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How to create and manage an Automatic awareness program

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This article explains how to create, configure, and manage an Automatic awareness program in SMARTFENSE, a feature that allows you to distribute training campaigns in a planned manner, aligned with your organization's objectives.

Overview

The Automatic awareness program feature lets you manage awareness programs made up of predefined campaigns, distributed over a period of 1 to 3 years, and targeted at a specific universe of users.

Programs consist of a set of campaigns that are assigned to users by groups, functional areas, hierarchical levels, and/or specific users.

Once the program is created, all associated campaigns can be viewed both in the calendar and in the campaign list, from where they can be edited individually.

The contents provided to each user, along with each one's start and expiration dates, are the same for everyone. You can choose from a wide variety of fixed programs from the Program type field. This format is useful, for example, to comply with regulations such as GDPR or ISO/IEC 27002.

How to access

  1. Log in to SMARTFENSE with an administrator account.
  2. Go to Campaigns > Programs.
  3. Click New program to start the configuration.

Configuring a new program

The creation of a program is organized into five sections. Complete each one in order.

1. General program data

  1. Name: define an identifying name to make it easier to manage the different programs.
  2. Description: add a description of the program you are creating.

2. Program configuration

  1. Select the Program type you want to implement.
  1. In the Which components do you want to use in this program? field, check the components you want to include. The available options, depending on your current contract, are:
    • Interactive modules
    • Videos
    • Video games
    • Newsletters
    • Exams
    • Surveys
    • Phishing and ransomware simulations
  2. To exclude a component, uncheck it from the list. For example, if you want the program to contain only Interactive modules and Newsletters, uncheck the rest.

Use the Preview program button to see each available option in detail before continuing.

3. Recipients

In this section you can select different types of groupings as recipients of the campaign: Groups, Functional areas, Hierarchical levels, Smart groups, and Individual users.

You can combine the selected groupings in two ways:

  • Assign users who belong to at least one grouping of each type.
  • Assign users who belong to any of the selected groupings.

Users must belong to at least one grouping of each type. Users who meet each of the following criteria will be assigned to the campaign:

  • Be part of at least one of the selected Groups.
  • And be part of at least one of the selected Functional areas.
  • And also be part of at least one of the selected Hierarchical levels.
  • And finally be part of at least one of the selected Smart groups.

Users must belong to any of the selected groupings. Users who meet any of the following criteria will be assigned to the campaign:

  • Be part of at least one of the selected Groups.
  • Or be part of at least one of the selected Functional areas.
  • Or be part of at least one of the selected Hierarchical levels.
  • Or be part of at least one of the selected Smart groups.

Specific users assigned individually are independent of the grouping configuration defined.

4. Planning

  1. Define in which week of the year the awareness program will begin.

5. Additional configuration for exam campaigns

If the program includes exam campaigns, configure:

  1. Passing percentage: define the minimum percentage of correct answers required to pass the program's exams.
  2. Available minutes: define the amount of time the user will have to complete the exams.

Saving and generating the program

  1. Once all the sections are completed, click Save.
  2. The platform will generate the schedule for the selected program.

The program generation process can take up to 15 minutes, depending on the number of components selected.

Managing created programs and campaigns

Once a program is created, the campaigns can be managed from different calendar views.

Calendar

In Calendar > Campaigns, the campaigns belonging to a program are identified with the two-gear symbol. Before each campaign starts, you can:

  • Modify assigned users
  • Adjust the duration
  • Change the topic
  • Delete specific campaigns

Campaign list

In Calendar > Campaign lists, you can view all scheduled campaigns and edit or delete them.

Active programs

In Calendar > Programs, the list of all active programs is shown, from where they can be edited or deleted as needed.

馃挕 Best practices

  • Clearly define the user universe before creating the program to avoid later reassignments.
  • Use Preview program to validate the components and contents before saving.
  • Adjust the planning by taking into account the organization's high operational load periods to improve the completion rate.
  • Regularly review the campaigns from Calendar > Campaigns to keep the program aligned with the awareness objectives.
  • Combine this automatic program with one-off campaigns outside the program to reinforce critical topics or react to recent incidents.

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