“My file transfer process isn’t broken, so why fix it?” This is the rationale of many IT professionals when it comes to file transfer. But often file transfer isn’t as efficient as it could be and is costing more money than it should.

Unless you recognize issues with your current file transfer process and know the alternatives, why would you change anything? If you knew how that change could improve satisfaction, cut costs and ensure files are transferred efficiently and securely, you might be in a better position to make that call.

So, how can you recognize issues with your file transfers? The most obvious answer is that if you are shipping hard drives or physical storage devices because your files are too large to transfer over the Internet in a timely manner, then you’ve got something to fix.

Even if file transfers generally do work, there’s often an easy ROI case to make for savings on bandwidth costs.

Let’s take it a step further. Do you know the Internet link speed between the two or more locations involved in your file transfers? If you know this, you can determine how fast a transfer “should” be, and if you know how much data you have to move, you can even see how long it “should” take.

Transfers between geographically distant points are slower than local transfers. The reason is that FTP transfers use a mechanism similar to a conversation to transfer files. That is, send some information, and then wait for a reply before continuing to send more data. The longer it takes to get the reply, the longer FTP transfers sit idle without sending more data. The further away two points are the longer this delay will be, and subsequently less data gets sent over time. This imposes a virtual speed limit on how fast a transfer can go, regardless of how fast your connection is.

Lets say you need to move 2 Gigabytes of data on a daily basis, and you have a T3 (45 Mbps) link from LA to Tokyo. How long should that take? With a T3 link, this would take only 6 – 7 minutes if you made optimum use of your connection. But if you are currently using FTP this could take over 2 hours! No joke! The gains are even higher on faster connections.

So how does fixing this issue save you money? For starters, if you can’t maximize your connection, you are wasting cash on bandwidth you aren’t using. You might as well have a slower connection. But what if for a fraction of the money you are already wasting, you can maximize what you already have? The 20X or more time savings in the example above could allow you to compress two weeks of work into one day. What’s that worth to you across multiple divisions of your whole company?

FileCatalyst, our software-based file transfer solution, uses patent pending technology to maximize your transfer speeds regardless of geographic location. You can watch an online demo or read more about how our customers have achieved significant ROI with the product at www.filecatalyst.com.

Chris Bailey is co-founder and CEO of Unlimi-Tech Software Inc., makers of software solutions that are reinventing file transfer in the enterprise.