File transfers are common and often critical to business operations. At least, it’d take business a lot longer to get anything done if inventory orders went through the mail. Fortunately, instead of waiting for mail carriers we can send important documents to business partners at the speed of light – almost.
Besides the limits of physics, there are a few things slowing our file transfers down:
- Manual handoffs
- Manual maintenance
- Network latency
- Packet loss
We’ll take a look at how automation can drastically reduce at least those first two hurdles.
When To Automate File Transfer Workflows
As with any automation project, the first step is considering what to automate. The best way to do this is by listing your manual, day-to-day tasks and then ordering that list by how much time each week is spent on each task. Then approximate how long each task will take to automate.
The goal of this exercise is to determine if and when you have sufficient reason to automate existing file transfer workflows. You want to automate when existing manual tasks are taking too much of your time.
But this doesn’t mean you should wait for manual tasks to take up X amount of your time. Having the right tools can make it fairly easy to automate rules-based file transfer workflows, so that new tasks and workflows can be automated as you’re onboarding a new trading partner, or as you’re initiating a new business process. We’ll cover that more below.
Automating a workflow as you create the workflow reduces technical debt that you’ll otherwise have to deal with later down the road.
The more you’re able to reduce manual touchpoints, the more scalable and flexible your file transfer environment will become. Many organizations are seeing an increase in the need for file transfers as more processes become digitized, especially in regards to remote work file sharing.
Automating new and existing workflows will make it easier to meet business needs by reducing the manual tasks needed to manage an expanding file transfer environment, while at the same time reducing delays from manual handoffs and human error.
How To Automate Your File Transfers
Traditionally, IT teams have relied on custom scripting and command lines to schedule or automate tasks for FTP servers. Writing scripts offers lots of flexibility so long as you have the time. But as file transfer environments grow, relying on PowerShell becomes a hassle. Trading partners rely on different EDI tools, your own organization is relying on a variety of platforms, and writing scripts for each new change isn’t enough to keep pace with business.
The alternative then is to use automation software. Some SFTP vendors offer scheduling and automation, while native job schedulers (Windows Task Scheduler, Cron) usually include some basic file movements and transfer functionality. Most managed file transfer solutions do as well, albeit with more features and capabilities, enabling you to automate a wider range of tasks and to string those tasks into longer-running processes.
Automated file transfer tools are almost always programmatic, using building blocks to abstract away the underlying code. This makes it easier for users to assemble workflows that can trigger file uploads, notify users, update file names and much more.
There are typically two ways to set up your automation: you can schedule tasks or implement event triggers. For example, if you have invoices to send at the close of each business day, it might make sense to schedule a transfer to move files from a specified directory and sends them to the corresponding trading partner(s).
Generally speaking, if a transfer or task is repeated at routine intervals (every hour, twice a day, every day or every week), it probably makes sense to schedule that transfer to run on its own.
In other cases, automatic file transfers might be more sporadic, for example, receiving patient information. In order to cut down on the time it takes for an insurance company to process a patient’s claim, it probably makes sense to set up event triggers so that, as soon as a patient’s file is added to a directory, it is encrypted and sent along its way to insurance.
Orchestrating Your File Transfer Automation
Managed file transfer software, custom scripts and SFTP servers. Each allows you a certain degree of control and flexibility when automating your transfers. One of the drawbacks of these tools is that many cannot readily integrate with other applications or systems, or only handle limited file transfer protocols. This makes it more difficult to manage high-volume transfers across platforms.
Some MFT vendors offer platform-independent solutions that can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud, with REST API adapters that can quickly integrate virtually any application (SaaS). This enables users to stay ahead of business requirements, but more importantly it helps IT teams to break down silos — instead of different departments or office locations using separate file transfer software, a single MFT tool can be used to automate file transfers regardless of the operating systems being used.Still some other vendors are taking this a step further. Workload automation and enterprise job schedulers have long supported file transfers. Today, vendors are bringing these tools together to offer bi-directional integrations that make it easy to orchestrate secure file transfers with all your IT and business processes.
Frequently Asked Questions
File transfer automation is the process by which large volumes of file transfers can be scheduled with no need for manual effort. This approach is often used for repetitive or high-volume transfers to free up IT resources and create a more reliable and secure process.
A variety of file transfer protocols can be automated, including FTP, SFTP, FTP/S, AS2 and more. File transfers using FTP can be automated, allowing organizations to move a high volume of files daily in a secure, easily repeatable manner.
File transfers can be automated in a variety of ways. You can use the Microsoft Windows Task Scheduler to set up transfers within the application. You can also use a more powerful solution like ActiveBatch. As a workload automation platform, it gives IT teams a full range of automation features, including event triggers, proactive monitoring and more.
Managed file transfer (MFT) is an overarching platform that provides automation of multiple file transfer protocols. It provides robust automation functionality, including the ability to securely manage file transfers across multiple systems. It supports the transfer of FTP, SFTP, FTP/S, AS2, HTTP/S, OFTP2 and more. Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) is a type of file transfer protocol and can be automated in a managed file transfer platform.
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