Home | Solutions |Secure Collaboration | Secure Engineering Collaboration
As product development becomes increasingly global and collaborative, intellectual property (IP) has never been more valuable or more exposed. Engineering designs, source code, CAD drawings, and engineering bill of materials (eBOM) sit at the core of innovation, yet they are routinely shared across distributed teams and partner ecosystems. Without the right controls in place, even well-intentioned collaboration can lead to IP leakage, contractual violations, and loss of competitive advantage.Â
The Growing Risk to Engineering IP
Modern product development relies on multi-level collaboration across geographies, suppliers, and design partners. While this accelerates innovation and reduces costs, it also increases the risk of misuse or accidental disclosure of sensitive information. Insider activity is a material risk: 61% of organizations reported experiencing insider file breaches in the past two years, underscoring the frequency of internal security exposures.Â
Organizations must not only protect their own data but also ensure that partner IP is handled according to information sharing agreements and that information barriers are enforced between potentially competing teams. These challenges are especially acute in industries such as Aerospace and Defense, High Tech, Industrial Machinufacturing, Chemicals, Energy, and Life Sciences.Â
A Secure Engineering Collaboration Solution
The Secure Engineering Collaboration solution enables organizations to protect intellectual property while supporting the agile collaboration required for global product development. Built on NextLabs Information Risk Management, the solution automates the classification of engineering data, enforces access control policies, and prevents improper disclosure of corporate and partner IP. By centralizing policy management and embedding user guidance into daily workflows, teams can collaborate more efficiently without compromising security or compliance.
Key capabilities:
- Improve IP security and protection by actively controlling access to sensitive engineering data.Â
- Accelerate collaboration through centralized management of flexible access control policies. Â
- Enhance compliance with information sharing agreements by centrally authorizing and tracking access to partner IP. Â
- Increase visibility into IP access and sharing activities with centralized audit and reporting.Â
- Automate IP management through data classification, policy enforcement, and user guidance across the IP lifecycle.
Integrated with SAP for End-to-End Protection
The solution integrates with SAP ERP Core Component (ECC) and SAP Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), extending attribute-based access control (ABAC) to SAP business objects including eBOMs, Change Masters, CAD drawings and documents. IP can be automatically classified based on association, inheritance, or storage location, simplifying policy enforcement, and ensuring consistent protection. Security controls and tracking can also extend beyond SAP, delivering end-to-end protection even after data is exported from SAP.Â
With Secure Engineering Collaboration, organizations can reduce the risk of IP breaches and contractual violations while accelerating collaboration across global teams and partner networks. Centralized monitoring and reporting provide the visibility needed to demonstrate compliance, detect potential risks early, and confidently share sensitive engineering data without slowing innovation.Â
Read the full Secure Engineering Collaboration solution brief to learn more.Â
