To make automation set-up easier and faster for you, we’ve introduced workflows. Workflows is the Files.com automation and configuration feature set that can make your process ideas reality without the need for having your own scripting and programming resources.

We have been helping customers automate basic as well as highly complex processes for years. The Files.com platform is designed to enhance your workflows and help implement new ones.

Most automation is done using our REST API and Zapier. The API allows access to absolutely everything the platform can do, which allows you to build any workflow for file logistics that you can dream up.

Automation Tools

We have grown the workflows tool suite, regularly adding more of the most useful options and behaviors. Combine basic automation actions to create a workflow that moves files from step one to step six of your process.

Say you have a process that onboards new users and creates a folder for them automatically. Next, they have a list of files that you need from them. Something for registration purposes, background information, tax documents, you get the picture. Once the documents have been uploaded, you want them copied to a separate folder for HR to review. You may even have additional steps that require moving some of the files to another folder or platform to have new user information moved to your payroll system.

Sounds like a lot if you had to code it yourself, but Files.com makes it so much simpler. All that moving and processing of documents is based on a core set of actions that can be automated.

There are currently six types of basic automations:

• Create Folder
• Delete File
• Copy File
• Move File
• Request File
• Request Move

Whether you need your automation triggered at a set interval, or based on a file action, all that can be set up as part of a workflow.

Workflows

No-code automation is the easier way to build custom workflows for file logistics without needing any advanced programming skills. Automatically create folders for new users and request specific files from them without writing a line of code.

Workflows let you select the automation type, what triggers the automation, set the interval, and select the path, destination, source, even group – depending on the process you need automated.

Workflows in Action

You have a process that accepts new proposals for future projects and there is a list of documents needed to apply. First all new submissions that come in will have a new folder created automatically (create folder.) When someone has all their documents ready and uploaded to their folder, you need their uploads copied in triplicate to three of your review staff (copy file,) then dated and moved along to the judges (move file,) all automatically and based on rules.

Perhaps, on a quarterly basis, a third-party auditor needs access to part of your folder tree, but only when certain conditions are met, like the prior steps in a process have been completed and all the required files are accounted for.

You want a secure access tunnel to automatically form from your auditor’s Files.com site to a pre-configured location in your Files.com site, but only for as long as required to complete the audit and only while your rules and conditions are met. Then you want the allowed access to automatically remove itself.

That sounds like great fun to design and build! (Okay, maybe more fun for us than for you.) With our workflows all you have to do is enter the steps, configure the rules, and hit “Go” -- no coding required.

Simplify Automation With File Sync

Whether your workflow requires files from external parties or company files stored in an external system such as Azure storage or Google Cloud, we make getting your files easy with our file sync feature.

You can set a one-way sync to pull files from SharePoint to your Files.com account. Or sync and have files pushed to a third-party system for processing. Whatever your process and wherever your files are stored, you can synchronize files across platforms, then configure automations to create your workflows.

Integrate Your Workflow With Other Applications

Beyond automation, we believe that Files.com's usefulness is directly proportionate to the number of systems it can integrate with. We work hard on building direct integrations to the most popular platforms (such as other cloud storage providers, and chat providers such as Slack.) We have also teamed up with Zapier to integrate to 100s of other services using their platform.

Zapier

Set up automated connections between your Files.com account and of other applications you already use with Zapier. It only takes a few minutes to set up and have daily tasks automated making your life easier and your workflows more efficient. Zap your apps and integrations to life with no coding!

Automation Is the Future

You can have a lot of fun with automation, but what we like best about it is: you can get a lot of work done, securely and accurately.

The Files.com workflows suite of automation tools is the simple and powerful way to implement your processes for moving files and more – no matter how complicated you may think it is.

We harbor no illusions about how challenging it is, and will be in the future, for our customers to compete in their markets, whether local, regional, or global. We know better than anyone how important your files are and how crucial accuracy and security are, even more so as your scope and volume grow.

Our goal is to make these things easier for you and help you get more done.