Salesforce AWS Integration: 3 Important Steps

The world of Digital Marketing creates data in the range of petabytes and this amount is increasing at an exponential rate. Moreover, the Sales strategies of companies today are centered around customer experience. Due to this reason, businesses all across the globe are looking for solutions to manage this vast sea of data and are exploring tools that can support them in enhancing their customer’s journey. 

Salesforce is one such Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software that provides an optimal way for companies to manage their Marketing and Sales data and at the same time strengthen their bond with the customers. Moreover, to sustain their day-to-day work and improve their business growth, companies are drawn towards Cloud-based services that can provide them the tools and storage space required to manage their resources and development. Amazon Web Sevices (AWS) is one of the most popular names in this field as it offers numerous essential services like Data Storage, Security, Data Analytics, Application Development, etc. 

Recently, Salesforce and AWS have launched new integrations that can streamline the data sharing process between these 2 platforms. This article will introduce you to Salesforce and AWS and explain their key features. Moreover, it will discuss the benefits of the Salesforce AWS Integration and will provide a step-by-step guide for you to set up your Amazon Salesforce connection easily. Read along to learn more about these fascinating tools and the ways in which setting up the Salesforce AWS Integration can improve your business!

Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Introduction to Salesforce
• Introduction to Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Steps to Set Up the Salesforce AWS Integration
  • Salesforce AWS Integration Step 1: Set Up an Amazon Create Instance
  • Salesforce AWS Integration Step 2: Install the Amazon Connect CTI Adapter
  • Salesforce AWS Integration Step 3: Configure your Salesforce Call Centre
• Benefits of the Salesforce AWS Integration
• Conclusion

Prerequisites

• An AWS account.
• A Salesforce account.
• A Trailhead Playground in Salesforce.
• Basic understanding of Cloud-storage.
• Working knowledge of Salesforce.

Introduction to Salesforce

Salesforce is a globally used Cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform that offers enhanced Customer Management & Data Automation solutions for businesses. This tool helps in monitoring the progress of your Marketing and Sales Campaigns and offers tools to optimize your business strategies. This software allows you to track and manage all the information related to your customers on a single platform. Also, its Data Analytics module can deliver great insights from your customers’ information.

With the help of collaboration tools, it brings your entire team together and allows them to stay on the same page. These properties make it a complete solution for your Marketing and Sales aspects. With this tool, you can customize its inbuilt features like its various Data Structures and User Interface and combine the efforts of your Marketing, Sales, and other teams to provide a comprehensive outlook of your customer engagement process.

Key Features of Salesforce

The Salesforce CRM edges past other CRMs in the current market due to the following features:

• Easy Setup: Unlike most CRMs, which typically take up to a year to install and fully deploy, Salesforce can be easily set up from scratch in just a few weeks. 
• Convenient to Use: Salesforce’s User Interface and working are straightforward and absolutely no training is required to get started with it. 
• Customizable: Salesforce can be easily customized by companies. This way companies can modify this tool to blend it with their style of work.
• Account Planning: Salesforce offers you enough information related to your Leads that your Sales Team can develop optimal strategies for these potential customers to target them individually. This can increase their success rate and your customers will also feel more valued. 
• Availability: Salesforce is Cloud-based software, so it’s accessible from any remote location as long as you have a working internet connection. In addition, Salesforce has a mobile app that is engaging and reliable to use.

You can read more about Salesforce, here.

Introduction to Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a popular Cloud-based platform used to build business solutions. It works best for companies that work on interconnected web services. Through its features, AWS helps companies with a variety of workloads such as data processing, storage, development, and more. It also offers many out-of-the-box services that can benefit companies in building their Cloud solutions. AWS services are known for instant server availability, advanced storage capabilities, efficient workload handling, and more. Following are some of the most useful AWS services:

• AWS Simple Storage Service (S3): AWS S3, as an Amazon Object Storage Service, provides secure and scalable storage of data in any data format such as for Weblogs, Replica Storage, Code, Document, etc. It is well known for providing high data availability and reliability. AWS S3 works well with most ETL tools and programming languages ​​for reading, writing, and transforming data. 
• AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2): This is an Amazon web service that provides secure and scalable Cloud Computing. Its simple interface allows for near-zero capacity settings. You have complete control over your computing resources and let them run in the Amazon desktop environment. 

