Introducing Connected Vehicle and Connected Assets Integration with Salesforce and AWS

This post describes how to gather, collect, and distribute data from your connected vehicles and connected assets, such as manufacturing machinery or utility meters, into the Salesforce Industry Cloud solutions using Amazon Web Services (AWS) services. With AWS Internet of Things (AWS IoT), there’s AWS IoT FleetWise, a managed service to efficiently collect vehicle data and organize it in the cloud; AWS IoT SiteWise, a managed service that makes it simple to collect, store, organize, and monitor data from industrial equipment at scale; and AWS IoT Core, which you can use to securely connect devices to the cloud. Read on to learn how to use those services to send data to Salesforce Automotive Cloud, Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud, and Salesforce Energy and Utilities Cloud.

Lasting customer relationships are built on informed interactions, and customer service agents must be empowered with timely, relevant information. With the right tools, automakers, manufacturers, utilities, and energy providers can deliver customer interactions and experiences powered by near real-time insights. By bringing telemetry data to orchestration across marketing, sales, commerce, and service—at scale—automakers, manufacturers, utilities, and energy providers can build connected experiences with Salesforce and AWS.

Prerequisites

This integration uses Rules for AWS IoT, a feature of AWS IoT Core, which give your devices the ability to interact with AWS services and third-party services like Salesforce Connected Vehicle and Connected Assets. Rules are analyzed and actions are performed based on MQTT topic streams to support the following tasks:

• Augment or filter data received from a device
• Write device data to Amazon DynamoDB, a serverless, NoSQL, fully managed database with single-digit millisecond performance, or Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), an object storage service built to retrieve any amount of data from anywhere
• Send a push notification to Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS), a fully managed Pub/Sub service for application-to-application (A2A) and application-to-person (A2P) messaging, or an Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), which offers fully managed message queuing for microservices and serverless applications
• Send message data to a web application or service

An AWS account is required to access the following AWS services:

• AWS IoT Core: Connect, manage, and scale your device fleets easily and reliably without provisioning or managing servers; the service’s native MQTT broker supports persistent connections and advanced message retention and handles millions of devices and topics simultaneously. Within AWS IoT Core exists the feature, Rules for AWS IoT, wherein, Rules give your devices the ability to interact with AWS services. Rules are analyzed and actions are performed based on MQTT topic streams.
• AWS IoT FleetWise: A managed service to efficiently collect vehicle data and organize it in the cloud to help improve vehicle quality, performance, and autonomy.
• AWS IoT SiteWise: A managed service to collect, store, organize, and monitor data from industrial equipment at scale to help you make better, data-driven decisions.

An appropriate license is required to use the following Salesforce Industry Clouds:

• Salesforce Automotive Cloud
• Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud
• Salesforce Energy and Utilities Cloud

Additional prerequisites include the following premium Salesforce services:

• Usage-based entitlements for connected vehicles in Automotive Cloud: Ensure the Vehicle or Asset Connected Services Entitlement add-on license is provisioned and Connected Vehicle or Asset Services is selected in your Salesforce Org.
• A Salesforce Connected App: A connected app is a framework through which an external application integrates with Salesforce using APIs and standard protocols, such as SAML, OAuth, and OpenID Connect. Connected apps use these protocols to authenticate, authorize, and provide single sign-on (SSO) for external apps. The external ­­­apps that are integrated with Salesforce can run on the Automotive or Manufacturing Industry Cloud. For example, when you log in to your Salesforce mobile app and see your data from your Salesforce Org, you are using a connected app.

Use cases

Using Salesforce Industry Clouds with AWS services helps empower original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), dealers, and fleet management companies to drive more seamless, connected experiences. Here’s how connected capabilities can help elevate your operations:

Predictive maintenance integration with AWS: Maximize predictive maintenance with the combination of AWS IoT FleetWise, AWS IoT Core, and AWS IoT SiteWise and Salesforce Industry Clouds. AWS IoT FleetWise is designed to capture and standardize vehicle data selected by the vehicle OEM or connected asset owner while AWS IoT Core facilitates OEMs, fleet owners, and vehicle and fleet owners’ near real-time processing of the captured data, resulting in instant insights. AWS IoT SiteWise helps visualize and analyze diagnostic codes and sensor data across fleets to help customers monitor performance, detect issues, and recommend service actions.

