Congratulations - You just purchased ThreatSwitch! The fun part starts now, getting your ThreatSwitch account set up and ready for your company to use. Not to worry, we have put together a quick document outlining how to get going with using TSW. Below are six steps and a few quick tips to help with the rollout of ThreatSwitch to your Security Team, Employees and company.
Step 1: Communicating ThreatSwitch to you Company
Before you upload data into ThreatSwitch, let your company know there will be a change in how they perform trainings, sign important documentation and communicate security threats or foreign travel requests.
Employees - Send a “Welcome Email” to the end users who will be using the system. Unsure as to what to say? No worries, we have a sample email you can customize to your liking. This will let people know how to access ThreatSwitch and log into their account.
IT Department - Your IT Department will need to whitelist ThreatSwitch in order for employees to access the system. Please request for your IT Department to Whitelist this URL and IP Address. Website: .threatswitch.com & IP Address: 198.2.136.216
Security Team - Finished with the steps above?! It is time to define who is going to help you manage ThreatSwitch! Define a team of Administrators and Security Managers who will be able to create, assign and review the information in ThreatSwitch.
The main item to be aware of, is Admins have access to view all employees in the system, as well as to create, assign and manage information in TSW. Security Managers can only create, assign and manage the employees that are in their Cage Code.
Step 2: Reviewing and Distributing Knowledgebase Articles
To eliminate a handful of the questions about how to use the platform, distribute the Knowledge Base Center to your employees and Security Managers. Below are a handful of Support Articles that will help everyone have a better understanding on what ThreatSwitch is, when to use it and how to use the platform efficiently.
Step 3: Define a Roll Out Plan with Target Dates
Now that you have communicated ThreatSwitch to the company, the next step is defining a roll out plan for: 1) the Security Team 2) Employees (by Business Unit or Departments). This step is to define the plan for smoothly executing Step 5.
The roll out can and should be done in multiple phases.
Best practice - first rolling the platform out to the Security Managers + Administrators who will be managing ThreatSwitch. Once the Security Team understands how to use the platform efficiently, the second roll out will include employees.
Inviting employees into the system can be done in different ways; all at once, by Business Unit, by Cage Code or by department.
There isn’t a right or wrong way to do this, the most important thing is to have a plan and define key dates on executing each stage of the roll out. The entire rollout process should take less than 30 days.
Once the planning has been completed, the next stage involves loading all personnel into the system.
Step 4: Loading Data Into ThreatSwitch
Loading data into the platform will be the most time consuming portion of implementing ThreatSwitch. Managing and maintaining the data on a go forward basis will be an easy process. Follow the below steps to correctly get your data into the system. This process should only take 7 business days.
Importing Personnel - To successfully import your cleared personnel, import the data with the templates provided and in the order that they are provided. If the population is small, you can manually enter the employees.
CSV Import Template <250 users per file>- This is the first import you will perform, in the template it requires you to enter the employee’s email address. The email address is what the employee uses to log into ThreatSwitch. Once the import is successful, you can then add all additional fields by importing the JPAS/DISS file.
JPAS or DISS Import Template <250 users per file>- This file will include all other information that is important for managing personnel. We have Support Articles to help with this process.
Adding Facilities and Contracts - Start building out your ThreatSwitch! Easy additions are adding facilities and contracts. Want to learn how? Check out these documents:
Importing and Editing Forms - Adding documents that require employees to sign and return can now be managed in ThreatSwitch. Start uploading your company’s documents (DD441, NATO Briefing, HR documents, etc) and assigning the required sign off locations -- review this article to learn more.
Creating Trainings - Want to add your annual training to ThreatSwitch? Or create a training on how to use ThreatSwitch incorporating Support Documents and best practices? Look no further, our platform can support this and this support article highlights on to build out a training.
Managing Employees - add Contracts, Eligibility, Accesses, Badges, and more to each employee → Managing your people in TSW
Step 5: Execute the Roll-Out Strategy
Since you already defined the roll out plan and all users are in the system, the next step is executing the roll out plan defined in Step 3. A few tips are:
Send a reminder email that ThreatSwitch will now be used internally.
Include “TSW Best Practices for Employees”, this outlines how to use the most popular features
Put a request in to ThreatSwitch for our team to send the “Welcome Emails” so they are able to log in and reset their password.
Step 6: Enforce ThreatSwitch and the Processes
Change is good and change is hard. In order for your company to be successful with using TSW you need to require everyone to use the platform. Need help brainstorming ways to keep ThreatSwitch relevant? Check out the below recommendations or reach out to your Customer Success Manager.
Create a training for how to use ThreatSwitch as an Employee and assign it to all personnel and/or new hires.
Require New Hires to sign all HR Documents via TSW
Questions? No need to fret, your Customer Success Manager will walk you through this during the Onboarding and during Progress Calls. Also, you can ask questions 24/7/365 through our platform using Chat (the pop up in the bottom right hand side of the page).