Set-up Azure Communication Services for sending SMS

1. Create an Azure Communication Services Resource as described in the official Microsoft documentation.
2. Under SMS concepts in Azure Communication Services - An Azure Communication Services concept document | Microsoft Learn you can read about supported sender types. With the help of the information on that page, decide on which sender type you would like to use. Once decided, enable the selected sender type to be able to start sending SMS messages.
    

Prepare in Nimbus

In our example, we have 3 Nimbus Services: 

• a Contact Center Service which can directly be reached by Customers,
• a SMS opt-in Service which cannot be reached directly by Customers,
• … and a SMS opt-out Service which can be reached by Customers.

1. Create the parameters

In Nimbus configuration, create the following Parameters:

2. Create a SharePoint List

Create a SharePoint list, which will keep track of the subscribed Agents. In our example the name of the list is SMS Notification Opt-in. The list should contain the following columns:

• Title: Text column, containing the phone numbers of the subscribed Customers.
• Subscribed at: Date column, containing the date of the subscription.
• Received Notifications: Number column, containing the number of SMS messages sent to the Customer.
• Last Notified At: Date column, containing the date of the last SMS notification sent to the Customer

3. Contact Center Service

The Contact Center Service triggers the Notify subscribers Nimbus Power Automate Connector flow if the call volume is low and thus the CC capacity is high. 

💡If no Agents are available to answer a call, the Customer will be transferred to a second Service, the SMS notification opt-in Service, to get the option to subscribe to the notifications about the call center capacity. Here is the Nimbus workflow:

Overview of the workflow for the Contact Center Service

 

 

Description	Screenshot
After accepting the call, start with the Get Available Users Workflow Activity and store the number of currently available Agents in the AvailableUsers parameter.  💡This step will cause a Trigger Event to run the “Notify Subscribers” Power Automate Flow in case the number of available Users falls above a certain threshold configurable in Power Automate.
Next with Check Parameter we check the value of the previously set AvailableUsers parameter. If the value of the parameter is 0, then we take the No One Available exit.
If the No One Available exit was taken in the previous step, then we are not queuing the call, instead we transfer the call to the SMS Opt-In Service, where the Customer can opt-in for SMS notifications in case Agents become available.
In case the No Match or Not Set exit of the Check Parameter activity is taken (in case there is at least one available Agent) the call is sent to the Queue (Queue Task). Within the Queue we are playing music first for 30 seconds and in case no Agent answered the call within those 30 seconds, then we are again checking if there are available Agents.  If yes, then we start playing music again for 30 seconds, and we are doing all the activities within the queue again until either the Queue Time Limit is reached (Check Task) or no Agents are available.  When either the Queue Time Limit is reached or no Agents are available, we take the call out of the queue (Cancel Task) and we send it to the SMS Opt-In Service.

4. SMS opt-in Service

The SMS notification opt-in Service handles opt-ins of Customers.

Overview of the workflow for the SMS opt-in Service

 

 

Description	Screenshot
After accepting the call, start with an Input Customer Workflow Activity to let the Customer decide whether to opt-in for SMS notifications.
If the Customer selects to opt-in, then the current phone number will be announced and the Input Customer activity will ask the Customer whether to opt-in with the calling phone number or with another one.
If the Customer wants to opt-in with the calling phone number, then we store the E164 formatted phone number in the SMSNotificationPhoneNumber parameter.
If the Customer wants to opt-in with a different phone number, then we ask the Customer to provide the alternate phone number without the leading ‘+’ as the ‘+’ symbol cannot be entered via DTMF. Once the Customer provided the number, the Collect Information activity will save it in the SMSNotificationPhoneNumber parameter. Right after with the Save to Parameter activity, we add the leading ‘+’ to have an E164 formatted phone number in the parameter.
Finally we set the value of the SMSNotificationOptIn parameter to 1 (which will trigger the Handle opt-in Power Automate flow) and we read back the phone number that will receive the SMS messages.

