Create an Amazon Connect instance

The first step in setting up your Amazon Connect contact center is to create a virtual contact center instance. Each instance contains all the resources and settings related to your contact center.

Things to know before you begin

• When you sign up for Amazon Web Services (AWS), your AWS account is automatically signed up for all services in AWS, including Amazon Connect. You are charged only for the services that you use. To create an AWS account, see How do I create and activate an AWS account?

• To allow a user to create an instance, ensure that they have the permissions granted by the AmazonConnect_FullAccess policy.

• For a list of the minimum IAM permissions required to create an instance, see Required permissions for using custom IAM policies to manage access to the Amazon Connect admin website.

• Amazon Connect is not available to customers in India using Amazon Web Services through Amazon Internet Services Pvt. Ltd (AISPL). You will receive an error message if you try to create an instance in Amazon Connect.

• When you create an instance, you must decide how you want to manage users. You can't change the identity management option after you create the instance. For more information, see Plan your identity management in Amazon Connect.

Step 1: Set identity

Permissions to access Amazon Connect features and resource are assigned to user accounts within Amazon Connect. When you create an instance, you must decide how you want to manage users. You can't change the identity management option after you create the instance. For more information, see Plan your identity management in Amazon Connect.

To configure identity management for your instance

1. Open the Amazon Connect console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/connect/.

2. Choose Get started. If you have previously created an instance, choose Add an instance instead.

3. Choose one of the following options:

   • Store users in Amazon Connect - Use Amazon Connect to create and manage user accounts. You cannot share users with other applications.

   • Link to an existing directory - Use an AWS Directory Service directory to manage your users. You can use each directory with one Amazon Connect instance at a time.

   • SAML 2.0-based authentication - Use an existing identity provider (IdP) to federate users with Amazon Connect.

4. If you chose Store users within Amazon Connect or SAML 2.0-based authentication, provide the left-most label for Access URL. This label must be unique across all Amazon Connect instances in all Regions. You can't change the access URL after you create your instance.

5. If you chose Link to an existing directory, select the AWS Directory Service directory for Directory. The directory name is used as the left-most label for Access URL.

6. Choose Next.

Step 2: Add administrator

After you specify the user name of the administrator for the Amazon Connect instance, a user account is created in Amazon Connect and the user is assigned the Admin security profile.

To specify the administrator for your instance (Optional)

1. Do one of the following, based on the option that you chose in the previous step:

   • If you chose Store users within Amazon Connect, select Specify an administrator, and provide a name, password, and email address for the user account in Amazon Connect.

   • If you chose Link to an existing directory, for Username, type the name of an existing user in the AWS Directory Service directory. The password for this user is managed through the directory.

   • If you chose SAML 2.0-based authentication, select Add a new admin and provide a name for the user account in Amazon Connect. The password for this user is managed through the IdP.

2. You can also select No administrator if an administrator is not needed for your instance.

3. (Optional) Add tags to your instance. For more information see Tagging an Amazon Connect instance.

4. Choose Next.

Step 3: Set telephony

Use the options in this section to choose whether you want your agents to receive calls from customers, make outbound calls, and hear early media audio.

Early media

When early media audio is enabled, for outbound calls your agents can hear pre-connection audio such as busy signals, failure-to-connect errors, or other informational messages provided by telephony providers.

Note

The early media feature is not supported for transfers that are dialed through the Transfer to phone number block in flows.

By default, early media is enabled for you. Note the following exception:

• Your instance was created before April 17, 2020, and you weren't enrolled in the preview program. You need to enable early media audio. For instructions, see Update telephony options.

To configure telephony options for your instance

1. To allow inbound calls to your contact center, choose Allow incoming calls.

2. To enable outbound calling from your contact center, choose Allow outgoing calls.

3. To enable multi-party calls, choose Enable up to six parties on a call.

4. Choose Next.

Step 4: Data storage

Note

Amazon Connect does not support Amazon S3 Object Lock in compliance mode to store objects using a write-once-read-many (WORM) model.

When you create an instance, by default we create an Amazon S3 bucket. Data, such as reports and recordings of conversations, is encrypted using AWS Key Management Service, and then stored in the Amazon S3 bucket.

This bucket and key are used for both recordings of conversations and exported reports. Alternatively, you can specify separate buckets and keys for recordings of conversations and exported reports. For instructions, see Update instance settings.

By default, Amazon Connect creates buckets for storing call recordings, chat transcripts, exported reports, and flow logs.

• When a bucket is created to store call recordings, call recording is enabled at the instance level. The next step for setting up this functionality is to set up recording behavior in a contact flow.

• When a bucket is created to store chat transcripts, chat transcription is enabled at the instance level. Now all chat transcripts will be stored. Only if you want to monitor chat conversations do you need to set up recording behavior in a contact flow.

• Live media streaming is not enabled by default.

• Screen recording is not enabled by default. For more information, see Enable screen recording.

By default, Amazon Connect creates a Customer Profiles domain, which stores profiles that combine customer contact history with customer information such as account number, address, billing address, and birth date. Data is encrypted using AWS Key Management Service. You can configure Customer Profiles to use your own customer managed key after your instance is set up. For more information, see Create a KMS key to be used by Customer Profiles to encrypt data (required).

Review and copy the location of the S3 bucket, flow logs, and whether you want to enable Customer Profiles.

1. If desired, copy the location of the S3 bucket where your data encryption is stored, and the location of the flow logs in CloudWatch.

2. Choose Next.

Step 5: Review and create

To create your instance

1. Review the configuration choices. Remember that you cannot change the identity management options after you create the instance.

2. (Optional) To change any of the configuration options, choose Edit.

3. (Optional) Add tags to your instance. For more information see Tagging an Amazon Connect instance.

4. Choose Create instance.

5. (Optional) To continue configuring your instance, choose Get started and then choose Let's go. If you prefer, you can access your instance and configure it later on. For more information, see Next steps.

   If you chose to manage your users directly within Amazon Connect or through an AWS Directory Service directory, you can access the instance using its access URL. If you chose to manage your users through SAML-based authentication, you can access the instance using the IdP.

Next steps

After you create an instance, you can assign your contact center a phone number or import your own phone number. For more information, see Set up phone numbers to use the Amazon Connect service.