazonaws.com/connect/cfn.yaml

Click Next.

On the Specify stack details page, enter a name for the stack, a
unique value for InstanceAlias.
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.

Note: 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.


Click Next to complete the stack deployment.

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.


When the stack runs, the template creates the following resources:

Connect Instance
S3 bucket for transcripts
KMS key for S3 bucket
Kinesis Stream
Customer Profiles domain
KMS Key for Customer Profiles domain
SAML Identity Provider in IAM
IAM Role for SAML

See your AWS documentation for more details about these resources.



Manually creating a Connect instance

If you want to customize your Connect instance, you can manually create
it.
To manually create a Connect instance

In your AWS console, open the Amazon Connect service. You’ll see a
page listing any existing Connect instances in the selected region.
Click Add an instance.

On the Set identity page, choose your preferred identity management
method (typically SAML 2.0-based authentication for client environments).
Enter an access URL instance name. This name becomes part of the
instance’s URL. 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".

Click Next.

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.
Click Next.
On the Set telephony page, under Telephony and data settings,
configure how your contact center will handle communications and store data:

Telephony Options: 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).

Data Storage: 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.


Click Next.
On the Data storage page, set the profile creation policy to Associate
only.
Deselect the Enable email option. This is not used by Contact
Center.
Make sure the Custom data storage (Advanced) option is
unselected.
Click Next.
Complete the wizard and review the configuration. Once everything
looks good, click Create Instance. 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.


Important: To ensure successful installation, don't close your
browser or navigate away from the status page until the provision
completes.


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.

Important: If you have set up the environment to use SSO for
login and authentication, you will need to complete the steps in Setting up users and access
before you can log into Connect.


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
Data Streaming > Enable data streaming, and select Kinesis
Stream. Create a new stream if needed.

Tip: Make sure to turn on "Kinesis data streaming" and not
"Kinesis Firehose".


Click Save.


You now have a Connect instance. Every client needs their own Connect
instance to use Contact Center.


Note: 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.

If you're using an existing Connect instance, make sure the following are
configured:

An identity management method
Customer profiles are turned on
The profile creation policy is set to Associate only
Kinesis data streaming is configured



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