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Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Process agility and Compliance - conflicting forces or a competitive advantage?

Summary: Companies are looking for ways to speed up their business processes. At the same time, they must comply with regulations governing those same business processes. How can you satisfy these seemingly conflicting requirements at once?


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Part of the fun in the business world is that there are often conflicting forces at work. Since Y2K, two seemingly contradictory forces have begun to do battle in enterprises big and small, only to leave confusion in their wake.

Force One is the need for organizational process agility as a survival prerogative. Develop products with partners faster. Get to market sooner. Reach interested parties - customers, partners and coworkers on the other side of the globe - instantaneously. Drive profits up and cost down today. In the famous words of Andy Grove, only the paranoid survive. The ability to quickly adjust to the constantly shifting business landscape in days and weeks instead of years is one of the hallmarks of today's reality.

Force Two has emerged from new security and compliance regimes since the spectacular cases of governance failure at companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Adelphia. Explicitly through regulations and implicitly through business (best) practices, enterprises are now having to deal with higher hurdles in compliance and governance.

Without taking side on either of these driving forces, it is also clear that they each can demand quite different processes and the ultimate question for all the businesses is simply - how can you increase business processes agility but be assured that you are in compliance with every regulation that governs those processes?

At Accellion, we are constantly talking with companies that are looking for a way to improve their business process agility involving sharing information among internal users and colleagues outside the organization. The question they bring us usually is a variation on these three concerns,
1. How can we speed up the way we send and receive documents, video, graphic images and other large files,
2. while at the same time ensure the privacy and security of these critical business records
3. without complicated and time consuming IT administrative oversight?”

This, lucky you, is the exact question Accellion set out to answer when we developed the Accellion secure file transfer solution.

1. Send and receive files easily:
  • An internal user can send files to his colleagues by sending the files via the secure file transfer appliance. From anywhere in the world, the recipient can access those files over the Internet instantly. Not next day. Not in a few hours. As fast as you can click.

  • An internal user can give his outside business partners the authority to send files back into the company without IT intervention via the secure file transfer appliance. In other words, the internal user can collaborate with external users on critical work files without waiting.

2. Meet security, privacy, and compliance needs:
  • Only authorized users can access the appliance to send and receive files.

  • A file lifecycle management system ensures that files are left on the appliance only for a defined period of time. If they are not retrieved in that time period, the files are securely and automatically removed from the appliance.

  • Management reports provide audit trails of who is sending and receiving files.

3. No IT administrative overhead
  • With end user self-provisioning capabilities, IT involvement in daily operation is significantly reduced.

  • By bypassing email for file transfer, this also removes the occasional drama when a file, say an important proposal due in 15 minutes, is too large as an attachment.

  • Files are screened for viruses when they are placed on the appliance.

It comes down to this. Business process agility and compliance are two forces no enterprise can ignore. Interesting, instead of deciding which one is more important, sometimes they can work together to give you a competitive advantage.

If you know what is the right (Accellion) solution to use.

ACA Guy


Accellion in the News
Media Coverage

Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Journal
Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Journal - Track and Report Conformance During File Transfers
: Survey results confirm need for broader tracking and reporting features introduced in Accellion’s Courier Secure File Transfer Appliance.


ConstrucTech
ConstruTech - Perini Deploys Accellion
: ...[P]rotect our email infrastructure with the associated archiving systems while allowing users to send very large files as part of their regular business processes.

Press Releases
Barkley Selects Accellion to Solve Inadequacy of Email File Transfer

Keker & Van Nest Selects Accellion’s Secure File Transfer Solution for Its Large File Transfer Needs

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Be a Superhero like Spider-Man by Offering a "Stupid Easy" Secure Large File Transfer Solution

Summary: What Accellion customers and prospects are telling us. Saving marketing teams from certain doom and providing solutions that anyone can use. ACA Guy wishes he could have made up good plots like these...




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If you have not seen Spider-Man 3, I will not spoil it for you. But, it is safe to say that our superhero prevails in the end. Wouldn't that be nice in real life? Just when things look their bleakest with hope fading, along comes the intrepid superhero to get the job done!

