Lightning track

The lightning track is an optional configuration designed for highly time-sensitive use cases, prioritizing speed and responsiveness in transaction monitoring. It achieves this by processing and returning analysis results asynchronously - before the transaction data is fully stored in the database. By responding to API calls immediately, Lightning Track reduces response times by 300-400 milliseconds, making it ideal for scenarios where rapid decision-making is critical, such as fraud checks on repeat customers or quick identity verification. However, because results are returned before database storage, velocity rules that rely on historical transaction data may experience slight delays in reflecting the most recent transactions. This trade-off ensures significantly faster response times while maintaining the overall integrity of SEON’s risk analysis.

Its effectiveness depends on your integration and specific use case. To enable it, our Solution Engineering team can guide you through the setup process during a consultation and scoping session. If you're interested in activating Lightning Track or learning more about how it can optimize your response times, please reach out to our team for assistance.

Lightning track reduces SEON's response time for analyzed transactions by 300-400 milliseconds, significantly enhancing performance for time-sensitive use cases.

Your total response time will vary based on the type of queries you run, the complexity of your rules, and your connection characteristics.

Relative Performance Gains:

• If you perform email address and phone number checks, these will contribute the most to your response times. The 300–400 milliseconds saved with Lightning Track can reduce response times from 3.1 seconds to 2.7 seconds—a 13% decrease.
• Complex velocity rules, particularly those comparing large date ranges, require extended Scoring Engine calculations that Lightning Track does not impact.
• In cases where only quick checks are needed—such as verifying orders from familiar customers—the relative gains can be even greater. For instance using IP data enrichment and simple velocity rules that compare the current transaction against past transactions within the last hour or day, response times can decrease from 1.2 seconds to under 1 second, a 33% reduction.

Did you know: If your integration relies heavily on digital platform and social media lookups, you can optimize your integration by only running these checks at different touchpoints. e.g. If data enrichment is run when you see a customer for the first time, SEON can store this data and correlate it to their future transactions. See our Integration Guide for more.

Lightning track uses an asynchronous (async) method to accelerate SEON's transaction monitoring. This optional configuration is designed for highly time-sensitive use cases, where speed and responsiveness are top priorities. It does not alter how your rules are calculated but introduces eventual consistency—meaning you may notice minor variations in the results of certain velocity rules when it is enabled.

Eventual consistency occurs because transaction analysis results are returned before they are fully stored in SEON's database. Since velocity rules rely on stored transaction data, if you send multiple transactions per second via API, there will be a brief delay between receiving analysis results and those results being reflected in velocity rule calculations for subsequent transactions.

By leveraging lightning track, you can prioritize speed without compromising the overall integrity of SEON’s risk analysis, making it an ideal solution for real-time fraud prevention and fast decision-making.

When using lightning track, you can pair real-time transaction analysis with feedback - without relying on the Label API. This enables you to train SEON’s machine learning models more efficiently and effortlessly.

Just like labels sent via the Label API, you can define custom labels directly in your API request. Simply use the initial_labels parameter as part of your Fraud API request when Lightning Track is enabled.

Get the most out of Lightning track and SEON by reading more about our Scoring Engine and tools.

Learn more:
Overview: Read about velocity rules and how to use them in the Scoring Engine overview.
Overview: Unlock the full power of SEON with our Machine Learning tools.
Guide: Understand Regular aggregates with our hands-on guide