Secure data exchange processes in cross-enterprise product development
The cooperation between companies at the develop of product is a long time a real need, that make necessary to exchange information in a electronic form to be able to have a efficient work. With the information’s, goes company’s knowhow, that was just protecting by contracts and not by real mechanisms that are able to protect the information in case of miss use. With protection based only in contracts, as soon as the information crosses the board of the company there is no chance to control the information. Several mechanisms was create at the last years to reduce knowhow in the exchange files during the cooperation and also to have more security during the transportation of the information’s, but this is not enough.
To keep the control of the information and to ensure that only authorized people will access the information, is necessary to implement the Enterprise Right Management (ERM). With the ERM the company has the control of the information every time even if the information is outside of the company. ERM Implementing is in practice a challenge and a complex subject. ERM concept and the tools to implement are at the moment still in development.
In 2007 ProSTEP iViP’s founded the Project group Secure Product Creation Processes (SP2) with the aim to draw up recommendations for implementing secure data exchange processes in cross-enterprise product development. To achieve the reality necessity of the companies, the group is composed by research’s institutes, Software’s developers and company’s mainly from the automotive sector. The consortium’s membership comprises representatives from Adobe, Audi, BMW, casolute, Continental, Daimler, Ford, MDTVision, Microsoft, PROSTEP, Siemens PLM Software, T-Systems, TU Darmstadt, VW, ZGDV, and ZF.
The task of the Department of Computer Integrated Design in this project is the harmonization between different aspects for the development and use of an ERM system as can be seen in the figure below.