Key Features of AWS

AWS is immensely popular around the globe due to the following features:

• Flexibility: AWS’s flexibility allows you to choose which programming language and operating system are best for your project. Also, its flexibility makes moving applications to the Cloud easy and cost-effective. Instead of rewriting applications to reflect new technologies, you can simply move applications to the Cloud and take advantage of its advanced computing power.
• Mobile-Friendly: AWS Mobile Hub supports you in choosing the features you want for your application. Also, it includes a dashboard that helps you access AWS services, including developing, testing, and monitoring mobile applications. Furthermore, AWS Mobile Hub offers comprehensive ways to select and customize mobile features like content delivery and push notifications.
• Security: AWS uses a scalable Cloud Computing platform that provides you with end-to-end security and complete privacy. Since many companies rely heavily on AWS, Amazon ensures that maximum security is provided to their data. Moreover, AWS focuses on maintaining the security, integrity, and availability of your data at all times.
• Cost-balanced: AWS gives you faster access to resources and can adapt to changes rapidly. This implies that you can try out new strategies and increase or decrease your data load without having to worry about any drop in AWS’s performance. The cloud provides on-demand IT infrastructure that allows you to use the resources you need. The AWS platform is so popular because its Cloud services provide flexibility by maintaining the right balance of resources.

You can read more about AWS, here.

Steps to Set Up the Salesforce AWS Integration

Now, since you have learned the various benefits that the Salesforce AWS Integration can add to your business you are now ready to understand the steps that are required to set up this connection. Following are the steps that will help you in implementing your AWS Salesforce Integration:

• Salesforce AWS Integration Step 1: Set Up an Amazon Create Instance
• Salesforce AWS Integration Step 2: Install the Amazon Connect CTI Adapter
• Salesforce AWS Integration Step 3: Configure your Salesforce Call Centre 

Salesforce AWS Integration Step 1: Set Up an Amazon Create Instance

• The Salesforce AWS Integration process starts from your AWS account. Enter “amazon connect” in the search bar and select the Amazon Connect option. Another way to find it is by expanding the All Services section and scrolling down to the Customer Experience category. Both of these options are shown in the below image marked as 1 and 2 respectively.

• Click on Get started if, it is the first time that you are creating an instance else click on Add an instance. Also, ensure that you chose the Store users within the Amazon Connect option on the identity management page as shown in the below image. Now go to the Access URL field and enter a unique value that will act as your instance name, and click on Next Step.

• Make sure to select the Add New Admin option on the Create Administrator page. After that, fill out the form to create an administrator account and click on Next Step. Select the checkboxes for incoming and outgoing calls on the Telephony Options page, and then click on the Next step.

• You will be directed to the Data Storage page where you need to simply click on the Next step. Finally, review the information present on the View and Create page. This is a good time to double-check your login URL and make sure the admin name matches your notes. Then click Create instance. This will initiate your instance as shown in the below image.

• Finally, when the instance will be set, you will receive the following message on your screen and your first step of Salesforce AWS Integration will be complete.

Salesforce AWS Integration Step 2: Install the Amazon Connect CTI Adapter

• This second step of the Salesforce AWS Integration process requires you to open the Trail Playground in Salesforce and install the AWS CTI Adapter. A Trailhead Playground in Salesforce allows you to complete various challenges and explore new features and customizations of the CRM platform. Now, scroll down the page, select a new Trailhead Playground and select the Launch option.

• When the app completes the installation, you will see a confirmation page and receive an email to the address associated with your playground account.

Salesforce AWS Integration Step 3: Configure your Salesforce Call Centre

• Start the Trailhead Playground and register your Playground domain. you need to add it to the AWS access-list later. On the Playground console, select the Setup option and copy the given URL to your browser as shown in the below image. Also, store your Playground domain name where you can retrieve it later. 

Note: Your playground domain name must start with https: // and end with .com.

• The previous step of Salesforce AWS Integration will create a Call Center in your Salesforce account. Now you must record that Call Center domain for your AWS access list. In your Salesforce homepage, go to Setup, enter visual in the Quick Find box and select the Visualforce Pages option as shown below image. Select the AC_LightningAdapter link, choose the Name column, and then click on Preview. This will open a new tab with the URL of your Lightning Adapter page which you need to copy and save.

