Pro2col have designed the Enterprise Maturity Model for File Transfer as a tool to help businesses with Managed File Transfer get the most out of their investment. It provides a framework around which organisations can understand how and why they should continue to review and invest in their infrastructure to ensure that the data transfer tools being used across their business are robust, secure and fit for purpose.
We’ve created five simple steps that you can follow to start on your journey across the maturity model.
1. Consolidate and Promote Adoption
We find it useful to highlight to clients when they begin their file transfer maturity journey that progressing up the maturity model doesn’t necessarily mean spending more money or buying a new solution.
In fact, one of the most common oversights we see when we first start working with an enterprise business is the sprawl of disparate solutions that have been tactically implemented across business silos over time.
On average, for a global enterprise client, we’ll see three to four different file transfer solutions being used for different use cases. One specific solution may have been purchased to process HR information. Another will be processing customer details. A third will be managing supply chain data or logistics. And there will inevitably be an array of unmanaged FTP servers knocking around that were spun up and forgotten about.
That sprawl of technology is exacerbated by the poor adoption of file transfer tools for peer-to-peer use within your own business. Shadow IT solutions and workarounds like Dropbox or WeTransfer tend to proliferate when a file transfer solution has not been publicised throughout your business.
The disadvantages of an unconsolidated sprawling file transfer ecosystem are legion. First and foremost, it’s likely to cost your business more money than it should. Multiple systems come with multiple license costs and support fees. This overhead will likely be reduced by migrating across to one solution for all your internal and external use cases.
Managing multiple systems also drains valuable resources from your IT function. Upgrades, patches and troubleshooting across multiple products will take longer than properly supporting a single solution. Ultimately it also increases the risk profile of your data transfer tech stack. The more products in your portfolio, the more likely is is that you'll miss a crucial patch or aren’t fully monitoring your systems – a lack of oversight that increases your business’s vulnerability to bad actors.
Lastly, having multiple tools in your business makes it harder to convince your team to use those different tools – particularly if you are looking to address the risks of using Shadow IT for peer-to-peer sharing options. You’ll also need to work hard with your wider team to drive the adoption of a file transfer tool to end the risky use of cloud-based file sharing options designed for individuals.
2. Invest in Resilience and Failovers
As file transfer tools become more embedded within an enterprise organisation, the criticality of that system grows. Today, many of our clients rely on their MFT systems for business-critical operations. If the file transfer tool were to break down or fail, the costs to the business in terms of lost sales, time or even reputational damage would be significant.
When we support clients in understanding their position on the maturity model, we often ask them to model the operational impact of their chosen solution failing. Even with smaller tactical deployments, that impact can be surprisingly significant. An MFT set up to run monthly financial payments for an enterprise business may be processing thousands of payments and millions of pounds. And no one wants unpaid suppliers (or staff) exposed by an IT failure.
Once a business understands this operational impact you can start to build out a compelling business case to invest in either highly available systems with robust failover options or investigate the need for disaster recovery.
Many MFT systems offer a modularised approach to HA or DR that allows you to mitigate the risk of system downtime or failure. You can implement redundancy either at infrastructure or application level, but alongside these investments an increasingly complex system may call for the introduction of a test infrastructure so that your team are able to make changes in an environment without risking your business-critical transfers.
Here too it is worth considering how you are monitoring and tracking your data transfers. Simple notifications and alerts may no longer be sufficient for your team and dashboarding and / or analytics may be needed to alert stakeholders of missed SLAs or transfer failures.
3. Upskill Your Team – or Outsource to the Experts
We’re lucky enough to have leading experts in MFT working in our technical department – but finding trained file transfer engineers isn’t easy. Demand is high, but the technology is niche, meaning that the small pool of experienced file transfer IT experts is highly competitive, and being able to bring in someone to run your MFT just might not be possible.
Although recently the hiring landscape in the tech industry has become a bit less competitive, that small pool of expertise is still hard to unlock. But, for a capable IT-savvy person, file transfer is a skill that can be learned.
When clients are looking to bring their support function to a level at which the day-to-day and long-term strategic management of data transfer infrastructure can be managed, there are three ways to go about it.
A) Train your team internally by investing in your staff and building up your capabilities in that space. We’ve found that a broader grounding in the basics of file transfer is important, which is why we developed The Certified File Transfer Professional Programme (CFTP). This course offers a three-tiered self-paced learning accreditation into file transfer and has been adopted by a number of major financial institutions as a requirement for the teams responsible for file transfer within their businesses.
B) Once you’ve got the basics of file transfer down, you may then choose to invest in product-specific classroom-based training. Most file transfer products have a wide range of training materials available that can get you started – but in our experience these are suitable for entry level knowledge and can sometimes struggle to provide real-world troubleshooting examples. A two-day intensive training bootcamp on your specific product will elevate the skills of your team, or alternatively you could bring a trainer into your business to provide a bespoke session based around how you specifically use the file transfer technology. Just watch out for key person dependency and try to spread that knowledge around your team.
