Engineers generate a lot of valuable intellectual property. And where there is valuable intellectual property, there exists the possibility that competitors could obtain trade secrets. This means that there is a need for procedures to formally document research, engineering, design and development processes.
In a lot of companies engineers still record their research and development efforts in books, on daily basis. They sign and date their entries and have them counter signed by another individual. The dual purpose of this exercise is to be able to demonstrate ownership and the time of creation of an idea or concept.
But a paperbound solution to manage intellectual property can not effectively serve a technology-driven organisation. "You can not ask engineers to hand write entries when they work day-to-day with a word processor or CAD/CAM package. And you can not expect them, on a long-term basis, to diligently paste printouts from these desktop applications on a daily basis, either. The printouts are too voluminous," explains Lesego Tlhabanelo, Lotus Development SA`s marketing manager.
He suggests that it makes more sense to develop an electronic solution that could help the company validate and timestamp, in an unimpeachable way, the time of creation of an electronic document, yet not encumber engineers who spend their days inventing, rather than documenting.
One such solution is Lotus` Domino.Doc. It offers check-in/check-out facilities, versioning, security, and above all, an easy way to find and store files. "To save a file to a Domino.Doc "file cabinet," an engineer simply clicks on FileSave from his or her application. Upon being saved, the package tags the file, providing information about who checked the file in, the tool used to create it, and so on," elaborates Tlhabanelo.
When someone needs to, they are able to view an entire history of a document. They can see certification status, perform validation of a document against the certificate, or export the certificate to external files for independent verification of record integrity. Searching and reporting tools make it easy to analyse certification activity and to locate certified documents.
Domino.Doc is a server-based solution, which means there is no need to go around from client to client installing the software. "It is an easy to understand solution that offers engineering firms the ability to streamline and safeguard their intellectual property on a daily basis," concludes Tlhabanelo.
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