As a member-owned credit union headquartered in Illinois, Alliant Credit Union processes and tracks over 500 file transfers a week. These file transfers must consistently meet the needs of their members and remain 100% PCI DSS compliant.
For years, Alliant Credit Union relied on a combination of solutions and manual file transfers to execute their daily business requirements. But when those requirements outgrew their current arsenal of tools, they saw the benefit in moving to a single solution that could automate their processes, enhance their PCI DSS compliance, and save their organization time and resources.
Based on the suggestion of a previous employee, Alliant Credit Union implemented GoAnywhere MFT for its robust capabilities and advanced set of features. Not only has GoAnywhere saved Alliant Credit Union hours of manual work since implementation, it’s solved many in-house problems and improved the security of their data overall.
Growing Business Needs Sparked Search for a New Solution
Before GoAnywhere entered the picture, Alliant Credit Union used a mix of WS_FTP and MOVEit from Ipswitch and homemade manual scripts to process their file transfer needs. As their business requirements evolved and the desire for scalability arose, however, it became clear that an upgrade to their file transfer process was necessary to help cut down on the amount of time spent on in-house programming and admin work.
Computer Operations Supervisor Jay Wehner knew it was time to move to a new product when Alliant Credit Union started development on a new data warehouse.“With our current setup, we saw we needed a more robust system,” Wehner explained. “We wanted better automation of the files and a process to import them.”
Faced with increasing demands for PCI compliance, file transfer automation, and encryption, the team at Alliant Credit Union looked at GoAnywhere MFT as a possible replacement for their current setup. It had the features they wanted—database integration, clustered active-active failover, and secure email transfer—and the release of GoAnywhere MFT Agents only further expanded what they could accomplish.
GoAnywhere’s Advanced Features Exceeded Expectations
Once the decision was made, moving from their combination of file transfer solutions and manual scripts to GoAnywhere was painless. “No other product was evaluated. GoAnywhere is a true ‘one product does it all.’ It’s not just file movement and SFTP.”
The learning curve for GoAnywhere was also straightforward. “The basic use of file transfer was very easy to learn and use. As time goes by, you learn how to utilize more and more features of the product.”
After Wehner’s team implemented GoAnywhere across the organization, they used it to create secure encrypted connections between their servers. This enabled them to promote the safety of their data and lock down common ports and protocols—which, for a company dealing with personal banking information, was absolutely critical. They also took advantage of GoAnywhere Secure Mail, an ad-hoc email module that can integrate with Microsoft Outlook.
Encryption and automation were part of Alliant Credit Union’s expectations for GoAnywhere. But as they continued to explore the product beyond its basic capabilities, they found exciting features they’ve since integrated into their day-to-day tasks.
One such surprise was GoDrive, an Enterprise File Sync & Sharing module for GoAnywhere. Prior to GoDrive, Alliant Credit Union used a cloud-based file sharing solution, but “the control and file size is not available with [the file sharing solution],” said Wehner, “so we started using GoDrive as a replacement. [Those] that are using it … are loving it.”
Alliant Credit Union was also able to integrate GoAnywhere with their enterprise scheduler, a cross-platform, cross-application IT solution, to perform all their business procedures seamlessly.
Enhanced PCI DSS Compliance with GoAnywhere Agents
One main draw Alliant Credit Union had to GoAnywhere was the ability to enhance their PCI DSS compliance using GoAnywhere MFT Agents. These Agents support automated file transfers and workflows on systems throughout the enterprise, and they’re managed by a central deployment of GoAnywhere, which can be used to configure and schedule agent file transfers from a browser-based interface.
How did Wehner and his team use MFT Agents? “We needed a way to securely store and transmit PCI data. By utilizing GoAnywhere Agents, we were able to use a secure channel to transmit this data. We now no longer use standard protocols like SMB ... for file transfers, which protects our data from unwanted network scanning.”
Other initiatives run by Wehner, like a workflow that archives and purges files across multiple projects after a set amount of days, help keep Alliant Credit Union organized and compliant with PCI DSS retention policies.
Saving Time and Money with GoAnywhere’s File Transfer Capabilities
As an institution that deals with loan requests, automatic payments, and more, Alliant Credit Union processes a large amount of transfers a week. GoAnywhere cuts the transfer process down to around 15 minutes. Further work from Wehner has shortened the approval process and testing phases Alliant goes through for new file transfers. “I create master templates for projects to streamline this process,” Wehner explained, “and this has reduced the time needed for testing.”
GoAnywhere also contributes to the company’s bottom line. “I can’t even begin to say how much time and money GoAnywhere has saved us each month. Automating your transfers, databases, and CSV files is an enormous cost saver.”
When asked if he’d suggest GoAnywhere to others, Wehner didn’t hesitate. “Buy it! The abilities are endless for file manipulation, transfer[s], database[s], encryption, and more!”
About Alliant Credit Union
Headquartered in Rowling Meadows, Illinois, Alliant Credit Union provides their members with consistently superior financial value through high returns on deposits and low rates on loans. They pride themselves on being a not-for-profit, member-owned cooperative that optimizes the unique talent of their employees to give members friendly, efficient, and personalized service.
We Solved Their Problem, Now Let's Solve Yours.
We're committed to giving you a better way to automate, secure, and streamline your business processes. Schedule a demo with one of our product specialists today to see if GoAnywhere MFT is the right fit for your organization.