• Now go back to the Salesforce homepage, select Setup, write call in the Quick Find field, and click the Call Center option. After that, click Continue, then select your new call center Lightning AC Adapter and click on the Edit button. The CTI Adapter URL field will have a URL as shown in the below image, that you must now replace with the URL that you copied in the previous step and click on Save. 

• Since your Salesforce AWS Integration will also contain the feature of making calls in this project, you must add yourself as a Call Center user. On the Lightning AC Adapter Call Center Setup page, click on Manage Call Center Users and then click on Add More Users as shown in the below image. Now, set your search criteria to find your own Salesforce users and click on the Find button. Make sure to check the box given next to your user name and then click on Add to Call Center.

• You need to assign the Amazon Connect permission sets to all the Call Center users. For that, visit the Setup section, input the permissions in the Quick Find box and click on Permission Set. Now, select AC_Agent in the Permission Vault Label column, select Manage Assignments and finally click on the Add Assignments option. After that check, the box next to your name and other users you want, then click Assign and select Done.

• Sart the App Launcher and click Services Control. In the Services panel, click the disclosure triangle placed near the current object as shown in the below image. Then scroll down the drop-down menu and click Edit.

• Select the Add More Item option on the Edit Navigation Item screen of the Service Console Application. ​Select the AC CTI Adapter and click on the Add 1 Nav Item option as shown in the below image.

• Now visit the Navigation menu and select the AC CTI Adapters option as shown in the below image. Select the ACLightningAdapter and modify this entry to reference your Amazon Connect Instance. Finally, click on save.

That’s it! Your Salesforce AWS Integration is complete. To implement cross-domain access as a precautionary measure, visit here.

Benefits of the Salesforce AWS Integration

The AWS Salesforce Integration will allow your company to align its development tasks with its Sales and Marketing Campaigns to implement its customer-centric strategies more sophistically. Also, with this Salesforce AWS Integration, businesses can take advantage of the full-featured services for Computing, Data Storage, Networking, Data Analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), Application Development, and much more. 

Following are the major benefits of your Salesforce AWS Integration:

• Enhanced Customer Support: The Salesforce AWS Integration provides world-class customer service to users all over the globe. Full integration with Salesforce’s Service Cloud allows contact center agents to easily create dynamic and personalized customer experiences by leveraging information such as past purchases, contact history, and more. Furthermore, customer relationships and trends can be used to predict end-user needs easily.
• Better Insights: The Salesforce AWS Integration offers Data Analytics blended with a fast and scalable Data Warehouse. Using this solution Your company can make its interactions with each customer smarter by providing your Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service Teams with advanced analytical tools right in their Salesforce apps. Also, it allows you to adapt to the rapid growth of your customer data and generates insights from the vast data in a robust manner.
• Sentiment Analysis: Sentiment Analysis is based on Natural Language Processing and is used to analyze if the data is positive, negative, or neutral. This insight can be very useful in designing Sales strategies. Also, the AWS Salesforce Integration ​can provide employees with access to contextual knowledge articles, ​closest actions, and other smart tools. 
• Improved Monitoring and Training: By integrating Amazon Connect to Salesforce Cloud service, you can easily optimize the ​call volume as well as the use of other communication channels. Moreover, supervisors of your Marketing and Sales Teams can now monitor calls better to provide training in person. The Salesforce AWs Integration provides a Cloud Voice feature which reduces screen transitions for agents as phone calls are now in the Service Cloud Voice console only.

Conclusion

The article provided a brief introduction of Salesforce and AWS and discussed the features which make these platforms so popular in today’s market. Also, it listed down the various benefits that the Amazon Salesforce connection will add to your business. Furthermore, the article explained in detail, the steps that you should follow if you wish to set up the Salesforce AWS Integration for your company.

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As organizations strive to innovate and create customer experiences faster by using their customer data, the Salesforce AWS Integration opens up many opportunities. Although the Amazon connect Salesforce will benefit your organization, you still need to transfer data from multiple sources to AWS and Salesforce manually, which will require a lot of your time and resources.

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