Skip to main content

5 Days To Onboarding

Most teams go live in five business days, with a forward deployed engineer.

Our 5-Day Promise

A forward deployed engineer gets you fully live in five business days. They learn how your files move and shape each step around your goals.

Legacy MFT onboarding drags on for months. Ours doesn't: a structured, hands-on process gets your workflows running fast without cutting corners on security or control.

By Day 5 you're fully running, with your compliance requirements met and your transfers tuned to perform.

What's Included In Every Onboarding Engagement

From day one, you're paired with a forward deployed engineer, not handed a ticket queue. They learn your setup and build a plan that fits your timeline and your compliance requirements.
  • A dedicated forward deployed engineer working to your goals
  • Workflows designed around how your business actually moves files
  • Hands-on training and documentation written for your setup
  • Every integration tested and checked before you rely on it
  • Go-live support and monitoring on cutover day
  • A 30-day period after launch to tune your workflows and performance

Day 1: Discovery

We start by figuring out where your files live and how they move.

Together, we map your current systems and your file transfer workflows, then pin down what matters most.

We get a full picture of your setup and what you need, including:

  • Connecting SFTP servers
  • Syncing cloud storage
  • Automating data exchanges
  • Setting up SSO or your preferred IdP
  • Viewing audit logs or connecting to your SIEM platform

Those are the most common; Files.com connects to 50+ systems.

From there, we work out what to move first and what your compliance rules require. By the end of Day 1, you have a clear onboarding plan that runs from what we found to what we'll do.

Day 2: Configuration

Set up an environment that fits your team and stays under control.

With the plan in hand, we set up your users, groups, and roles, and wire in Single Sign-On or directory sync if you use it. Your folders and permissions are built to match how your team works together, with the rules and automations your compliance standards call for.

Your forward deployed engineer makes sure every setting still works as you add integrations and grow. We tune the environment for speed and security, so it handles what you need today and keeps up as the team gets bigger.

By the end of Day 2, your Files.com site is set up and secure.

Days 3 & 4: Migration & Validation

Move your workflows over and check every detail.

We move your priority workflows into Files.com, rebuilding your existing processes exactly. Your daily operations keep running with no disruption, and the partners you exchange files with see no downtime. Every move is planned and watched closely so your data stays intact the whole way through.

Once your workflows are in, we test every step by running real transfers to confirm they're fast and correct. This is where we fine-tune your automations, sort out the integrations, and make sure everything works exactly the way you need before you go live.

By the end of this stage, your Files.com environment matches what you'll run in production, tested and ready to go live.

Day 5: Go Live

Today you switch from testing to running for real.

We move your Files.com environment into full production and watch every workflow, so the switch happens cleanly.

Our forward deployed engineers stay close during go-live, checking performance and stepping in the moment anything comes up.

By the end of Day 5, your platform is live and handling real production traffic.

Bigger Deployments Are Run As A Program

A big enterprise rollout takes longer than a week, and it should. You have dozens of teams, a formal security review, and mission-critical cutovers to get right. Our forward deployed engineers run it as a phased migration: one workload at a time, reversible at every step, with the legacy path live as a fallback until the new one has proven itself.

Equifax is the biggest deployment we run: multimillion-dollar, across dozens of departments. The first workflow was live through Equifax's full security review in about seven weeks. A legacy MFT rollout at that scale runs 12 to 18 months.

See how the phased migration off legacy MFT works.

Your Engineer Stays For 30 Days After Launch

Once you're live, your forward deployed engineer stays involved for 30 more days, adjusting automations and tuning your setup as real traffic ramps.

And because many Enterprise customers run mission-critical workflows on Files.com, our Enterprise Support team is there after onboarding too. You get engineers on phone and email on every plan, and Strategic Enterprise Support adds 24/7 access with a 30-minute response SLA.

Onboarding FAQ

What teams ask about Files.com onboarding.

Most mid-market teams are fully live on Files.com in five business days. A large enterprise deployment runs as a phased program over several weeks; the same forward deployed engineers run it as a reversible migration, one workload at a time. In a five-day onboarding, a forward deployed engineer configures your SFTP and FTPS endpoints, SSO (Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Active Directory, and others), folder permissions, and automated workflows, then migrates your existing data and partner connections. On a legacy on-prem MFT rollout, that work drags on for months.

From day one you work with a dedicated Files.com forward deployed engineer who configures your SSO, SFTP endpoints, folder structure, and automation rules, runs the data migration, and tests every partner connection before go-live. The engineer is part of your Files.com onboarding.

Your team provides admin access and the list of systems to connect — identity provider, cloud storage, and trading partners. From there the forward deployed engineer handles the SSO setup, SFTP endpoint configuration, automation rules, and testing, and trains the admins who will run the platform day to day.

None. Files.com runs in the cloud, so onboarding happens without interrupting your current workflows or your access to files. No downtime for the partners you exchange files with, either.

Yes. Files.com connects to the identity providers (Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Active Directory, Google, JumpCloud), cloud storage (Amazon S3, Azure Blob, Google Cloud Storage), and iPaaS and automation tools enterprises already run, and exchanges files with outside partners over SFTP, FTPS, and AS2. The forward deployed engineer wires up each connection during onboarding.

Yes. Most customers are live within a day on the 7-day free trial: create a site, configure your SFTP endpoints, and connect your first integration without talking to anyone. The forward deployed engineer and the support team step in for the complex migrations: moving data and partner connections off a legacy MFT platform.

Your forward deployed engineer stays involved for 30 days after launch to tune automations and resolve edge cases as real traffic ramps. After that, Files.com support takes over: engineers on phone and email on every plan, and 24/7 access with a 30-minute response SLA on Strategic Enterprise Support.

Onboarding is included with Files.com — there is no separate professional-services contract, onboarding fee, or paid implementation package. The dedicated forward deployed engineer, the data migration, and the first 30 days of tuning come with the platform.

Yes. The forward deployed engineer maps your existing protocols, user accounts, SSO, scheduled jobs, and trading-partner connections off GoAnywhere, MOVEit, or another legacy MFT platform, then moves them across in phases while the old system stays live. See the switch guide for the cutover mechanics.

Get The File Orchestration Platform Today

4,000+ organizations trust Files.com for mission-critical file operations. Start your free trial now and build your first flow in 60 seconds.

Start My Free TrialContact Sales

No credit card required • 7-day free trial • Live in minutes