C) Thirdly, and something we’ve started to see with businesses as they move up the support maturity, is outsourcing. Historically, file transfer consultants have offered a professional services approach for supporting businesses with one-off tasks and challenges. But as these tools become more embedded and critical within a company's tech stack, having a having a monthly pool of time for both specific projects and day-to-day maintenance can be vital to the smooth running of your MFT software solution. One thing our clients comment on regularly is that this has the added benefit of bringing in a wider experience pool for their use. Our technical team are dealing with such a wide variety of tools and implementations that they are regularly exposed to new deployments, innovative and unique workflows and inspirational ways of using file transfer tools within a business. Insight they can share as part of your MFT team.
4. Replace your Existing MFT solution with a New One
We regularly return to the fact that MFT can often be something of a workhorse and an unsung hero within your technology stack because it is so robust, can be relatively unglamourous and just works.
Except that isn’t quite the case. Generally, if your business isn’t changing, your MFT is unlikely to fall over. So, it can burble away in the background quite happily. However, external forces like compliance mandates or increased security concerns might mean that the MFT you bought yesterday might not be the best match for your tomorrow. Or, more likely (and more positively), your business growth might start to outpace your file transfer deployment.
We see it all the time. A business grows, expands, merges or divests and the use cases around data transfer shift dramatically. Sometimes the heavyweight solution you bought is now a hefty white elephant; slow to change and priced towards the top end of the market. Alternatively, the robust tool you chose a few years ago may not be the best choice for larger file transfer loads and stricter SLAs.
Lastly, within the file transfer space there is a significant array of tools – some of which fit into the Gartner leader’s category, others which are more challenger based or visionary in their outlook. Depending on what you are looking for from your file transfer tool your requirements may evolve. Some file transfer tools simply don’t have a future development roadmap that encompasses feature development at scale. Some of the more established tools are slower to react to trends (or their customers’ requests). The smaller, more agile products tend to have feature-rich roadmaps and are more active at reviewing their customer feedback and developing solutions for those requests.
If your company is changing to a faster-moving, inventive and agile business you might need to consider whether your file transfer tool can keep up. Conversely, if your business is maturing and more focused on the likes of stability and security over feature development, you may want to move away from a rapidly evolving product and consider a stability-first file transfer tool.
An MFT Migration isn’t something to undertake lightly, however, we’ve successfully managed numerous large-scale migrations and there are some key things to consider before you embark on that journey.
5. Fit an Aftermarket Supercharger for your File Transfer Software
We love file transfer. Can you tell?
But there are some things that file transfer just doesn’t do. Or, just like when you’re tuning a sports car, sometimes the OEM doesn’t have the very best parts on the market. MFT software is something of a Swiss army knife of function, security and automation. It provides secure file transfers, it possesses automation capabilities, and it has reporting functionality and dashboarding. Yet it is important to recognise that it is not a security tool or a dashboarding tool, or a P2P sharing product, or even a standalone automation tool.
As file transfer software has evolved these features have been built into the software ecosystem. In many cases that’s all a business needs. At least at first.
Just like with aftermarket parts, there are better solutions out there that can work in tandem with your file transfer tools to give you a more robust ecosystem.
What could that be? Well, for instance you may want to invest in a bespoke dashboarding tool for your file transfer system. Off the shelf options exist that vastly surpass what is on offer within most file transfer tools natively. Alternatively, you could invest in integrating your file transfer software into your own existing dashboarding or business intelligence tools.
From a security perspective you may need to invest in a specific AV scanning tool to protect you from inbound files that may have been compromised. Again, most MFT tools have options for this, including using your own corporate AV tools if supported. That said, in some cases a standalone, bespoke piece of software might better suit your requirements – particularly if you are processing data from a broad spectrum of partners.
Much can be achieved with MFT automation, but there are limits and by their technical nature the workflows can be complex – particularly challenging for a non-technical audience. So, a robust scheduling tool that integrates into your file transfer system might be a sensible investment.
File Transfer tools have peer-to-peer sharing capabilities but largely lack full scale collaboration functionality. Where data collaboration or ad hoc file sharing is a growing requirement in a business, some managed file transfer tools won’t fully fit the bill. We’re seeing more businesses split out their collaboration requirements for file transfer to invest in Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS) solutions as a standalone tool, keeping their MFT systems for large scale and automated data movement.
Where’s the Best Place to Start?
Well, obviously we’d recommend you download a copy of the Enterprise Maturity Model for Managed File Transfer and start by plotting your own business on the model (if you haven’t already of course!). Once you have done that, you’ll want to start gathering and reviewing the various use-case deployments across your business and unlocking insights into what other use cases might exist across your wider organisation.
There will be some quick wins in your file transfer maturity journey. Training up your team can pay dividends quickly. Investing in minor upgrades or new modules can give you a boost. What we see, though, is that this is usually the beginning of a longer, more structured approach. Building your business case for file transfer expansion will involve forecasting your future data transfer requirements, providing a better understanding of your file transfer requirements in 12-18 months' time... or longer.
That said, you’re off to a great start. And remember, if you need a little advice or help along the way – Pro2col are here to guide you. We live and breathe file transfer. We’ve managed thousands of deployments, countless upgrades, migrations and expansions. Give us a call today (or drop us an email) and we’d be happy to review your existing managed file transfer systems and provide you with recommendations or consultancy to support your maturity journey.
|
