Introduction to Amazon Connect: Rethinking Contact Centers

When Amazon unveiled Amazon Connect, its innovative cloud-based contact center service (CCaaS), it was greeted with a mix of anticipation and skepticism. Some industry veterans hesitated, pointing to an apparent lack of features compared to existing solutions. As we have taken a deeper dive into the service, it has become clear that Amazon Connect’s brilliance lies in its elegant simplicity and transformative approach to problem-solving. Fast forward to today, and you’ll see that Amazon adds dozens of new features each month, features that are available to all customers.  

For leaders in the contact center space, it’s time to recalibrate your understanding of infrastructure, as Amazon Connect isn’t just ready for the spotlight – it’s reshaping it. 

Understanding Traditional Automatic Call Distributors 

Dating back to the 1970s, Automatic Call Distributors (ACDs) have gradually integrated many products and functions, such as workforce and quality management, IVR, CTI, automatic callback, and more. Over time, the incremental incorporation of these technologies presents challenges, including complicated maintenance schedules and technology lock-ins due to dependencies, which hinder future integrations. Moreover, the existence of data silos within each system obstructs efficient data extraction and analysis, a crucial aspect for evaluating performance indicators in contact centers. 

Addressing these prevalent issues requires a radical redesign of the traditional contact center technology stack. Amazon Connect achieves this by deconstructing and reimagining the stack, presenting a solution that directly confronts and resolves the challenges associated with conventional ACDs and attached systems. 

A Different Vision for Contact Centers 

Amazon Connect offers a distinctive vision for contact centers, encouraging organizations to rethink their current understanding and approach toward these technologies. With Amazon Connect, organizations receive a foundational CCaaS toolset that can be expanded and customized as needed, without awaiting provider updates or new features. 

Connect ensures flexibility by allowing users to create and add “contact flows,” among other features, at their pace to meet business needs. Its open platform nature eases building and customization, with tight integrations available with Lex and Lambda. This allows for extensive configuration customizations using readily available developer skills.  

Users of Amazon Connect can benefit from the native functionalities offered within the Amazon Web Services (AWS) ecosystem. Features like industry-leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) within Amazon Q, storing recorded calls in Amazon S3, or using Pinpoint to engage callers post-call enhance its utility.   

Your Data, Your Control 

With Amazon Connect, organizations have unparalleled access and control over their data. The data is easily accessible, exportable to third-party applications, and reporting-friendly. Users can execute real-time data export to third-party data warehouses or Amazon Redshift through Amazon Kinesis Streams or Amazon Kinesis Firehose. This allows for efficient data processing, either in real-time or at regular intervals, taking advantage of computing resources during off-peak times. 

Simplicity and Control with Amazon Connect 

Amazon Connect revolutionizes the traditional contact center technology stack through its modern, more elegant approach. It provides organizations with enhanced control over their data, facilitates easy integration with other systems, and allows for technology stack customization, addressing the challenges previously faced by contact center technologies. With Amazon Connect, organizations gain access to a powerful tool that simplifies and optimizes contact center operations while providing unprecedented flexibility and control. 

Interested in learning more? We have years of Amazon Web Services experience at USAN, and as an Amazon Connect Ready Launch Partner, we supply a proven methodology for deploying Amazon Connect solutions. Click here to start a conversation.