It happened to an Accellion customer recently. I have removed some information to protect the innocents, but this is more or less verbatim of the email I got:

Friday night I saw an e-mail from a colleague in our marketing department on my Blackberry. She was trying to e-mail an RFP to a prospective client, but the message kept getting rejected on the other side due to the size of the attachment. It was 7:45pm and the deadline for RFP submission was 8:00. I set her up on the Accellion box, and an e-mail successfully went through just before the deadline. The next day she got the download receipt, and the client reported that "this approach worked very well."

Ultimately it's too soon to tell if we'll get the client, but your box really came through for the firm this weekend!


I can see it all in my mind now. The marketing team slaved over the proposal, worked out all the possible scenarios, and it was the job of the team leader (played by the lovely Kristin Dunst) to get the proposal over. With 15 minutes left on the clock, zoom in on the despair of the team leader when the proposal was rejected by the client's email server. Then, swoop in our IT superhero from the ceiling (played by Tobey Maguire) whose quick thinking and preparedness saved the day by getting the proposal over via Accellion secure file transfer solution with seconds to spare.

Well, I suppose that may be a hard Spider-Man story to sell, but the emotion was probably quite real for the team leader who spent hours or possibly days preparing the proposal to submit to the prospective client. What would happen if she had missed the deadline because the email system couldn’t handle her file? She would have done a lot of work for nothing. She could have been reprimanded for blowing the deal over her poor planning on how to deliver the proposal. Instead, the Accellion solution gets the job done with minimum drama.

Lesson learnt: Add Accellion secure file transfer solution to your toolbox and you, too, can be a superhero.


---

And speaking of talking with customers, one of our super sales reps told me that he recently talked with a prospect looking for a secure file transfer solution. Specifically, the prospect came to Accellion because he needs a solution that is stupid easy because that is what his end users need.

May not be the exact phrase I would have used but stupid easy does pretty much describe the Accellion method. Naturally, I think of it more as super easy, but, secure large file transfer made stupid easy works for me too.

ACA Guy

Accellion in the News
Media Coverage

Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Journal
Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Journal - Track and Report Conformance During File Transfers
: Survey results confirm need for broader tracking and reporting features introduced in Accellion’s Courier Secure File Transfer Appliance.


ConstrucTech
ConstruTech - Perini Deploys Accellion
: ...[P]rotect our email infrastructure with the associated archiving systems while allowing users to send very large files as part of their regular business processes.

Press Releases
Barkley Selects Accellion to Solve Inadequacy of Email File Transfer

Keker & Van Nest Selects Accellion’s Secure File Transfer Solution for Its Large File Transfer Needs

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Keep Information and File Transfer Safe from the Omniscient and Prying Eyes of Google

Summary: Google provides an omniscient tool for the relentless searchers to find an information needle in a haystack. Use an Accellion file transfer appliance to keep confidential data away from the clutches of Google's vast tentacles.

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In an old posting on ftp in the era of search engines, I mused over the new reality of Google and other search engines automatically finding and indexing information that you have stored on FTP servers. Obviously, this is a security, privacy, and compliance concern for all involved.

On top of that news comes a posting on the Future Lawyer website on Google Web History. In short, this utility keeps a history of every Google search a person does. The blogger speculates: could a person be compelled by a court to reveal his web searches as discoverable evidence in a trial?

Having Google disgorge private information is probably more common that anyone cares to contemplate. I was doing a Google search on a company recently and turned up a document listing contact and fee information for a proposal that I am sure that they do not know is in the "public domain." My speculation based on the content is that the file was sent as an email attachment and somewhere, somebody exposed the document inadvertently.

Life under the omniscience of Google can be tricky. And, if FTP and email as file transfer methods are problematic under the prying eyes of search engines and other information collection spiders, where does the Accellion secure file transfer solution fit?

The short answer is "No." Google and other spiders cannot penetrate the Accellion solution to index the information because the system requires login and comes with a sophisticated set of enterprise class access controls to prevent unauthorized access from those black hat spiders.

