Product Update - April 2018

Release 25 of IMIconnect was deployed into production (AWS Ireland) on Sunday, 8th April. The key themes for this version include:

• Improved data security, particularly the way we handle personally identifiable information or PII. We have made a number of improvements to make PII handling more configurable and secure.
• A new consent management module.
• A new Chat Engine Connector for InContact.
• A new report with usage stats that are directly linked to platform pricing.

Usage Reports

One of the key features added as part of this release include the monthly platform usage report. While we’ve had rich reports and dashboards to review the channel and flow execution stats for each of the service, we didn’t have a consolidated dashboard that would allow clients to see cumulative channel and flow usage across all services for a month, as per the pricing structure.

Starting this release, clients can see their monthly platform usage stats for the previous months (March, 2018 onwards) by accessing the usage report. Additionally, the reports are available for download in XLS format for offline sharing and analysis.

Revised Data Logging Policy

We have revised our data logging policy to capture only minimal transaction data by default. This allows IMIconnect users to still review and debug past transactions without necessarily capturing any sensitive customer data by default. However, users can explicitly activate 'Debug Logging' within ‘Service Settings’ to capture the message and/or the API request and response payload.

Encryption of Data at Rest

All messages & API payloads are encrypted with a 256-bit key throughout their lifecycle within IMIconnect. In addition, information such as transaction and system debug logs (if enabled) are encrypted. This data can only be decrypted using a client specific decryption key which can be generated only by the account owner. Users who wish to decrypt any of the encrypted fields will need to have a special privilege (‘can decrypt logs’) assigned by their account owner. This privilege when used in conjunction with the decryption password allows users to view encrypted logs in plain text within the product user interface

Audit Trail of Personal Data Access

IMIconnect now maintains a history of user access of customer personal data such as customer identifiers or messages sent to / received from customers. The audit trail includes what data was accessed, when and by whom. In the unlikely event of a data breach, these audit logs allow clients to review the extent of exposure and assess associated risk. Clients can request for access to audit logs through Ops.

New Process to Delete Information of Specific Customers

In accordance with the ‘right to be forgotten’ requirement, authorized users can now request (through an API) erasure of all the data held within IMIconnect for a specific customer. The platform systematically removes all entries (such as message body and flow session data) for the given customer identifier. However, the deleted records will continue to be counted under usage stats.

NICE Incontact Chat Engine Integration

IMIconnect now offers out-of-box integration with NICE inContact cloud contact centre software. This integration enables NICE inContact customers to leverage IMIconnect for extending customer service over SMS, Facebook Messenger, Twitter and all other messaging channels supported by IMIconnect. The conversations can be two-way i.e. between a customer and an agent, and/or three-way i.e. involving one customer and two agents.

Since this is a chat engine integration, it can also be used for powering ‘Bot + Agent’ use cases that require a contextual handover of conversations from bots to agents and vice versa.

Changelog

• improved: * Embed two-way communications into existing smartphone apps
• added: * Use two-factor authentication to verify customer identity
• broken: * Integrate SMS confirmations into a purchase
• known: * Receive incoming SMS messages that update a business process