Who answers when something breaks in your awareness program
Our implementation service is designed so an organization can launch real campaigns in two weeks. A security awareness program runs for years. The gap between those two timelines explains much of what happens after go-live, and it almost never shows up in the plan.
In what happens between signing and the first campaign we covered how that launch gets prepared. This article is about what comes next, which is where security awareness platform support is really tested. It is the rest of the year, when implementation is over and the program has to keep running without anyone watching it every day.
What changes in operations once implementation ends?
Who is paying attention changes. During the rollout there are meetings, technical follow-up and people on both sides checking every step. Once the program settles into its routine, that attention spreads thin while the environment around the platform keeps moving.
Running a security awareness program depends on settings that live in systems owned by other teams. These are some of the changes we see over the course of a year:
- The email team changes the filter or moves to a new provider, and the exceptions that allowed simulations to be delivered are not carried over.
- The corporate directory is reorganized and user synchronization stops bringing in a site or an entire department.
- A certificate expires or the single sign-on configuration changes, and people can no longer reach their content.
- The person who administered the platform moves to another role and nobody inherits their access.
All four happen outside the platform and end up affecting it. They are almost always discovered late, when a campaign produces odd results or someone in management asks why a site is missing from the report.
How do you know a critical setting has stopped working?
You can wait for someone to notice, or have a place that shows it first. The platform has two screens for the second option.
The first is the Onboarding section, available since version 4.33. During implementation it works as a guided assistant and, afterwards, it stays on as a permanent dashboard of the implementation status and a log of alerts. Each section reports whether it is complete, pending or has stopped working, with overall progress visible. When a critical setting fails, the platform sends an email alert. We explain the details in the two ways to use Onboarding, on a new instance and on an active account.
The second is the implementation summary, the screen that shows every platform setting with its current value, grouped by section, and flags which ones are still at the default and which ones the organization has customized. That flag is the useful part, because it points to where nobody has made a decision yet.
In organizations with several instances, such as a headquarters with subsidiaries in different countries, the administrator of the whole group can check the Onboarding of every instance below theirs without logging into each one.
Onboarding has a timeline that suggests an order and an end, and it can be checked at any time.
Who handles support, a partner or the vendor?
Support works in tiers. The first tier is handled by an official SMARTFENSE partner, technically trained to provide it. When a request needs to go further, it is escalated to the second tier, handled by the SMARTFENSE team.
Organizations can also contract technical support directly with the vendor. In that case, SMARTFENSE handles requests from the first contact.
For day-to-day operations, the useful thing is to know your setup from the start: who handles the first tier, which channel to use to reach them and in what situations a request goes to the vendor. Knowing that path before the first problem saves you from having to work it out in the middle of one.
In what language and time zone is support provided?
SMARTFENSE operates in LATAM and Europe. In the Spanish- and Italian-speaking markets where we operate directly, support is provided in the customer’s language and within their own business hours.
For day-to-day operations, the time zone matters as much as the language. A request that comes in first thing in the morning in Bogotá or Milan reaches a team that is working those same hours.
The platform also handles a good share of everyday questions without anyone having to write to support:
- Contextual help on every screen, which explains each feature and configuration field where it is used. It arrived in version 2.10 and was expanded in 2.15.
- Administration and implementation manuals you can download from the interface itself, in Spanish, English and Italian.
- A Help Center with search and an AI agent trained on the knowledge base, to resolve questions without opening a ticket.
When a person is needed, the request goes to the first support tier assigned to your organization.
What should you review every quarter?
A short quarterly review prevents most surprises. This is the one we recommend to the organizations we work with:
- Open the implementation summary and see what is still at its default value. If something should be customized and is not, there is a decision pending.
- Check the status in Onboarding. No critical setting should show as down. If one does, the alert has already reached someone, and it is worth confirming who.
- Compare the number of people in the platform with the HR roster. A large gap is usually a synchronization that stopped bringing in a group.
- Confirm who administers the platform and make sure at least two people have access. We cover this in what breaks when the person running the program leaves.
- Tell support about any changes IT has planned for email, the directory or single sign-on. Supporting a migration costs less than rebuilding delivery afterwards.
Done every quarter, the review is short. Done once a year, it turns into a project.
After implementation
The launch has an end date and operations do not. Much of the value of a security awareness program is decided in the months when nothing seems urgent. What changes the outcome is catching problems before they reach a report, and having someone on the other side who speaks your language, works your hours and can make decisions.
If you already run a program with us, the quarterly review is a good starting point for your next conversation with the support team. If you are evaluating vendors, ask in the demo who handles the first tier, how requests are escalated to the vendor, in what language and during which hours. Implementation covers the first two weeks. What comes after, we work on together.
Frequently asked questions
Who handles SMARTFENSE technical support, a partner or the vendor?
Support works in tiers. The first tier is handled by an official SMARTFENSE partner that is technically trained to provide it, and requests that need it are escalated to the second tier, handled by SMARTFENSE. Organizations can also contract technical support directly with the vendor, in which case SMARTFENSE handles it from the first contact.
In what language and time zone is support provided?
SMARTFENSE operates in LATAM and Europe. In the Spanish- and Italian-speaking markets where it operates directly, support is provided in the customer’s language and within their own business hours.
How do you know when a platform setting has stopped working?
The Onboarding section, available since version 4.33, stays on as a permanent dashboard of the implementation status. It shows what is complete, what is pending and what has stopped working, and sends an email alert when a critical setting fails. The implementation summary also shows which settings are still at their default value.
How long does it take to implement a security awareness program with SMARTFENSE?
The guided implementation service is designed so the organization can launch real campaigns in two weeks, in defined stages with virtual meetings and technical follow-up. After that comes day-to-day operation, which lasts as long as the program does.
What should be reviewed periodically in a running security awareness program?
The settings still at their default value, the status of each critical setting, the gap between the people in the platform and the HR roster, who administers the platform, and any changes IT has planned for email, the directory or single sign-on.
Leave a Reply