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Product Update - April 2020

over 4 years ago by Madhu Ponnekanti

IMIconnect v5.4.0 release brings in multiple new features and enhancements to make your platform
experience more secure and richer. Here’s a list of the key updates:

  • We’re glad to announce support for SAML based single sign-on (SSO) providing you with the option to use your existing organizational credentials for logging into IMIconnect.
  • We’ve added some new voice nodes to the IMIconnect work flow builder which will allow you to use a common flow builder for building both messaging flows and voice flows.
  • Support for answering machine detection (AMD), Text-to-Speech (TTS), and other voice features
  • The Analyze mode of IMIconnect will now show duration metrics at the node level and at an overall flow level in addition to the execution counters.
  • Event scheduler has been upgraded to make it easier for you to schedule messages/flow executions. It now features dedicated sections for viewing logs, configuring social hours and managing S/FTP connections.
  • We’ve added support for Apple Auth and Apple Pay to enable you to build more secure and richer journeys on Apple Business Chat
  • Custom node integration now offers the ability to configure throttling limits.

Single Sign- On (SSO) using SAML

We are happy to announce that IMIconnect now supports web-based Single Sign-On (SSO) using
security assessment mark-up language (SAML). IMIconnect enterprise clients who want their
employees to use their existing organizational credentials for logging into IMIconnect can avail this
option.

Single sign-on (SSO) is available as an optional add-on for IMIconnect clients and needs to be
enabled before you can start using it. Please get in touch with your account manager if you would
like to use this feature.

Once enabled, the IMIconnect tenant ‘Owner’ can complete the SSO configuration under ‘Settings →
Single Sign-On Settings’ section.

📘

The ‘owner’ of an IMIconnect tenant will always need to login using an email id and password
combination that’s managed at IMIconnect end and will not be able to use SSO. This is required to ensure that a tenant doesn’t get blocked because of invalid SAML configuration.

New Nodes and Features for Building Voice Flows

IMIconnect visual work flow builder has been updated to support creation of voice flows as well as
messaging flows using a common flow builder. We have added six voice related nodes and a voice
node group to enable seamless creation of voice flows.

Voice Nodes

The following nodes have been added to the work flow builder for enabling you to create voice
flows:

  • Call User – Allows you to initiate an outbound call to an MSISDN (i.e. phone number) or a customer ID stored within IMIconnect customer profile that has a phone number mapped with it. You can also configure fallback actions for various statuses such as call rejected, callrecipient busy, network issue, and call not answered.
  • Play - Play a voice prompt to a customer/user on call. The voice prompt can be a prerecorded media message, a media file (.wav) streamed from an HTTP URL, or a synthesised voice prompt generated using Azure’s TTS engine. You can also configure multiple prompts and sequence them in the required order.
  • IVR Input – Collect a DTMF input (single key press) over the call and branch flow based on user input. You can optionally play an audio prompt before collecting the user input.
  • Record – Record the audio of an ongoing call. You can optionally play an audio prompt or a beep sound before the recording starts.
  • Collect Input – Receive user input as DTMF keystrokes on an ongoing-call. You can capture single key press as well multiple keystrokes at once. You can optionally play an audio prompt before collecting the user input.
  • Call Patch – Make an outbound call to add a recipient to an ongoing call on IMIconnect. E.g., if you use IMIconnect to call a customer/user (A party) and want to add one more customer/user to the call (B party), you can use this node. This feature can be used to add a maximum of one participant to an existing call. We currently offer three standard audio prompts from which you can select one and play to A-Party and B-Party while patching the call.

Voice Node Group

We’ve introduced a new construct named as voice node group to the IMIconnect flow builder. As
soon as you drag and drop the call user node on the flow canvas, a voice node group is created by
default. This is a designated space for you to build your voice flows. The voice node group allows
you to handle the outcomes of a voice flow centrally at the voice node group level.

It has some restrictions with regards to the node usage. For example, you are not allowed to use
receive, delay, create/validate chat and a few other nodes within the voice node group. Please refer
voice node group docs for full details about the node usage restrictions.

The voice node group allows you to configure answering machine detection (AMD) settings.

Answering Machine Detection

IMIconnect now supports answering machine detection (AMD) to help you identify whether an
outbound call from IMIconnect was answered by a human or by a machine. These settings can be
configured at a voice node group level. You can choose to play a specific voice message in case an
answering machine is detected.

Text-to-Speech (TTS) Support

With this release, IMIconnect offers you the ability to convert text messages to voice prompts using
Azure’s Text-to-Speech engine. This capability is available as part of the Play node and Play Prompt
option within relevant voice nodes as mentioned above.

