The telecom industry, known for its perpetual evolution, is undergoing significant transformation. One striking trend is the unfortunate surge in robodial and other forms of telemarketing scams. Criminals have capitalized on this medium for fraudulent activities, compelling the industry to respond with heightened security measures. Additionally, a growing global imperative is to fortify telecom networks against criminal endeavors, such as fraud and scams. This crucial shift transcends national borders, with an increasing international appetite for robust fraud prevention solutions, exemplified by SmartShield™.
In the midst of ongoing changes within the industry landscape, Veriswitch Solutions stands out as a pioneering firm boasting nearly two decades of expertise in dynamic software and telecommunications. Established by the visionary team of Umberto Mautone and Michael Hiron, the company has consistently adapted to address the ever-changing demands of the industry. SmartShield™ represents the latest groundbreaking development poised to revolutionize the field of fraud mitigation, embodying innovation and security at its core.
Beyond its primary role in preventing fraud, SmartShield™ boasts a remarkable secondary application: evaluating the efficacy of call center agents. Organizations operating call centers for political campaigns, charitable endeavors, or major clients leverage SmartShield™ to assess agent performance meticulously. In this era of telecom transformation, Veriswitch Solutions is a prime example of an enterprising company driving innovation and security in the industry.
Veriswitch Solutions: The Journey
The founders, initially operating as voice service providers in the carrier industry from 2000 to 2008 through a company named Trisun Communications, embarked on a new venture in 2008 with the establishment of Veriswitch Solutions. This transition marked their shift towards offering hosted switch and carrier management platform services. It represented a pivotal juncture in the founders’ journey. Over the years, Veriswitch has remained steadfast in delivering cutting-edge telecommunications solutions and has earned a reputation for having one of the most feature-rich platforms available in the market.
Products & Services Offered
Veriswitch Solutions specializes in providing innovative telecommunications solutions. Over the past few years, the company has dedicated itself to ensuring the integrity of its clients’ traffic. This commitment has led to the development of “SmartShield™,” a new product designed to bolster its telecommunications offerings by addressing the growing threat of telephone scams and the FCC’s increasing pressure on telecommunications providers for more aggressive intervention. Veriswitch’s portfolio includes hosted switch platform services tailored to international wholesalers, resellers, carriers, and U.S. domestic termination.
The company has adapted its platform to accommodate the specific requirements of the U.S. domestic market, incorporating features such as jurisdictional billing and number portability identification. Furthermore, it proactively addresses issues like scam calls by implementing advanced filters to combat fraud. Veriswitch’s fraud mitigation suite is capable of addressing the same threats internationally, so that carriers operating in other countries can join the fight against domestic telephone scams.
Navigating Challenges
During the early stages of Veriswitch Solutions, founders Umberto and Michael leveraged their extensive telecom experience to address challenges effectively. With a profound understanding of the industry, the company accurately identified potential clients and established a strong position in the market.
The company’s commitment to transparency and honesty set it apart in an industry often plagued by exaggeration. Instead of diversifying its services, it focused on excelling in hosted platform solutions, gaining trust, and driving referrals from satisfied clients. This dedication to core expertise was pivotal in its journey to success.
The Growth Triggers
Veriswitch Solutions’s remarkable growth can be traced back to several key factors. Firstly, the company fostered a culture of innovation and responsiveness by actively listening to client feedback and implementing suggestions, ensuring its platform remained cutting-edge and aligned with industry trends. The company’s commitment to reliability, exemplified by exceptional uptime and minimal disruptions, earned it a reputation as a trustworthy choice in the industry.
User-friendliness was another hallmark of Veriswitch Solutions’s platform, setting it apart from the often complex telecom systems. The company embraced a customer-centric approach, continuously integrating client input into its platform’s evolution, ensuring it met market demands. Importantly, the founders’ unique blend of expertise simplified intricate telecom systems, making Veriswitch’s solution accessible to a wider audience and eliminating the need for clients to maintain in-house engineers. These elements collectively triggered the company’s impressive growth in the telecommunications sector.
Introducing SmartShield™
Fraudulent calls and scams have plagued the telecommunications industry for years. Traditional methods of analyzing caller IDs and call patterns only scratch the surface when identifying fraudulent activity. The FCC has increasingly placed the onus on carriers to take action against these threats, creating a need for more advanced tools to tackle the problem effectively. In response to this, Veriswitch Solutions has developed an innovative solution called SmartShield™.
SmartShield™ represents a groundbreaking approach to fraud mitigation. Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, this cutting-edge tool conducts real-time analysis of live calls. It goes beyond the surface and delves into behavioral patterns and contextual cues within each call to assess the probability of fraud.
Key Features and Benefits:
- Behavioral Pattern Analysis: SmartShield™ examines each call for unusual behavioral patterns indicative of fraud or scams.