In addition to stopping snooping eyes at the front gate, Accellion appliance has two more features that provide extra safety. First, the life-cycle management utility regularly removes files that have reached their designated expiration timeframe. So, the quantity of files available on the system is limited - compared to FTP servers which keep files forever until they are manually removed. And second, the Accellion solution allows you to encrypt files stored on the system so that only authorized users with the correct decryption information can read the files you've stored there.

So, people all around the world can google for your private data all they want. But, if it’s stored on an Accellion secure file transfer solution, there’s no fear it will be revealed.

ACA Guy

Accellion in the News
Media Coverage

Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Journal
Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Journal - Track and Report Conformance During File Transfers
: Survey results confirm need for broader tracking and reporting features introduced in Accellion’s Courier Secure File Transfer Appliance.


ConstrucTech
ConstruTech - Perini Deploys Accellion
: ...[P]rotect our email infrastructure with the associated archiving systems while allowing users to send very large files as part of their regular business processes.

Press Releases
Keker & Van Nest Selects Accellion’s Secure File Transfer Solution for Its Large File Transfer Needs

MSA Selects Accellion's Secure File Transfer Solution for Global Large File Transfer Needs

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Email, Security, Performance, Happy Users - a year of ideas and best practices from ACA Guy

Summary: Improve email performance, meet security and compliance mandates, and make end users and IT happy, all at the same time - a year of ACA Guy to make the world a better place.

A retrospective.


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Oh-my, oh-my, oh-my! From the modest Hello, World entry on May 10, 2006, this posting will mark the one year anniversary for the ACA Guy! This is an excellent time for a quick retrospective on the business issues, solutions, and examples covered in the past year. Maybe you’ll see something here to solve your business problems and spark your interest in Accellion's secure file transfer solution!

Overworked email systems clogged up with large attachments

This is probably the number one reason why companies come calling on Accellion. Their email systems are pushed to the breaking point by the many large attachments that are increasingly common in most business processes. These email attachments are causing systematic impact on the entire infrastructure. And, more important, by rendering the email system -- the number one productivity tool for most enterprises -- ineffective, this is no longer an IT issue but a business problem.

Some email administrators try to solve the issue by imposing file size limitations. Rather than solving a problem, it just exacerbates the headache when end users can’t complete their business processes that require the transfer of files to and from other people.

Accellion's secure file transfer solution complements your existing email infrastructure and lets end users send files/folders of any size without IT intervention.

Attachment Limits: Myth or Reality? Not If You Use Accellion
Integrate Accellion SFTA with Email Client So End Users Do Not Have to Leave Email to Send Large Files Securely
Using Exchange/Outlook and Domino/Notes with Accellion Secure File Transfer Appliance
No Pain is Gain - What email focused VAR partners are doing for email size limits
Microsoft Exchange/Outlook Attachment Size: Best Practices, Limits, and Solutions


Security and compliance requirements also apply to file transfer processes

Gone are the nonchalant days when workers can send information in an open and unsecured way. Now security and compliance mandates are pushing every organizations to ask questions like: “If I send this confidential business plan via email, could it be seen by the wrong people?”, “I need to post patient information on a FTP server for a consulting doctor, but does that meet HIPAA regulations?”, “How can our lawyers send us information about the case on trial?”

Security and privacy for business processes that involve file transfer are key considerations for adopting the Accellion solution.

Listen to Forbes! Do Not Accept that Email Attachment. Use Accellion Instead
Be like Tom Cruise (or Peter Graves) and Get Your Files to Self-Destruct Securely
Ideals and Realities - Who is Responsible for Ensuring Security and Compliance for Files Transfer?
Secure and Compliant File Transfer = Technology + Human Behavior
Security and Auditability Legislative Mandates: Do Your File Transfer Processes Comply?
Are you Federal Rules of Civil Procedure - Rule 37 section (f) compliant? Accellion SFTA can help

Users need the ability to run business processes without asking IT for permission or help every time.

Technology should be an enabler, not a stumbling block for knowledge workers. An end-user should not have to request permission to have a larger file size limit in email, to post a file to an FTP server, or to receive a large file from someone outside the company. What’s more, the IT department shouldn’t get bogged down handling these kinds of requests.

How to get out of this rut? Implement a file transfer technology like Accellion's that is easy for everyone to use – including authorized people who are outside the company.