Voice Recordings

Voice recordings generated by using the ‘Record’ node or by activating the audio recording feature
within the ‘Call Patch’ node, can be viewed under the ‘Tools → Voice Recordings’ section. The
retention period for voice recordings is 30 days. The voice recordings can be exported to an FTP,
sFTP or AWS S3 location.

📘

The new voice nodes aren’t available for use by default and need to be enabled at a tenant level
based on client request. If you’ve built voice flows in the past using voice flow builder, we encourage you to get access to the new nodes and migrate your existing voice flows to the upgraded work flow builder with new voice nodes.

Additionally, all new voice features going forward will only be available through the work flow
builder. Hence, we recommend that you build any new voice flows using the updated work flow
builder.

Please get in touch with your account manager to enable the new voice nodes on your tenant. If
your existing contract doesn’t cover voice and TTS pricing, please get in touch with your account
manager for the details.

Ability to create synthesized audio prompts using TTS

With this release, IMIconnect allows you to generate and save synthesized audio prompts using
Azure's TTS. Voice messages can be generated under 'Tools → Voice Media' section within a folder
using ‘Add New → Synthesize Using TTS’ option. Once generated the audio prompts will be
available for use under ‘Play Prompt’ component of all relevant voice nodes.

Support for voice in Messaging API V2

Alongside the launch of new voice nodes (covered in section 2.2 above), we have added support for
voice calls within Messaging API V2. This includes:

  • Ability to make an outbound voice call. You can play a pre-recorded message that’s been uploaded to ‘Tools → Voice Media’ space within your IMIconnect tenant, or a synthesised voice prompt generated using Text-to-Speech option. Currently, we don’t support the ability to specify a URL for the voice prompt to be played.
  • Ability to retrieve the voice recording name(s) and file path(s) by using the ‘transaction_id’ of the flow.

Get message status option in Messaging API V2

Ability to fetch the status of a SMS, call, email and/or RCS (such as queued, answered, etc,) using the
‘message_id’ that you receive in response to the messaging API V2 call.

Embed code for WhatsApp ‘Message Us’ Plugin

In order to make your WhatsApp channel easily discoverable on your websites, WhatsApp offers an
embeddable “Message Us” button plugin.

When clicked it redirects your customers to open a conversation with you over your WhatsApp
business number. Starting this release, the embed code for WhatsApp ‘Message Us’ Plugin is
accessible within “Assets → Apps” section for registered and verified WhatsApp Business Accounts.
Refer documentation for more details on button attributes.

Support for Apple Auth

With this release, we are announcing support for ‘Apple Auth’ on Apple Business Chat within
IMIconnect Messaging API V1 and within Apple Business Chat node in the visual flow builder. This
feature allows you to conduct OAuth 2.0 based authentication to verify customer identity over Apple
Business Chat without leaving the conversation.

Support for Apple Pay (Beta release)

In addition to Apple Auth, we are adding support for Apple Pay within Messaging API V1 and within
Apple Business Chat node.

With this release you can use IMIconnect to build Apple Business Chat journeys that provide
customers with the option to buy products and services using Apple Pay without leaving the
conversation.

Dynamic Carousels for RCS (Beta release)

We’ve added support for configuring dynamic carousels within RCS send node. When you select the
option for dynamic carousel and define the source variables for each carousel, the platform will run
a loop on the array containing the required variables to populate as many cards in the carousel
(upto 10 cards supported at a maximum). The input variable for dynamic carousel is expected to be
an array that comes from response of an HTTP API call or from the initial custom event/inbound
webhook.

Throttling for Custom Node Integration

The custom node integration now provides you with the ability to configure the following throttling
limits:

  • Rate Limit – Limit the total number of requests per second
  • Concurrency Limit - Limit maximum number of parallel custom node executions
  • Volume Limit - Limit maximum number of custom node executions within a time period.

These limits can be used to control the rate at which the requests will be made to an API that’s
being called from the respective custom node. Once enabled, these limits apply at a platform level
to all the flows that use the concerned custom node and may impact the flow execution rate
depending on the configurations.

Debug Console

IMIconnect Debug Console has been updated to support the newly added voice nodes. Both query
by transaction id as well as query by destination id options can be used for troubleshooting and/or
searching transaction details of published flows that contain new voice nodes. Detailed information
is available only when descriptive logs are enabled for the concerned flows.

Errors for Missing Custom Nodes during Flow Import

We’ve enhanced the flow import feature to show error messages to the users when they try to
import a flow with non-existing / incompatible custom nodes.