- Contextual Assessment: The tool considers the context of the call, adding another layer of scrutiny to identify potentially fraudulent activity.
- Multilingual Capability: SmartShield™ can analyze calls in multiple languages, expanding its effectiveness in identifying fraud, including scams, in Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese, and more.
- Actionable Data: Carriers using SmartShield™ gain a deeper level of visibility into the extent of fraud within their network. The tool provides actionable data, enabling carriers to make informed decisions.
- Flexible Response Options: When fraud is detected, carriers can choose various response options. These options include shutting down specific customer trunks, blocking calls at the source, and employing multiple methods to prevent similar fraudulent calls from traversing their network.
- True Call Evaluation: Unlike solutions that rely solely on keyword detection, SmartShield™ leverages AI to comprehensively evaluate each call for behavioral and contextual indicators, ensuring accuracy in fraud identification.
Staying Ahead of the Curve
Veriswitch Solutions has a long history of leading the way in telecommunications solutions. With SmartShield™, it continues to be at the forefront of the fight against call fraud and scams. The tool’s ability to adapt to evolving fraudster tactics, such as using deceptive messages upon call answering, sets it apart as a formidable defense against telecommunications fraud. In an industry where fraud prevention is paramount, SmartShield™ empowers carriers with the tools they need to protect their networks and customers. As a comprehensive and intelligent solution, it ensures that fraud prevention efforts go beyond mere promises and deliver results.
What Sets SmartShield™ Apart?
What sets SmartShield™ apart from competing products is its innovative approach and powerful capabilities.
Key Differentiators:
- Behavioral and Contextual Analysis: Unlike competing products that rely on keyword analysis, SmartShield™ utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning to examine each call thoroughly. It assesses behavioral patterns, context, language use, intent, and even grammar. This holistic approach ensures higher accuracy in identifying fraud while reducing false positives.
- Transparency and Non-Intrusiveness: Many other solutions route calls to an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, creating a disruptive and often ineffective experience. In contrast, SmartShield™ transparently analyzes the audio of live calls without interfering with the call’s natural flow. This means the call still reaches its intended destination while being analyzed in real-time for potential fraud.
- Focus on the Originator: SmartShield™ concentrates its analysis on the originator of the call, not the recipient. This targeted approach ensures that fraudulent calls are identified and blocked at the source while allowing legitimate calls to proceed unhindered.
Current Features and Future Enhancements
SmartShield™ is currently in beta, with impressive accuracy rates ranging from 92% to 95% based on its contextual and behavioral analysis capabilities. Some key features and enhancements include:
- Automated Blocking: In the future, SmartShield™ will automatically block scam calls as they occur and extend the block to all future calls originating from the same source.
- Alerts and Notifications: The system administrator will receive alerts via SMS or email when SmartShield™ detects and blocks a fraudulent call, ensuring swift action can be taken. Additionally, the platform sends an email notification to the customer with a comprehensive report of the call, allowing them to take further action to stop those calls from crossing their network.
- User-Friendly Reports: SmartShield™ generates informative reports that provide a detailed analysis of the blocked calls, their content, red flags, and their source. These reports empower customers to take proactive measures on their network.
Continuous Improvement through Client Feedback
SmartShield™’s development is an ongoing journey. Veriswitch Solutions recognizes the need for constant evolution and refinement in response to an ever-changing fraud landscape. Client feedback plays a pivotal role in shaping the product’s capabilities. The transparency in client relationships and Veriswitch’s commitment to data privacy and security underscore its dedication to the industry’s betterment. According to its founders, SmartShield™ is not just a product; it results from a visionary approach to solving complex problems, a testament to the power of in-house expertise, and a symbol of commitment to clients and industry integrity.
The Veriswitch Solutions Advantage
Veriswitch Solutions’s unique position in the industry stems from several factors:
In-House Development: Unlike many competitors that rely on external developers, Veriswitch Solutions takes pride in having a dedicated team led by co-founder Umberto Mautone. This in-house expertise allows quicker development and greater control over the product’s quality and security.
Understanding of the Industry: With deep experience in the telecom sector, Veriswitch Solutions understands the industry’s nuances better than most. This industry knowledge enables the team to create solutions that address its challenges and intricacies.
Client-Centric Approach: Veriswitch maintains a close relationship with its clients, considering them part of the Veriswitch family. The founders are hands-on, and clients have direct access to them 24/7. This commitment to partnership and personalized service has earned Veriswitch a stellar reputation.
Carrier Neutrality: Veriswitch Solutions is carrier-neutral, ensuring it doesn’t compete with its clients or compromise their interests. This neutrality fosters trust and a sense of security among Veriswitch’s clientele.