5. SMS opt-out Service

The SMS notification opt-out Service handles opt-outs of Customers. It needs to have an assigned phone number so that Customers can reach the Service externally to easily opt-out. Customers will be automatically opt-out when they have received 5 notifications. Depending on your country's legislation, the number might need to be toll-free. Here is an overview of the workflow:

Overview of the workflow for the SMS opt-out Service

 

 

Description	Screenshot
After accepting the call, start with a Save to Parameter Workflow Activity to set the value of the SMSNotificationOptIn parameter to 0. This action will trigger the Handle opt-out Power Automate flow.
At the same time with triggering the Power Automate flow, we tell the Customer that no new notifications will be sent to the calling phone number.

Create the “Handle Opt-In” Power Automate Flow

This flow is triggered by a parameter update within a Nimbus workflow. If a Customer opts-in using the IVR in Nimbus, we want to create an entry in the subscribers list with the subscribers phone number.

Overview of the Power Automate flow

 

 

1. Start with the When a task changes state trigger of the Nimbus Connector.

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = Nimbus dynamic content
Service Item	Select the UPN  of the Service
Task Events	Select Parameter Updated
Trigger conditions	On the Settings page of the trigger add the following trigger conditions to make sure the flow only gets triggered when the SMSNotificationPhoneNumber parameter is set to 1: Condition 1: @equals(triggerBody()?['updatedParameterName'],'SMSNotificationOptIn') Condition 2: @equals(triggerBody()?['updatedParameterValue'],'1')

2. Add a Data Operation "Filter array" action to your flow.
3. Rename the action to SMSNotificationPhoneNumber
4. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = Nimbus dynamic content
From	🌟Task Information Custom Context Parameters
Filter Query	item()?['Name'] is equal to SMSNotificationPhoneNumber

5. Add a Control "Condition" action to your flow.
6. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Description
Condition expression	length(body('SMSNotificationPhoneNumber')?[0]['Value']) is greater than 5

In the True branch

7. Add a Azure Communication Services SMS "Send SMS" action to your flow (If you do not have a connection created yet, Power Automate will ask you to create one by providing the name and the connection string of your ACS instance).
8. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in
From Phone Number	Select a phone number from the dropdown box or manually enter the sender in case you would like to use another method – like Short Code, Dynamic Alphanumeric Sender ID, Preregistered Alphanumeric Sender ID, etc. – to send the SMS.
Recipients	Click on and add [ { "to": @{body('SMSNotificationPhoneNumber')?[0]['Value']} } ]
Message	Lunifico Call Center: You have been opt-in to the notification Service.
DeliveryReport	Yes

9. Add a SharePoint "Create Item" action to your flow.
10. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = Nimbus dynamic content
Site Address	Either select the SharePoint site containing the SharePoint list from the dropdown box or manually enter the site URL
List Name	Select the SharePoint List created for keeping track of SMS notification opt-ins
Title	@{body('SMSNotificationPhoneNumber')?[0]['Value']}
Subscribed at	@{utcNow()}
ReceivedNotifications	1

In the “False” branch

No action is required.

Create the “Notify subscribers” Power Automate Flow

This Power Automate flow is triggered, when in the Contact Center Service the Get Available Users activity saves the number of available Users into the AvailableUsers parameter and the number of available Users is above a certain threshold, which is configurable in the trigger conditions as explained below. Once the Power Automate flow is triggered, it will send an SMS to the subscribed Users letting them know that Agents are available.

Overview of the Power Automate flow

 

 

1. Start with the When a task changes state trigger of the Nimbus Connector.

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = Nimbus dynamic content
Service Item	Select the UPN  of the Service
Task Events	Select Parameter Updated
Trigger conditions	On the Settings page of the trigger add the following trigger conditions to make sure the flow only gets triggered when the AvailableUsers parameter is set above a certain threshold: Condition 1: @equals(triggerBody()?['updatedParameterName'],'AvailableUsers') Condition 2: @greaterOrEquals(triggerBody()?['updatedParameterValue'],'2') In this example we notify subscribed Customers when two or more Agents become available. ☝ Make sure to adjust the above trigger condition in case you need a different threshold.