In-car notifications: Elevate driver experiences with timely, contextual alerts on scheduled services, software updates, and more. Connected Vehicle’s remote notification process empowers agents to send messages directly to the vehicle’s interface, keeping drivers informed and engaged with near real-time, relevant updates.

On-demand health insights: Equip your team with near real-time vehicle and sensor diagnostics via prebuilt Flexcards on Salesforce, which facilitate rapid access to odometer readings, fuel levels, tire pressure, and other critical metrics. Customer service agents can make informed decisions with up-to-date health metrics at their fingertips.

Data-driven customer insights: Use Salesforce Data Cloud to create a more unified view of vehicle, sensor, customer, and event data—and build rich insights for strategic decision-making. Gather insights on driver behavior, financial data, and vehicle metrics like fuel consumption or acceleration patterns and use them to drive targeted marketing campaigns, delivering personalized offers that resonate.

Solution overview

To dive deeper into the technology behind Connected Vehicle and Connected Assets, let’s first look at the flow of data from a vehicle or asset into Salesforce. For Connected Vehicles, carmakers install onboard telematics control units (TCUs) at the factory that can capture, process, and store vehicle data. Similarly, fleet owners can accomplish the same functionality by using plug-in dongles. For Connected Assets, items such as connected sensors on machinery or smart utility meters can be used by manufacturers, utilities, and energy providers to capture, process, and store data. Within the TCUs, dongles, or meters, customers will need to develop the appropriate edge agent for either AWS IoT Core, AWS IoT FleetWise, or AWS IoT SiteWise. See a reference architecture for an automotive use case in Figure A below.

Figure A. Reference architecture using AWS IoT with Salesforce Automotive Cloud.

Within the AWS console, customers can configure which vehicle or asset data channels are selected for collection onboard a vehicle or from a smart asset. The data is sent to the AWS Cloud using Wi-Fi or 4G/5G wireless networks via AWS IoT services such as AWS IoT Core, AWS IoT FleetWise, or AWS IoT SiteWise. These AWS services can help determine what data is captured from sensors and how often it is sent to the cloud. They also can orchestrate the transportation of the data, do onboard processing of data “at the edge”, and send data immediately when a data signal exceeds specified thresholds. This can minimize the data size and cost associated with sending near real-time triggers. These campaigns can be defined in the cloud and then deployed by OEM’s or fleet owners to a fleet of vehicles or assets to help meet your unique business needs.

When connected vehicle or asset data is generated, AWS serves as the initial processing and storage platform, empowering companies to manage data based on urgency and type. For example, Amazon Timestream—simple-to-manage time-series databases optimized for security, performance, availability, and scalability—uses time-series data to preserve a detailed timeline of each asset’s performance, while Amazon S3 provides scalable storage for broader datasets, creating a virtual archive that supports in-depth analysis when required.

Consider the example of event data for time-sensitive events, such as vehicle fault codes. Once AWS has processed and stored the data, it is sent to middleware like Mulesoft or Amazon EventBridge, a service that makes it simpler to help customers build event-driven applications at scale. That data will be received and ingested by a purpose-built inbound event handler. Then, it will be authenticated using Salesforce connected app framework through standard protocols like SAML, OAuth, and OpenID Connect, all of which provide SSO.

Once the data is authenticated using Salesforce connected apps it is delivered to an out-of-the-box inbound platform event. That event is then processed directly into Salesforce’s Actionable Event Orchestration, an application designed to manage near real-time responses. Within the application, Orchestration Inbound Events—a dedicated event stream—brings data directly into Salesforce, enriching it with CRM context and facilitating split-second, automated decision-making. Predefined business rules within Actionable Event Orchestration make sure that each event triggers the right response, such as notifying the customer, creating a support case, or dispatching a technician. For less time-sensitive data, Salesforce may simply update the customer record, gradually building a detailed history that reflects each asset’s journey.

Integration overview

With the data now in Salesforce, the Salesforce Automotive Cloud platform’s capabilities further extend its value. After the transformation and authentication is done, event data is interpreted, orchestrated, and processed by the Orchestration Inbound Events business API. Actionable Event Orchestration uses a series of prebuilt decision tables to dynamically route to the run procedure actions contained in expression set rules. This is where CRM data, event data, and actions converge to power experiences. Industry Clouds by Salesforce unlock the new context service definition that represents the mapping of an event payload. The context definition is used as the input for the run procedure that initiates the orchestration. Multiple context definitions can be created depending on the type of request payload structure you expect for each event type or subtype.

