Built on Collaboration

I'm writing an article on what happens when some of the companies collaborating on a particular project are direct competitors in the 'real' world. It's an interesting topic, with no shortage of contentious areas, such as how competitors share intellectual property and who controls it.

To achieve successful project collaboration, I strongly believe that companies must have complete control and clear ownership of their intellectual property. One drawback of using installed software on a multi-company construction project, for example, is that firms can be required to store their drawings and documents behind a competitor's firewall. In a litigious world, this does little to encourage collaboration! In contrast, most project collaboration vendors that deliver their product using the SaaS model provide an independent platform that allows each company to own and control the files it has created or received. This creates a level playing field for everyone on the project - and encourages collaboration.

I'd be interested to know your experiences in this area. Have you ever collaborated with a competitor? What were the implications regarding control or ownership of project information?

Labels: Global trends, Good practice