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Vonage’s (News - Alert) Nexmo business is introducing a connector to Microsoft workflow automation tools. It will enable users of the Vonage API Platform to integrate SMS and text-to-speech functionality into their custom workflows. And that, the company suggests, will enable businesses to be more efficient by enabling them to communicate when critical work issues need immediate attention.

The connector is for Microsoft’s (News - Alert) Integration Platform-as-a-Service. That includes integration into Azure Logic Apps, Microsoft Flow, and PowerApps, which is a no-code application platform for power users.

"With increasingly high open rates, SMS continues to be an important vehicle for messaging, enabling companies to entrust urgent business alerts to the channel where they know they will receive immediate attention,” said Tony Jamous, president of Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform.

This communications capability will allow businesses to more easily communicate when a business process requires input for approval, a customer has an issue that needs to be acted upon, a high-priority email comes in from senior leadership, and when to touch base with a prospect who appears primed to convert into a customer. And it ties in toward the trend of embedding communications into existing business applications and meeting users where they are with real-time communications.

The connector can enable application developers using Azure Logic Apps to integrate messaging alerts into their Logic Apps to create workflows that automate business processes and connect different systems. Microsoft Flow users can employ the connector to create customized Flow notifications that can be as specific as use case demands, for example, and without needing to call on IT resources, Vonage explains. As for Microsoft PowerApps, users of that can leverage the connector to interface with applications such as Salesforce and SharePoint to create new data, expedite the creation of new applications based on that data, and to publish those apps via mobile and the web.

In addition to Salesforce and SharePoint, the connector can interface with such applications as Microsoft Dynamics, Office 365, Power BI, and ZenDesk.