2. Add a Variable "Initialize variable" action to your flow.
3. Rename the action to MinTimeBetweenNotificationsInMinutes.
4. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in
Name	MinTimeBetweenNotificationsInMinutes
Type	Integer
Value	60 The value of this variable will control for how long Power Automate should wait at least between two SMS messages sent to the same Customer. With this parameter we can avoid spamming the Customer with SMS messages.  ☝ Feel free to adjust the value of this parameter based on your needs. With a value of 60 you can make sure that Power Automate waits at least 60 minutes between two SMS messages.

5. Add a Variable "Initialize variable" action to your flow.
6. Rename the action to NumberOfSubscribersToInform.
7. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in
Name	NumberOfSubscribersToInform
Type	Integer
Value	3 The value of this variable will control how many subscribed Customers maximum will be notified about Agents being available.  ☝ With this setting we want to avoid sending the SMS notification to a large number of Customers at the same time, which would probably result for several Customers in not getting to an Agent again.

8. Add a SharePoint "Get Items" action to your flow.
9. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = Nimbus dynamic content
Site Address	Either select the SharePoint site containing the SharePoint list from the dropdown box or manually enter the site URL
List Name	Select the SharePoint List created for keeping track of SMS notification opt-ins
Filter query	LastNotifiedAt lt '@{addMinutes(utcNow(),mul(variables('MinTimeBetweenNotificationsInMinutes'),-1))}' 💡 With this filter we are making sure to only retrieve Customers from the SharePoint List, who did not receive any notifications in the last x minutes (x is controlled by the MinTimeBetweenNotificationsInMinutes variable)
Order By	LastNotifiedAt asc 💡 We would like to query primarily those Customers who have not received a notification for the longest time
Top Count	@{variables('NumberOfSubscribersToInform')} 💡 We would like to get those x Customers (controlled by the NumberOfSubscribersToInform variable), who have not received a notification for the longest and at the same time who did not receive notifications within the last x minutes (x is controlled by the MinTimeBetweenNotificationsInMinutes variable).
All other fields	<leave empty, as is>

10. Add a Azure Communication Services SMS "Send SMS" action to your flow.
11. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = SharePoint dynamic content
From Phone Number	Select a phone number from the dropdown box or manually enter the sender in case you would like to use another method – like Short Code, Dynamic Alphanumeric Sender ID, Preregistered Alphanumeric Sender ID, etc. – to send the SMS.
Recipients	🌟 Title
Message	Lunifico Call Center: You have been opt-in to the notification Service.
DeliveryReport	Yes

9. Add a SharePoint "Update Item" action to your flow.
10. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = SharePoint dynamic content
Site Address	Either select the SharePoint site containing the SharePoint list from the dropdown box or manually enter the site URL
List Name	Select the SharePoint List created for keeping track of SMS notification opt-ins
Id	🌟 ID
ReceivedNotifications	@{utcNow()}
ReceivedNotifications	@{add(int(item()?['ReceivedNotifications']),1)}   ☝Every time we send an SMS, we increment the received notifications count by 1.

Create the “Handle opt-out” Power Automate Flow

This flow is triggerd by a parameter update within a Nimbus workflow. If a Customer opts-out using the IVR in Nimbus, we want to delete the entry from the subscribers list and opt-out the subscriber. Even if the notification via SMS did not work, we need to perform the opt-out.

