InterAction Overview and Data Connector Setup Guide

1. OVERVIEW 

In order to integrate Concep Send with LexisNexis InterAction, some setup is required on the client side. This will involve creating an external facing URL for InterAction, purchasing and installing an SSL certificate, and completing some pre-requisites within the system.
Should you have any questions relating to this guide, please contact the Implementation Manager.

2. INTERACTION ENVIRONMENT / SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Concep’s integration is certified as compatible with v6.2, and thorough regression testing is carried out on this version whenever updates are made.

If you are on a a different version of InterAction, it is still very likely that the integration with Concep Send can be carried out successfully without loss of functionality; however, Concep strongly recommend all clients are on a supported version. LexisNexis downgrade and ultimately remove support for older versions following each update – please contact your LexisNexis InterAction Client Services Manager or InterAction vendor for further information.

The Integration Application Server must also have external internet connectivity to the
following URLs:

• https://api.campaigner.concep.com/service.asmx 
• https://cconnect.concep.com 
• Client specific subscription form domain – e.g. https://subscriptions.concep.com - this URL will be selected and registered by the client, following which connectivity must be allowed from the Integration Application Server.

This connectivity can be through a proxy server if one is in use. If so, these URLs may
need to be allowed on the proxy server.

3. HIGH LEVEL FUNCTIONALITY

• Automated logging of Activities in CRM
• Automated logging of Event Responses (responses to Concep Surveys) in CRM
• Automated updates of contact details and marketing list membership for your contacts and recipients via a web based “Subscription Page” 
• Automated updates of recipients’ subscription preferences for content marketing
• Simple export of Marketing Lists and Contacts from CRM into your Concep Send account from the InterAction Windows Client – via the “List Exporter”
• Automated synchronization of selected Marketing Lists from CRM to Concep Send.

4. CONNECTING CONCEP SEND AND INTERACTION 

Concep’s integration with InterAction does not require any applications to be installed within your environment. The Concep Send platform will connect to your InterAction environment through an externally facing URL pointed to your API. Details around this setup are below.

4.1. InterAction Prerequisites 

Before implementation, it is necessary to complete some prerequisites within InterAction. The following must be completed:

• Creation of an admin account.
  • This account will be used to connect to your InterAction instance and perform the following:
    • Log activities, register event responses, update contact details etc.
• Creation of the Activity Types you wish to log in InterAction. A list of possible activities will be sent to the Marketing team to confirm and create.
• Creation of global additional fields and folder specific additional fields for any data you wish to capture via surveys.
• Disabling the InterAction wildcard search criteria.
  • This is recommended to maintain data integrity should partial email addresses be entered into an event registration form.

4.2. Creating an External Facing InterAction URL 

For Concep Send to be able to connect to your InterAction environment an external facing InterAction URL must be created, the architecture for which is shown here:

This external InterAction URL will need to run over port 443 (e.g. https://interaction.companyname.com) and will need to be locked down to Concep’s range of IP addresses (see 4.2.8).

Please note that although we require the setup of an external URL, our data connector will only communicate through the API endpoint (https://interaction.companyname.com/InterActionAPI/).

4.2.1. Create the external URL 

Create an external facing URL for your instance of InterAction:

• This can be a subdomain of your business name: e.g. https://interaction.companyname.com
• Create an A record for this domain that points to the external IP address of your firewall.

4.2.2. Apply the HTTPS certificate 

In order to fully secure the link, you will need to purchase an SSL certificate for the domain you have just setup (i.e. https://interaction.companyname.com). This will then automatically secure your connection along with the username and password you provide us later:

• Obtain an SSL certificate for the external facing URL created previously.
  • If  a subdomain is used, then a wildcard SSL certificate can be used
• Install the SSL certificate for the InterAction Website on the firewall.

4.2.3. Link the external URL/IP to your internal IA website server

There are a number of ways this can be achieved and each network configuration is different which is why we don’t give instructions for this; in short the URL needs to be pointed to the Interaction IIS server.

4.2.4. Add the binding to your internal IA website 

This is so that the external request is responded to from the IIS server.

• Add a binding over port 443 for the full URL (interaction.companyname.com) onto the IA default website within IIS.

4.2.5. Enable InterAction Authentication 

It is not possible to use integrated windows authentication with our data connection due to a restriction in the latest InterAction API which enforces cross-domain security standards. Therefore, you will need to ensure that InterAction Authentication is enabled in the API Configuration section of the InterAction administrator tool.

4.2.6. Generate Keys

Ensure that the the password encryption key pair and the HMAC key has been generated. This can be found in the HMAC Settings section of API Configuration.

4.2.7. Enable anonymous API access and disable Windows Authentication 

Our data connector needs to be able to communicate directly with the InterAction API, for this to work, anonymous access will need to be granted. You will also need to disable the Windows Authentication setting, as this will take priority if both are enabled simultaneously. 

Make sure this is applied to the InterActionAPI node in IIS.

Please Note: There are certain InterAction plugins like IMO (InterAction for Microsoft Outlook) that require Windows Authentication to be enabled. If you are using any plugins that require this, you cannot disable Windows Authentication for the InterAction API in IIS.

As an alternative, you will need to instead create a virtual directory. This allows you to then keep Windows Authentication enabled on the original API while having it disabled on the virtual directory. Your external URL will then point to this second virtual directory instead (ie; https://interaction.companyname.com/InteractionAPIAnon or InterActionAPIConcep). 

LexisNexis instructions for how to create a virtual directory can be found here.

4.2.8. Lock down the URL 

Lock down the connection to Interaction by only allowing traffic from Concep’s servers.

• The IP addresses you would need to allow traffic from are:
  • 52.16.204.236
  • 52.18.180.54
  • 54.217.222.75
  • 54.217.222.76

• The firewall should also only allow https traffic. 

4.3. Contact Concep 

Having completed the steps above, please provide Concep with the following information:

• External InterAction URL
• User account (username) to be used for the connection

Concep will complete the setup process internally and feedback with any issues.

5. SECURITY 

All client data stored on Concep’s servers is located in a client specific encrypted database. The connection details to your instance of InterAction, and all passwords and other sensitive information will in addition be encrypted with unique salts for added security.

Concep takes security very seriously and is ISO27001:2013 – Information Security Management certified.