Collaboration Solution as a Business Productivity Tool
When it Absolutely, Positively Has To Get There and Back, Right Now
Let External Users Send Large Files Back Securely without Harassing IT
Secure File Transfer Comes of Age in the Era of Pervasive Computing
Putting the Machine in Deus ex Machina - Sending folders and 10GB files without IT Help

This has been a great year of sharing the Accellion experiences in solving business problems and boosting users' productivity without bugging the IT team.

And, we have just gotten started.

ACA Guy

Accellion in the News
Media Coverage

Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Journal
Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Journal - Track and Report Conformance During File Transfers
: Survey results confirm need for broader tracking and reporting features introduced in Accellion’s Courier Secure File Transfer Appliance.


ConstrucTech
ConstruTech - Perini Deploys Accellion
: ...[P]rotect our email infrastructure with the associated archiving systems while allowing users to send very large files as part of their regular business processes.

Press Releases
Keker & Van Nest Selects Accellion’s Secure File Transfer Solution for Its Large File Transfer Needs

MSA Selects Accellion's Secure File Transfer Solution for Global Large File Transfer Needs

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Buy vs Build for Secure File Transfer - how much of a Rube Goldberg do you want to be?

Summary: Maintaining home grown file transfer solutions can be a headache if it goes well and a nightmare if it doesn't. The smart IT departments are buying secure file transfer appliances instead.

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When talking with prospective customers about their file transfer needs, I always ask what ‘solution’ they are currently using. The answer usually falls into one or two of a handful of methods, such as email attachments, an FTP/SFTP server, CDs/DVDs, or a home grown solution which often involves a (non-secure) FTP server and various scripts or manual administrative processes to manage the 'solution.'

As home grown solutions, there are often layers of logic that may have met the business requirements for a time but, the overall logic inevitably ends up in an almost Rube Goldberg-like fashion. These layers of logic are often poorly documented and if the logic creator moves to a different position or forgets about the intricate details, maintenance becomes a headache if all goes well and a nightmare if something breaks! In other words, these layers are leading IT departments to look for off-the-shelf solutions like the Accellion secure file transfer solution.

It’s the classic Build versus Buy argument for an IT solution that is not a unique or core business process for an enterprise.

For decades, companies and IT departments have confronted this conundrum - buy or build. Generally, the answer is ‘Yes, build it!’ if: (1) no vendor makes an application that does at least 80% of what you need, and (2) the application is mission-critical to the heart of the business. Conversely, the answer is ‘No, we should buy the solution from outside’ if: (1) you can buy an application off-the-shelf and adapt it to your own needs, and (2) the process that the application automates is not a business core competency.

For many applications, the ‘buy’ decision has become much easier in recent years due to the advent of smart, single-purpose appliances, made possible largely by the rise of Linux and open source software. Such is the case with the Accellion solution. We developed this solution three years ago, based on an extensive list of requirements that satisfy most file transfer needs in various verticals such as advertising agencies, law firms, health-care providers, engineering companies, etc.

Accellion's file transfer solution is secure, scalable, easy to install, and user-friendly, has very low maintenance overhead, and integrates with enterprise email systems. I haven’t seen a single home grown solution that comes close!

Perhaps best of all, when you buy instead of build your file transfer solution, you have a whole company that is dedicated to ensuring your secure file transfer success. You don’t need to devote a headcount to it, and you aren’t ‘trapped’ by the people who did the original coding for it.

When it comes to a secure file transfer solution for your organization, the choice to ‘buy’ instead of ‘build’ is a no-brainer.

ACA Guy

Accellion in the News
Media Coverage

Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Journal
Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Journal - Track and Report Conformance During File Transfers
: Survey results confirm need for broader tracking and reporting features introduced in Accellion’s Courier Secure File Transfer Appliance.


ConstrucTech
ConstruTech - Perini Deploys Accellion
: ...[P]rotect our email infrastructure with the associated archiving systems while allowing users to send very large files as part of their regular business processes.

Press Releases
MSA Selects Accellion's Secure File Transfer Solution for Global Large File Transfer Needs

Exponent Deploys Accellion's Secure File Transfer Solution to Enhance Communication of Data with Enterprise Clients