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Customer support at Equinox differs from traditional models, because for us, it is all about serving customers. Equinox does not have chat bots or “answer” scripts; instead, humans answer all calls and emails. Furthermore, they respond by looking at your actual system and understanding each installation! That’s why our Protector support specialists are so familiar with all the various (and often overlooked!) system features. This article summarizes my conversation with them about that very topic. To learn more about any item discussed herein or to see a feature in action, contact Equinox Support or Equinox Training. They’re always happy to help!
I first spoke with Alex Vandyke who says subscriptions are his favorite feature in Protector 11. Subscriptions let you define specific activities that, when met, trigger alerts through email, SNMP traps, and even SMS (text). You may customize a subscription’s recipients, subject line, message, attachments, and format. Because this functionality extends to alerting on cases, event rules, and incidents, subscriptions provide comprehensive coverage. Their ability to swiftly notify and keep our customers well-informed make subscriptions his favorite Protector 11 feature.
Chris Lowe thinks the Show Details window accessed from the Warehouse grid wins the prize for favorite feature. This valuable troubleshooting tool allows anyone to view the raw data from a selected row in the Warehouse as well as the filename from which the record came. The Show Details window is not only great for Equinox Support, but it also gives our customers additional information about the phone numbers and how they are presented in the raw data. Besides viewing it, you can copy the raw data from the Show Details window to the clipboard and paste it anywhere, including into an email.
Ernest Howell explains why usage data processing speed is his all-time favorite aspect of Protector 11. The Protector 10 application could maintain real-time processing. However, if it experienced an outage over a weekend and was not restored until the start of a new business week, a system that delivered thousands of empty CDR files per hour hindered Protector 10’s ability to once again resume real-time processing for hours, sometimes even days. Testing and production environments measure Protector 11 processing speed about 9 times faster than Protector 10. He’s quick to add that “Protector 11 means empty CDR files are no longer the bane of my existence!” The significantly improved speed increases efficiency for both customers and Support alike and frees us all to focus on other tasks.
Christi Vanoye appreciates Protector 11’s reporting and Warehouse features most of all. Giving you the ability to create your own report templates based on usage data in addition to case information is really a game changer. In working with our customers, she has seen them use scheduled reports in very creative ways to supplement their real-time fraud monitoring in Protector 11. The Warehouse feature is also a favorite because of its intuitive interface and speed of searching.
Ernest points out that during the 20+ years he worked with Protector 10, it served our customers and Equinox very well. He finds it refreshing though to see a newly-designed interface with a host of new features. The way Protector 11 is implemented benefits customers in the form of quicker load times, chart-driven dashboards (that let you quickly analyze data and provide status reports to management), easier time zone configuration, ad hoc reporting, and LDAP password enforcement, just to name a few.
Christi explains that Protector 11’s ability to profile and monitor international traffic by called country, cost band, and time period has resulted in faster fraud detection and lower rates of false alarms across the board. Those are the most important functions of a fraud management system, so that’s where Protector 11 delivers a huge benefit to customers. Also, using cost bands with the associated rate import is one of the most impactful benefits of Protector 11.
Alex believes both subscriptions and reports stand out as excellent features in Protector 11 due to the system’s ability to parse the data it’s processing for informational purposes. When dealing with fraud, time matters, so this function is quite beneficial. The system is installed with multiple standard built-in report and subscription templates for immediate use. Of course, both areas allow you to create new templates and offer a plethora of customization options. This versatility lets you alert very granularly and effectively.
Chris explains that virtual naming is extremely valuable and had been requested for years. Virtual case names and folders dynamically organize data based on the attributes you select. Because Protector dynamically applies the naming conventions, it updates the name change to every case—current, future, and past cases as needed. And you control the names directly in Protector 11 (i.e., Equinox Support does NOT have to change your configuration and is happy to show you where and how to perform this task).
Chris emphasizes one feature as the best because it allows our customers and us to sleep better at night! The ability to keep the connection to the SQL server is something no one sees or thinks about. In the past, when an afterhours call came in at 2AM, losing Protector’s connection to the SQL database was the worst. Protector 11 is far more stable and has fewer SQL connection interruptions, which allows the application to run and avoid most hiccups in network connectivity.
Christi knows that maintaining regions and rates in Protector 10 is cumbersome. In stark contrast, Protector 11 entirely automates the process of maintaining region and country information and also dramatically simplifies the rate import process.
Ernest cites Protector 11’s extensibility as the most notable difference between the two products. Technology constantly evolves. Levering recent technological advancements, the software engineers at Equinox transformed a great product (Protector 10) into a super great product. When someone requested an enhancement to the Protector 10 application, it almost always involved coding. Based on the solid base of 20+ years of wonderful ideas from customers and our own staff, those engineers designed Protector 11 to be nimbler and more adaptive so most changes can be configured rather than coded!
Alex highlights the most notable distinction between Protector 10 and Protector 11 in the presentation of data. Protector 11's speed, ability to enrich usage data, and interactive interfaces for accessing that data mean that everyone—Equinox Support and customers alike—can obtain the necessary information quickly and efficiently. This, in turn, facilitates the completion of tasks with greater speed.
Our Support and training team members provide extraordinary and personal service to every customer. Here’s who you can count on for assistance with your Protector application:
You can get instructions on many topics our Protector specialists mentioned by visiting: www.equinoxis.com/login.php. Poignant resources include Protector 11 Subscriptions Bulletin, Protector 11 Field Reference List, Protector 11 Reporting Bulletin, Protector Investigation Tools (August 1, 2023 webinar), Naming / Organizing Cases (tutorial), Creating Report Templates (tutorial), and Searching the Warehouse (tutorial). As always, the Equinox team is here to help.
