Large manufacturer streamlines large file transfer, improves employees productivity and optimize network and storage resources

Challenge

Iscar, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is the world's largest manufacturer of cutting tools for metalworking, including turning, grooving, milling, hole-making, boring, and threading.

Iscar has a presence in more than 52 countries throughout America, Europe, and Asia. The company’s thousands of employees work together to ensure that Iscar's customers can continue to enjoy only the highest-quality cutting tools. Collaborative efforts between different departments (such as manufacturing, marketing, sales, development, and more) and the company’s various international locations are ongoing on a daily basis. At the same time, Iscar’s team is also working closely with a worldwide network of external partners, suppliers, and customers to address operational issues, troubleshoot problems, and provide service and support.

For large file transfers, Iscar employees long used a custom-built file transfer system. However, this in-house system was beset with a number of shortcomings: it was complex and cumbersome to use, the acceptable file size for transfers was limited, and the system did not offer adequate audit-trail documentation capabilities. Iscar employees found themselves frequently struggling with the system. Precious time and resources were being poured into transferring files using the system, and files often had to be transmitted using alternate methods such as FTP or even media CDs.

Safe-T Solution

Iscar representatives began seeking out a more secure, efficient approach to large file transfer. After meeting with Safe-T’s team of implementation experts, Iscar opted to adopt the Safe-T system. With Safe-T’s zero-disruption implementation plan, the system was up and running within hours, ensuring that Iscar’s complex workflows were able to continue unimpeded. The unparalleled ease of use of the system meant that Iscar employees were able to use Safe-T without technical assistance after only a brief training session.

Results

By implementing the Safe-T managed file transfer system, Iscar was able to significantly improve the speed, reliability, and efficiency of the way that large files were transferred between recipients both inside and outside the enterprise. Iscar's employees were impressed with the convenience of file transfer using either the intuitive Outlook plug-in or the user-friendly Web-based interface.

Non-technical team members also reported spending less time on figuring out how to manage the file transfer process – which means they have more time to devote to delivering excellent service and innovative solutions to their client base. The time needed to deliver large files to overseas clients and partners has also been reduced significantly, as the system automatically uploads files to the server in closest geographical proximity to the recipient, thereby optimizing transfer speed.

After the Safe-T system was deployed, Iscar’s IT team reported that they were able to make better use of their bandwidth and data storage resources with the help of the system’s advanced reporting capabilities. The average number of requests for technical assistance in the file transfer process plummeted after the Safe-T system was implemented, freeing up IT personnel and increasing productivity.