For Monterey Mushrooms, the e-mail notifications, the ability to automate projects, and the seamless version updates are just a few of Barabara Bularzik's favorite features with GoAnywhere.
Transcript:
My name is Barbara Bularzik and I work as a Programmer/Analyst at Montery Mushrooms. We're the largest fresh mushroom producer in the United States.
When we came across GoAnywhere, it's because we had to be able to communicate with different systems, and we wanted to do that in an automated fashion. Our biggest problem was not being able to do that sort of thing, but [instead] to do it without any people being involved. Let the computer do it.
How have you implemented GoAnywhere?
We've set up jobs. We may have like a dozen different projects that we have, and some might be monthly, some are weekly, some are daily, and some are hourly. We get these set up in our scheduler, and we use the GoAnywhere scheduler, and we also use the scheduler in the AS/400 and the iSeries, because then you can create a CL and it can talk to GoAnywhere and initiate the jobs. It's wherever you want to put it. It works very well, and this way no one has to stop their jobs to do these different file transfers; they just run. One of our favorite features about [GoAnywhere] is that jobs run, and if there's a problem with it, they let you know.
We use [GoAnywhere] for a lot of important functions, like sending positive pay data, and that is something that is vital, or Workman's Comp data, and that again is vital and it's private information, so we have to have a safe transport for that kind of data, and we've never had any problems with GoAnywhere.
Why is the error-reporting feature so valuable to you?
I really like that e-mailing feature, because when the job is successful, it sends an e-mail to me and tells me it was successful, and I know the file has been transferred and that there's no problems. If there is any kind of issue, it again is going to send me an email telling me that this project, or job, had a failure, and it will give me a job log, which is vital. So, just glancing at that job log, because I know how these jobs are running, I can know exactly what the problem is and go straight to it and resolve the issue.
One of the things that I was responsible for in the project was going out to the lockboxes with our Wells Fargo accounts, downloading the file information, and getting it into our system. Usually there would be a certain time period when you would have to go out and get the file. Maybe you went out and got the file for the San Francisco area at 10:00 in the morning. On Mondays, maybe they're busier than usual because they had the weekend of data and such to put in there, and so the file might not come up until 10:15, 10:30, but your job went at 10:00 and then it failed. Well now, I could reset that job so that, in 15-minute increments, it went out and looked for that file again, and each time, whether it found it or didn't find it, it could send me an email message. And if it failed, I could go look at that log, and right away I'd see "Oh, it's because the file wasn't ready." I wouldn't have to worry about it, because I knew that in 15 minutes, it was going to make a another pass at and I'd get an email and I could just see that email and check if the file was then ready, and that has saved a bunch of time because I don't have to worry about it, I don't have to go look for it - it just comes and happens. That's where we've been really pleased with the product.
What would you tell someone who was considering the purchase of a managed file transfer solution like GoAnywhere?
The version updates are really easy - they're simple to do! I hate doing version updates myself, in a lot of software. Some of the software that I really don't like is not because the software doesn't work, but because version updates are really difficult. GoAnywhere's are simple. They have simple instructions, they're very quick to do, and you can get really nice surprises about things that they've fixed or enhanced.
If you do have any problems, another good thing about GoAnywhere is their support. I've never had a problem with their support people. They are really good at helping you with the issues, they're timely in responding to you, and if you need additional training, they will do little webinars with you and show you how to do step by step, how to go through a project. I'm not an expert at all the different kinds of communication, but you go with the GoAnywhere people, and they will go step by step. They'll take the time and go step by step and get your project set up for you and then you're home free, and that's why I've been really happy with it.
I always recommend the product to anybody. For me, it truly does let you Go...to Anywhere.