How XI scores over directly doing FTP through ABAP

Hi All,

I am quite new tio XI. While in my work i found some scenarios wherein file is placed on AL11 of R/3, XI is picking that file and wihtout any modifications/ mappings it FTPs the same file even with the same filename to a FTP server.

But this could also be done through ABAP directly using a simple function module FTP_CONNECT.

Why then some companies choose to intermediate XI always despite the easy option being avaiable. Is it more secure or some other reason.

I tried searching on forum but could not comprehend for this question seemed quite austere in huge world of relatively specific terms.

Your inputs are highly appreaciated.

Thanks

Shreya