Let’s take a closer look at the perceived challenges of Managed File Transfer (MFT) that are identified on the Ziff Davis MFT survey.

A few related topics top the list:  “Finding the right MFT solution”, the “Cost”, including ongoing maintenance and future upgrades, as well as “Employee training”, including satisfaction and acceptance.

A lot has to do with the partner you choose to do business with, as well as the complexity of the MFT solution and its ease of use.  Take time to carefully research vendors and clearly understand the anticipated deployment timeline, required involvement and training of your IT staff, and if any professional services are needed.

You want a proven, reliable vendor that has a track record of successful long-term customer relationships and who is committed to bringing new technology to market as business needs continue to grow and evolve.  Let’s just say that not all MFT vendors are created equal…So choose carefully.

“Cost” is always a sensitive subject. But with so many MFT solutions varying in complexity, sophistication, scalability, deployment options, and price,  I strongly advise you to list key business requirements and make sure not to over (or under) purchase functionality.

For example, here at Ipswitch we offer a range of MFT solutions that span from basic secure file transfer products and services all the way to robust solutions proven to meet requirements for extreme volumes of data exchange with governance, data transformation and file life-cycle tracking.  Our solutions have proven to be fast to deploy and easy to use, resulting in rapid time-to-value that greatly exceeds other vendor solutions.

Lastly, consider the ROI and “risk avoidance” aspects of MFT from a security perspective alone (which is only part of the story).  In a recent blog post, I pointed out that the average cost of each compromised file is $204.  So go ahead and estimate how many pieces of sensitive files and data your company has…. Now multiply that by $204.  I’m sure you’ll agree that the ROI on the time and resources spent to protect company data are well worth the investment!