In today’s world of “Cloud Everything” using “Hyper Everything” we still see an old problem creating challenges. Most IT organizations are still struggling to translate business requirements into technology requirements. Cloud has allowed us to simply accelerate the process of seeing the disconnect. I had the opportunity to hear about this experience from one of […]
Amazon Web Services
Three Patterns to Avoid When Selecting Cloud Native Platforms
Patterns resonate with me. As a developer and software architect stepping back and viewing a population of things to find the common thread woven throughout seems natural. Exploiting that thread in other areas if it’s valuable or adding it to my “Refactor someday” list if it’s harmful has always seemed to be a logical next […]
Amazon Connect Introduces Dynamic Outbound Caller ID
What is it? Amazon Connect now allows you to set the phone number displayed on caller ID for outbound calls. Read Amazon Connect’s official announcement here. Why should I use it? If your Amazon Connect contact center uses multiple phone numbers to make outbound calls, setting a single, consistent phone number as the caller ID […]
Amazon Connect Streams API Changelog #3: June 2018
Amazon Connect Streams API (Streams) allows developers to create custom agent experiences for Amazon Connect. The code for Streams is hosted in Github and open for community contributions in the form of pull requests. This is the third installment of my running series covering changes to the Streams API. Prior installments can be found here: […]
AWS’s Shared Responsibility Model at a Glance
Working with sensitive customer data is central to most contact centers, making privacy and security a top concern. But because Amazon Connect is a cloud contact center product, Amazon considers security and compliance a shared matter between AWS and its customers, and they adopt a common policy called the Shared Responsibility Model. Every AWS customer […]
Single Sign-On With Amazon Connect And Azure Active Directory
On March 30, 2018, Amazon announced the general availability of Amazon Connect federated single sign-on using SAML 2.0, stating, “You can enable federated access and controls via any SAML 2.0 compliant identity provider, such as Microsoft Active Directory Services, Okta, Ping Identity, and Shibboleth. Once this is done, agents and managers can sign in to […]
Amazon Connect Streams API Changelog #2: Open Pull Requests
In my last post, I reviewed the recent changes (approved pull requests) to the Amazon Connect Streams API (Streams). In this post, I’m taking a look at the open pull requests, i.e., changes suggested by Amazon and community members. As of June 1, 2018, there are four open pull requests: PR #21: Corrects the name […]
Amazon Connect Streams API Changelog #1: Through May 2018
Amazon Connect Streams API (Streams) allows developers to create custom agent experiences for Amazon Connect. Since my introductory posts back in late 2017 there have been several changes to Streams, some from the community, some directly from Amazon. These changes are managed as pull requests. This post will review approved pull requests from November 2017 […]
Using AWS to Host a Custom Agent Console
While not directly related to core Amazon Connect functionality, there are many reasons to familiarize yourself with how to host your own static website in AWS. Creating a basic website your supervisors can use to check the holiday calendar set up via Lambda and DynamoDB or hosting your custom agent console are just two examples […]
Amazon Connect: Keypad Input Support for Lex-powered Contact Flow
What is it? Amazon just released a new feature for Amazon Connect—keypad input for Lex-powered IVR menus. This is very exciting news for Amazon Connect users who want to give callers the ability to speak or type based on their preference when responding to prompts. Why should I use this? It’s not uncommon for companies to […]
The Limitless Contact Center: Amazon Connect and the AWS Platform
Amazon Connect is my new fascination. Typically, contact center and “fascination” don’t go together, but the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop. There really aren’t limits on what you can do to customize (and modernize) your contact center. Amazon Connect is only one service out of […]
Building Data Streaming APIs
Internet produces 2.5 Exabytes of data every day. Data management systems will accumulate 44 Zettabytes of data by the end of 2020. To put things in perspective, 1 Zettabyte is equivalent to 1 trillion Gigabytes. That is a lot of data and most of if contains relevant information. Automated workflows, social media, government agencies and IOTs […]