Partner onboarding is a common challenge for IT organizations in every industry as they seek to simplify and move away from manual file transfer processes. Partner onboarding isn’t very simple when departments are still using point-to-point integrations to transfer files with partners.
Many companies still use custom scripts to automate transfers across clients and servers. This works with a few users, but doing this on a larger scale causes problems:
- File transfers often break
- There’s no centralized way to track transfers between servers or clients
- Coding is time-consuming for developers
Thru’s managed file transfer (MFT) solution has multi-protocol functionality and can be used to onboard partners with SFTP/FTPS endpoints without coding.
Step 1 – Enterprise Creates Flow and Partners Subscribe
Thru is an enterprise-grade solution that automates file transfers on a schedule between enterprises and their partners.
Thru works like a post office. Enterprises and partners each drop off and pick up files in folders from different endpoints (e.g. SFTP, FTPS, Amazon S3, ERP) and the “post office” orchestrates deliveries between source and target endpoints based on workflow processes set up by the enterprise called “flows.”
Each flow type is used for different use cases (e.g., receive files, send files, receive files with possible return to sender). Flows can also be integrated with integration platforms as a service (iPaaS) such as MuleSoft and Boomi via Thru’s file transfer integration connectors.
Figure 1 – Thru’s platform architecture. All automated file transfers across the enterprise and partners can be orchestrated by Thru.
Figure 2 – The enterprise can choose from 6 different types of flows. For example, an enterprise can use the “One to Many” flow when it needs to push files from a single source to multiple partners and departments.
Partners subscribe to flows either through a self-service portal or can be manually added by the enterprise.
Figure 3 – “Flow Dashboard” where partners subscribe to flows.
Figure 4 – Partner selects a flow to subscribe to.
Step 2 – Subscribers Choose Endpoints and Set Transfer Schedule
After subscribing to a flow, partners can start adding endpoints where they would like to drop off or pick up files. They also set a schedule for how frequently they want Thru to deliver files.
To pick up or drop off files via endpoints, subscribers can choose from SFTP/FTPS servers and clients. Organizations authenticate endpoints only once and can reuse them in any number of other flows. No scripting or coding required!
Figure 5 – “Flow Process” dashboard where subscribers add their source or target endpoints. Endpoints can be quickly added, edited or removed without breaking other processes.
Figure 6 – Partners can choose from SFTP/FTPS clients and servers to send and receive files with the enterprise.
Figure 7 – Example of a target SFTP server endpoint. The partner chooses the folder path on the SFTP server where they want to receive files and sets the schedule (the frequency can be hourly, daily, weekly or monthly).
Step 3 – View All File Delivery Activity in a Single Dashboard
After files are moving between endpoints with Thru, the enterprise and subscribed organizations with self-service access can go to the “File Delivery Dashboard” to monitor file transfer activities.
Figure 8 – The enterprise can view and download files transferred across all flows from the File Delivery Dashboard including delivered/failed transfers.
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[Note: This blog was last updated on November 19, 2018, and was recently updated]