Thriving Amidst the Pandemic Challenge
Veriswitch Solutions thrived during the pandemic despite the telecom industry facing a surge in scams and spam calls. The company’s foresight in its development of robocall and scam mitigation suite early on were hard at work analyzing data and traffic patterns to counter the surge.
The company’s range of filters, such as ANI validation and the innovative Call Protection, played a pivotal role by drastically reducing the amount of randomly generated caller IDs traversing the network and flagging frequently used caller IDs associated with fraudulent calls, automatically rejecting such calls at the gate.
The landscape changed with the formation of the Traceback Group, a joint effort by the FCC and carriers to trace fraudulent calls back to their origin. Non-cooperation with this initiative was frowned upon by regulatory authorities, prompting reluctant clients to comply and take action against scams and fraud in their networks.
Leadership at Veriswitch
With a television, radio, and advertising background, Michael brought a unique perspective to the telecom industry when he collaborated with Umberto early on in the carrier services business. His ability to blend creative thinking with telecom solutions led to a fruitful partnership with Umberto. Together, they co-founded Veriswitch Solutions, where Michael’s creative vision, communication skills, and brilliant marketing strategies have complemented Umberto’s technical prowess, creating a dynamic leadership team that continues to drive the company’s success and making waves in the industry.
Umberto, a computer science graduate in 1992, embarked on his professional journey at his first job with a prominent developer of medical transcription software where he developed a digital dictation system that centralized and streamlined the process of medical dictation to transcription, pioneering one of the first digital dictation systems at the time. Subsequently, he ventured into the telecom industry, where his innovative VoIP technology made significant strides in interconnecting carriers internationally.
After building a substantial network and portfolio of bilateral agreements with major carriers, he transitioned from voice services to providing technology after identifying the huge potential in hosting carrier infrastructure, leading to the inception of Veriswitch Solutions. Umberto’s expertise in technology development has been instrumental in Veriswitch’s growth, innovation, and its stellar reputation in the industry.
Empowering Through Trust and Collaboration
Veriswitch Solutions is built on a leadership philosophy that values a relaxed, trust-based work environment. Umberto and Michael firmly believe in hiring individuals for their expertise and allowing them the freedom to excel without micromanagement. This approach fosters a culture of trust and autonomy within the team.
The leadership at Veriswitch encourages a communal style of management where every team member’s input is valued. They believe the best ideas should be put forward, regardless of where they originate. This approach empowers employees and ensures the company benefits from diverse perspectives and continuous innovation.
Furthermore, the support team at Veriswitch plays a pivotal role in providing feedback and insights directly from clients. This feedback loop allows the company to make necessary improvements and streamline its products and services, ultimately making Veriswitch a stronger and more responsive organization.
Balancing Innovation, Risk, Stability, and Profitability
At Veriswitch, innovation and stability go hand in hand, driven by a leadership approach that values collaboration and a lighthearted work culture. Umberto and Michael believe in maintaining a balanced approach without the need for micromanagement.
Their leadership philosophy encourages a communal style of management, where every team member’s input is valued. This collaborative environment naturally fosters innovation, allowing employees to contribute ideas and insights freely. It’s not about setting out to balance innovation and stability deliberately; it’s about creating a work culture that naturally encourages both.
Furthermore, both co-founders emphasize the importance of enjoying work and not taking themselves too seriously. While the telecom industry significantly impacts people’s lives, they maintain a lighthearted approach, believing that it’s possible to have fun while still achieving profitability and providing essential services.
Striving for Work-Life Balance
Achieving a work-life balance has been a challenge for Umberto and Michael. Their passion for what they do often means working six and a half days a week, blurring the lines between work and personal life.
Veriswitch operates in a 24/7 global environment, where phone calls never stop flowing through its network. This constant activity means being available to address issues or assist clients at any time is essential. They prioritize client satisfaction and maintain a dedicated approach to ensure clients can reach them whenever necessary.
While they acknowledge the need for work-life balance, their deep commitment to their work and clients often takes precedence. Nevertheless, they are conscious of this challenge and continue working on finding the right balance between their professional and personal lives.
Valuable Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Starting a business journey can be challenging, but Umberto and Michael have some insightful advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. They emphasize the importance of hard work, dedication, and perseverance. They stress the need to be ready to tighten your belt and understand that success rarely comes overnight. Don’t shy away from hard work, as it eventually pays off.
Additionally, both highlight the significance of embracing failures as learning experiences. One of their most valuable pieces of advice is to leave pride at the door. Being open to new ideas and feedback, even if they contradict your own, can lead to better decisions and outcomes. Humility is a powerful trait for any entrepreneur.
“SmartShield™ goes beyond the surface and delves into behavioral patterns and contextual cues within each call to assess the probability of fraud.”
