A Logistics Provider Replaced TurboFTP and Three File Sharing Tools With Files.com

A multimodal third-party logistics provider manages transportation and warehousing for shipper customers through several business units.

The freight moves through a large, multi-site network. The records supporting those moves travel as files between shipper systems and the 3PL’s, and much of that traffic is EDI, running machine to machine on schedules set outside the company. At a 3PL, file exchange is not back-office plumbing. It is how the customer relationship physically operates.

The 3PL did not control every system connecting to the EDI endpoint. Some scheduled jobs ran from customer-managed servers, and one shipper account’s batch transfer was embedded in a warehouse management system and maintained by that software vendor’s professional services team rather than the 3PL’s own IT. Replacing the endpoint meant accommodating systems that other companies and vendors controlled.

One Server for the Machines, Three Tools for the People

The machine side ran through TurboFTP, FTP server software the 3PL operated itself. Shipper EDI connected over FTPS, with scheduled automation using a dedicated service login. Keeping the server alive was the 3PL’s job, on top of running a logistics business, and with day-to-day IT support partly outsourced.

The human side was scattered across Dropbox, Egnyte, and ShareFile. Three sharing tools ran in parallel, separate from the server handling automated EDI traffic.

An Endpoint the Customers’ Servers Would Recognize

The requirement was narrow and strict. The replacement had to support FTPS and FTP as the existing scheduled jobs used them, accept dedicated service logins for automation, and carry everyday file sharing as well—without becoming one more server for the 3PL to host. The 3PL selected Files.com to be that endpoint.

Files.com replaced TurboFTP for EDI file exchange and replaced Dropbox, Egnyte, and ShareFile for staff sharing. One current transfer shows the resulting operating model: a scheduled batch job embedded in the warehouse application environment runs under its service login and exchanges files through Files.com. The Files.com estate spans both business units.

Four Products Became One Platform

With Files.com carrying the traffic, the 3PL replaced a self-run transfer server and three disconnected sharing tools with one managed platform.

• Shipper EDI now reaches a hosted Files.com endpoint rather than a TurboFTP server the 3PL has to keep alive.
• Automated transfers and staff file sharing now run through the same Files.com estate across the two business units.
• Scheduled systems can continue using FTP or FTPS with dedicated machine credentials, while staff use Files.com for everyday file exchange.

File Exchange Without a Server to Run

Today, when a shipper’s server opens its scheduled FTPS session, it reaches Files.com. When someone at either business unit sends a file, it moves through Files.com too. The two halves of the 3PL’s file exchange had looked like separate problems: a server product for the machines, subscriptions for the people. They were one estate—files moving between the 3PL and the companies whose freight it manages—and one managed endpoint absorbed both.

The batch job that once depended on a server somebody at the 3PL had to keep alive now lands on infrastructure nobody at the 3PL maintains, and a company coordinating a large multimodal freight network is out of the business of hosting its own file transfer.