Overview of the Power Automate flow

 

 

1. Start with the When a task changes state trigger of the Nimbus Connector.

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = Nimbus dynamic content
Service Item	Select the UPN  of the Service
Task Events	Select Parameter Updated
Trigger conditions	On the Settings page of the trigger add the following trigger conditions to make sure the flow only gets triggered when the AvailableUsers parameter is set above a certain threshold: Condition 1: @equals(triggerBody()?['updatedParameterName'],'SMSNotificationOptIn') Condition 2: @equals(triggerBody()?['updatedParameterValue'],'0')

2. Add a SharePoint "Get Items" action to your flow.
3. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = Nimbus dynamic content
Site Address	Either select the SharePoint site containing the SharePoint list from the dropdown box or manually enter the site URL
List Name	Select the SharePoint List created for keeping track of SMS notification opt-ins
Filter query	Title eq '@{triggerOutputs()?['body/CustomerTelNumber']}'
All other fields	<leave empty, as is>

4. Add a Azure Communication Services SMS "Send SMS" action to your flow.
5. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = SharePoint dynamic content
From Phone Number	Select a phone number from the dropdown box or manually enter the sender in case you would like to use another method – like Short Code, Dynamic Alphanumeric Sender ID, Preregistered Alphanumeric Sender ID, etc. – to send the SMS.
Recipients	Click on and add [ { "to": @{body('Get_items')?['value'][0]['Title']} } ]
Message	Lunifico Call Center: You habe been unsubscribed from the SMS notification Service.
DeliveryReport	No

6. Add a SharePoint "Delete item" action to your flow.
7. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = Nimbus dynamic content
Site Address	Either select the SharePoint site containing the SharePoint list from the dropdown box or manually enter the site URL
List Name	Select the SharePoint List created for keeping track of SMS notification opt-ins
Id	@{body('Get_items')?['value'][0]['ID']}
Run after	On the Settings page make sure to enable all checkboxes, to have the entry removed from the SharePoint list even if the previous action (Send SMS) fails:
All other fields	<leave empty, as is>

Optional: Create an Automatic Opt-out Power Automate Flow

On top of letting the subscribers to opt-out via the opt-out Service, or if you do not want to deal with a specific on demand opt-out Service, you could automatically out-out them after a certain amount of SMS messages sent to them. In this Use Case, as soon the ReceivedNotifications hits the number 5, we will delete the entry and opt-out the subscriber.

Overview of the Power Automate flow

 

 

1. Start with the When an item is created or modufued trigger of the SharePoint Connector.

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = Nimbus dynamic content
Site Address	Either select the SharePoint site containing the SharePoint list from the dropdown box or manually enter the site URL
List Name	Select the SharePoint List created for keeping track of SMS notification opt-ins
Trigger conditions	On the Settings page of the trigger add the following trigger conditions to make sure the flow only gets triggered when the ReceivedNotifications of an item in the SharePoint list is 5 or more:   @greaterOrEquals(triggerBody()?['ReceivedNotifications'],5)

2. Add a Azure Communication Services SMS "Send SMS" action to your flow.
3. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = SharePoint dynamic content
From Phone Number	Select a phone number from the dropdown box or manually enter the sender in case you would like to use another method – like Short Code, Dynamic Alphanumeric Sender ID, Preregistered Alphanumeric Sender ID, etc. – to send the SMS.
Recipients	Click on and add [ { "to": @{triggerBody()?['Title']} } ]
Message	Lunifico Call Center: You habe been unsubscribed from the SMS notification Service.
DeliveryReport	No

4. Add a SharePoint "Delete item" action to your flow.
5. Configure the action as follows:

Field	Fill in / 🌟 = Nimbus dynamic content
Site Address	Either select the SharePoint site containing the SharePoint list from the dropdown box or manually enter the site URL
List Name	Select the SharePoint List created for keeping track of SMS notification opt-ins
Id	@{triggerBody()?['ID']}
Run after	On the Settings page make sure to enable all checkboxes, to have the entry removed from the SharePoint list even if the previous action (Send SMS) fails:
All other fields	<leave empty, as is>