Let’s break down the workflow on the Salesforce side that prepares the event stream;

1. Create a connected app to authenticate.

2. Create a context definition that represents the event payload structure like Figure B below (inbound JSON example) and Figure C (context mapping) below.

{
  "sourceSystemIdentifier": "102",
  "type": "Transmission Issue",
  "subtype": "Transmission Over Temperature",
  "category": "FAULT",
  "eventData": "{\"Event\":{\"vin\":\"EFGHTYUIF56789GH\",\"id\":\"0vLSE00000000G92AI\",\"businessSObjectType\":\"Vehicle\",\"faults\":[{\"code\":\"P0218\",\"type\":\"repair\",\"description\":\"Engine Overheating\"},{\"code\":\"P0219\",\"type\":\"repair\",\"description\":\"Low Battery Warning\"}],\"location\":{\"latitude\":34,\"longitude\":56},\"signals\":[{\"value\":\"34\",\"timeStamp\":\"2023-05-16T15:13:41.236Z\",\"dataType\":\"string\",\"unit\":\"cm\",\"name\":\"speed\"}]}}",
  "additionalEventCriteria": {
    "fieldList": [
      {
        "field": "priority__c",
        "value": "high"
      }
    ]

Figure B. Inbound JSON example

Figure C. Context mapping

3. Complete the following in the Actionable Event Orchestration app:

• Create an event type, event subtype, and category.
• Create a run procedure mapped to the event types created.
• Configure the run procedure expression set (Shown in Figure D below).

i. Configure the expression set CRM data enrichment according to the event variables;
ii. Configure the actions that are to be triggered from this event type and data.

Figure D. Run procedure expression set

4. Configure filter and match decision tables:

• Refresh the decision table to automatically insert the orchestration configuration and mapping details.

Orchestration Inbound Events empowers Salesforce to respond to critical events in near real time, automating actions like SMS notification or technician deployment to address issues quickly—even before customers notice. For data that does not require immediate response, Salesforce Data Cloud captures the information, creating enriched profiles for each customer and asset. By connecting AWS with CRM records, Data Cloud facilitates more intelligent engagement in future interactions.

AWS provides advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities through Amazon SageMaker, which delivers an integrated experience for analytics and AI with unified access to all your data. With AWS and Salesforce Data Cloud integration you can bring your own model (BYOM), an arrangement that empowers companies to deploy custom machine learning models in Amazon SageMaker and analyze the data hosted on AWS for valuable insights.

Predictive maintenance is one impactful application; by identifying patterns in historical data, Amazon SageMaker models can forecast potential issues before they occur, helping companies take preventive action. This proactive approach, coupled with customer engagement insights from Amazon SageMaker, helps detect usage trends and recurring issues, supporting a more personalized experience for each customer. Integrating predictive insights from Amazon SageMaker into Salesforce Data Cloud helps empower companies to anticipate issues based on recurring patterns. This predictive capability helps companies be proactive in notifying customers, whether it’s suggesting preventive maintenance or timely upgrades to reduce help reduce potential disruption.

In Agentforce, service agents gain full context, equipped with both near real-time alerts from Actionable Event Orchestration and historical insights from Data Cloud. That combination empowers agents to respond to immediate customer inquiries with an understanding of each asset’s history, making proactive, informed service possible and supporting a superior customer experience. In a fully connected experience, AWS and Salesforce provide an integrated solution to customers: AWS handles initial data storage and analysis while Salesforce facilitates near real-time action, builds enriched customer profiles, and simplifies proactive engagement.

Conclusion

The integration of Connected Assets and Connected Vehicle with Salesforce and AWS allows OEMs and asset owners to better serve their customers through the convergence of cloud computing, IoT technology, and customer relationship management. The AWS and Salesforce solution helps empower automakers, manufacturers, utilities, and energy providers to transform raw data into actionable insights and superior customer experiences. Together AWS and Salesforce support a responsive, data-driven approach designed to help transform raw data into valuable customer interactions, creating a more seamless experience that drives satisfaction and loyalty. For more details on getting started, refer to the AWS IoT documentation, Salesforce Industry Clouds solutions, and the sample guidance for integrating Salesforce Automotive Cloud with AWS.