The Role MFT Plays
In order to sustain, grow, and maintain daily business tasks, many organizations open the door to outside vendors and other third parties for additional support.
Although this is very much necessary to do business, this can also leave the door wide open to potential threats. Even when working with a trusted and established vendor, ensuring that your sensitive information is securely exchanged is key.
If you’re in the process of evaluating a new vendor, take this opportunity to learn more about how a secure managed file transfer (MFT) solution can assist your organization by keeping the exchange of your sensitive files safe and simplified.
Assessing Data Risks
With any business relationship comes inherent risk. First, start by reviewing your strategy to assess what data risks could become present when exchanging or encrypting files between your company and your vendor partner.
Consider if there may be any big differences between how your organization and your vendor thinks about file security. Does your vendor already use a secure file transfer solution? Or, depending on the nature of your business, can your vendor meet your compliance requirements?
There’s a chance you may find substantial differences between how your company and your vendor chooses to manage and secure data transfers. A robust MFT solution can help to bridge the gap and ensure the information exchanged between you and your vendor partner is well-managed and secure.
Ensuring Security and Managing File Access
When working with a new vendor it’s a good idea to establish password policies and multi-factor authentication or other strong access tactics. Granting access to only those required is the most effective way to ensure security. Allowing blanket access to all vendor employees isn’t recommended and can put your sensitive data at risk. With an MFT solution, you can set up sufficient parameters for access permissions.
MFT solutions encrypt and decrypt to protect file transmissions via protocols like SFTP, SCP, FTPS, AS2, and HTTPS. Once encrypted through MFT, your vendor can simply grab the file you sent from the designated server folder, email, or wherever you placed it. They can then decrypt it and, if needed, translate it. However, if a file wasn’t encrypted with PGP when sent, then it won’t need to be decrypted.
Automating and Simplifying Vendor Transactions
Whether you and your vendor exchange a few dozen files each week or a few thousand per day, MFT can replace old, cumbersome technology. By eliminating unnecessary, time-consuming, and expensive manual programming or processes like homemade scripts,the potential for human error will decrease as well.
With an MFT solution in place you can:
- Run multi-step workflows to transfer, encrypt, and process files
- Schedule transfers to run at future dates and times
- Monitor folders for new files and deliver them immediately
- Integrate with existing applications, programs, and scripts
- Receive email/SMS notifications for completed or failed jobs
Depending on your vendor relationship, you have options for sending your files when you utilize an MFT solution:
- Send files through an MFT email plugin
- Exchange files through a web client (with access to the MFT solution from a browser)
- Automatically send files directly through the managed file transfer workflow
- Place files in a dedicated folder that the recipient can connect to for download
Achieving More Accountability
From highly regulated industries such as banking or insurance, to manufacturing and higher education, maintaining a standard of reporting and accountability is crucial. A strong MFT solution can provide detailed audit logs to store and track critical information about your file transfer activity.
With MFT in place, you’ll know before your vendor does whether a file failed to send as intended. Plus, the interrupted file transfer will automatically resume delivering the file where it dropped off.
Managed file transfer provides a layer of “management” oversight with vendors, including:
- Detailed reports of trading partner activity
- Audit trails
- Notifications of log-in failures or rejected files
- Administrator configuration of security settings and users, based on assigned roles
- Alerts of unusual activity
5 Reasons GoAnywhere MFT Can Help with Vendor Management
- GoAnywhere MFT is a secure managed file transfer solution that automates and protects your data exchange via a user-friendly,and browser-based interface. It streamlines the exchange of data between systems, employees, customers, and trading partners.
- This MFT solution encompasses all aspects of inbound and outbound file transfers while using industry-standard protocols and encryption like SFTP, FTPS, and Open PGP.Along with extensive security settings, GoAnywhere provides detailed audit trails and helps process information files into XML, EDI, CSV, and JSON databases.
- GoAnywhere is deployable on-premises, in the cloud, via SaaS, or within a hybrid environment. It integrates with the external cloud and web apps outside vendors use daily. GoAnywhere also runs on platforms like Windows, Linux, AIX, and the IBM i.
- This file transfer tool has an intuitive interface and comprehensive workflow features can help to eliminate the need for custom programs/scripts, single-function tools, manual processes, and unsecure file transfer methods. It can reduce costs, improve the quality of your file transfers, and help your organization (and outside vendors) comply with data security policies and regulations.
- With vendors, new and old, a smooth and secure file transfer process can help make the critical aspect of doing business together a bit more manageable. Take the time now to review your current process, your options, and your next steps. A proactive approach to securing your data when it’s being exchanged with third-party vendors can help you avoid potential business hiccups later.
Related Reading: The Role MFT Plays in Vendor Management
GoAnywhere MFT Can Help
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