Option to Encode the Request Body in Custom Node

The custom node config did not have the option for encoding the request body until now. We’ve
addressed this gap in this release allowing you to encode the request body with UTF-8 format while
configuring a custom node integration.

Event Scheduler

We’re glad to announce that we have made several improvements in the event scheduler app based
on your feedback. Here’s a summary of key changes and enhancements:

Support for additional file type(s) and bigger file sizes

Event scheduler will now support ‘.xlsx’ files in addition to ‘.txt’ and ‘.csv’ files. Additionally, the
upload file size limit has been increased to 75 MB from the existing 10 MB limit.

Updated error notifications

Starting with this release, we have updated the error notifications for event scheduler to include the
specific error event that caused an execution failure. Please refer the event scheduler documentation
for complete and updated details.

Social hour configuration in event scheduler

With this release we are adding the ability to configure social hours for event scheduler. Once
configured, these settings are available for use as on option at an individual schedule level. These
settings are used to configure the time intervals during which a schedule will be picked and/or not
picked for processing. Event scheduler social hour settings are not linked with social hour node
available within the flow builder or any other platform features.

Other Updates

Additionally, we have added a ‘Logs’ section for viewing the details of past event scheduler
executions and added a section to configure and manage S/FTP connections allowing you to
configure S/FTP connections once and reuse them across multiple schedules.

📘

The above event scheduler changes do not impact any of the existing triggers (i.e. the triggers
configured before this release). The changes are fully backward compatible, and no specific action is
needed at your end at the moment.

Updates to Flow Analytics

Duration Metrics in Analyze Mode

The ‘Analyse’ mode of IMIconnect visual flow builder (which is available as an add-on feature and
will only be available for clients who have subscribed for it) which enables you to analyse the
performance of live flows by showing the execution counts for each node now shows the duration
metrics additionally.

Duration metric is the average execution time taken by a node for a specified time period during
which the flow was live. Along with the node-level duration metrics, you will also get average
execution time at the overall flow-level for the selected time-period.

Flow Live Dates and Execution Stats in Version Dropdown

The duration for which a flow version was live and the associated execution counts are now available
for all the flows within the version dropdown in flow builder’s Analyse mode. These stats are
available for flows that have been published / republished / made live since the date of enabling
flow analytics for a given tenant.

Search Option for Nodes within Sankey Charts

You can now search for and locate nodes using their names while using Sankey Charts. It makes it
easier to locate a specific node when analysing the execution patterns of long flows that contain a
large number of nodes. Simply enter the node name in the search bar and click on the relevant
node name. The Sankey Chart will automatically move to the relevant node.

📘

Flow-level Sankey charts aren’t available for flows that contains the newly added voice node group. However, you can generate and view Sankey Charts for parts of flow that do not contain the voice node group. Additionally, you can generate and view Sankey charts for expanded view of each voice node group separately.

Updated Receive Node Output Variables

The list of standard output variables available for use within Receive Node has been expanded in
this release to include channel-specific variables. Examples include, twitter.attachmentType,
whatsapp.imageUrl, abc.paymentStatus, and many more. Please refer the documentation for the full list.

Updated Start Node Output Variables

The list of standard output variables available for use within Start Node has been expanded further
in this release to include some new channel-specific variables. Examples include,
whatsapp.attachments, abc.attachments, and many more. Please refer the documentation for the full list.

Updated Incoming events config for Facebook Messenger

With this release, we are phasing out support for ‘Account Linking’ and ‘Referral’ incoming
Messenger events. As a known limitation due to these changes, the Destination Type ‘Facebook
User Ref’ and Button Type ‘Link Account’ and ‘Unlink Account’ in the Messenger Send node will not
be usable at the moment.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed: The issue due to which tenant date format changes were not reflecting in flow debug logs.
  • Fixed: DataParser output variable related issue wherein data was not logging in DataParser node output variables whenever variables contained a hyphen.
  • Fixed: Logbooks not getting exported to S/FTP when encountering network/connection issues.
  • Fixed: Users were getting an error when trying to make a flow with a very high number of nodes live. This has been addressed now.
  • Fixed: Error notification to be shown when users try to use WhatsApp message templates associated with two different WhatsApp numbers within the same flow.

Additional Notes

WhatsApp has deprecated the ‘fallback’ language policy with v2.27.8 and the ‘deterministic’
language policy is now the default policy. As a result, the HSMs sent with language policy
configured as ‘fallback’ will fail. Please refer docs for full details and make relevant changes.