Introducing SAP Integrated Product Development Collaboration

Leveraging SAP Integrated Product Development for Development Collaboration

Collaborating with SAP Integrated Product Development for Supplier Collaboration

Collaborating with SAP Integrated Product Development for Document Collaboration

Collaborating with SAP Integrated Product Development for Specification Collaboration

Explaining SAP IPD Collaboration in an overview

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to describe the core capabilities and initial setup procedures of SAP Integrated Product Development Collaboration.

Collaboration Overview

Product developers across discrete and process industries can realize a collaborative digital thread to empower people with insights to improve key business decisions from Design to Operate.

Capability Features and Value Proposition

The collaboration capability enables companies to:

Secure and seamless Collaboration on structured product data like BOMs, materials, documents, and specifications and unstructured data like files and images.
Drive efficiency in Collaboration with utilities like robust workflows, task management, inbuilt 3D viewer support, and redlining.
Design Anywhere-Build-Anywhere (DABA) capabilities are facilitated by allowing design and manufacturing teams to share and communicate product information, making decisions using a single set of globally secure product data.
Increased transparency and risk mitigation by engaging with the right suppliers.

Value Proposition:

Digitally transform and increase efficiency with a single source of truth for Collaboration across the enterprise.
Reduced lead time for product parts and constituents.
Reduced iterations on collaborated products.
Efficient handling of enterprise-wide product processes.

Illustration showing SAP's Collaborative Product Development process with AI infusion, highlighting stages like procurement, packaging, labeling, and sustainability compliance.

Work with Collaborations

As a participant in a collaboration, you can work with other participants on various topics. You can launch the My Collaborations app from the SAP Fiori launchpad.

When a user logs into SAP for the first time, they won’t directly see IPD unless proper setup is done.

Step 1: Log in to SAP Fiori Launchpad

Access the SAP S/4HANA Fiori Launchpad
URL is usually provided by the BASIS team

Step 2: Identify IPD Access

Look for IPD / Collaboration-related catalogs
Typical tile name: "Collaboration"

Required Roles

To access IPD Collaboration, the user must have:

Business role for PLM/IPD (example):
- SAP_BR_ENGINEER
- SAP_BR_PRODUCT_MANAGER
Custom role with:
- Access to Collaboration apps
- Authorization for Document Management System (DMS)

Required configuration

Before the tile is visible, ensure:

IPD is activated in the system
Fiori catalogs assigned
DMS integration is active
ECTR / CAD integration (optional but common)
Business partner setup for users

External Partner Collaboration Using SAP IPD

Flowchart showing collaboration steps: OEM Design Engineer sets up room, uploads documents, invites stakeholders, sends for review. Partner edits files, uploads updates. OEM updates design.

The preceding figure shows a generic model for how documents would be shared using SAP IPD. This example shows how an external partner would collaborate using shared documents.

The following exercises will help you understand the basics for setting up Collaboration and workflow which are needed for the other collaboration topics covered in this training. Collaboration is the virtual space to collaborate with people in your organization and across your extended enterprise. A work item is a task that a participant can process within a collaboration. The task can be an on-demand (ad-hoc) task created at any required time or a single task in a workflow.

To Create a Collaboration Type

The following video explains the creation of a collaboration type.

Functional insights

The following video gives further insights about the SAP IPD collaboration.

To Create a Collaboration

Launch the My Collaborations app from the SAP Fiori launchpad.
Choose Create.
Enter a collaboration name and description.
Select a collaboration type.
Perform one of the following actions:
- Choose Save to save the Collaboration and stay on the My Collaborations page. The list of collaborations is updated with the newly created Collaboration.
- Choose Save and Continue to save the Collaboration, navigate to the Manage Collaboration page, and work on it.

Launching the app, the My Collaborations page displays the collaborations you're involved in, allowing you to view, search, sort, group, and filter them.

Collaboration consists of the following sections:

Collaboration Section	Description
Collaboration Header	Contains collaboration details such as Name, Status, Type, Changed On, Changed By, Document Expiry, and Description.
Work Items	Contains a list of work items added to the Collaboration. The list displays work item details such as Title, Due Date, Priority, Status, Assignee, Processor, Created On, and Completed On.
Shared Documents	Contains the folders and documents that the participants can collaborate on.
Shared Product Data	Allows you to add, edit, view, and work with product data records in the Collaboration.
Reference Objects	Allows you to view and work with reference objects linked to collaborations.
Comments	Contains a list of general comments posted within Collaboration by the administrator or participants.
Participants	Contains a list of participants added to the Collaboration and their roles within the Collaboration.
History	Allows you to view the list of events and access documents in Collaboration.

Adding People to Collaboration

Open the created collaboration
Navigate to Participants / Members section
Choose Add Participants

Authorization Within a Collaboration

There are standard authorizations that users can be assigned within a collaboration. The roles are Administrator, Contributor, or Reader. The administrator has the most authorization while the Reader has the least. See the following table for specific actions that each authorization allows.

The following table describes the actions that you can perform based on the role assigned to you in a collaboration:

User Action	Administrator	Contributor	Reader
Upload files in a collaboration	Yes	Yes	No
View and download files and folders in a collaboration	Yes	Yes	Yes
Delete files and folders in a collaboration	Yes	Yes	No
Move files and folders within a collaboration	Yes	Yes	No
Manage versioning of files	Yes	Yes	No
View properties of files and folders	Yes	Yes	Yes
Edit properties of files and folders	Yes	Yes	No
Enable or Disable email notifications for document changes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Open files in shared product data	Yes	Yes	Yes
Add Workflow or Work Item using Shared Documents	Yes	Yes	No
Tag files and folders	Yes	Yes	No
Add and delete users in Folder- level authorizations	Yes	No	No
Update users in folder-level authorizations	Yes	No	No
View users in folder-level authorizations	Yes	Yes	Yes

Create a Workflow

You can add workflows in a collaboration to execute a business process. The workflows add the work items that have been modeled in the workflow business processes. An example of a workflow is a document review process.

Note

Readers can add workflows only if this is enabled for the respective collaboration type.

Prerequisites

You have the necessary roles and authorization to perform this action.
A workflow is created for use in collaborations.
The workflow properties are configured for the workflow.

Steps

In a collaboration, choose the Work Items tab.
Choose Add Workflow.
Select a workflow.
Edit the title if necessary.
Additional fields are displayed below the title if the workflow requires more input. Enter the values for these fields.
The section Assign Participants is displayed if the workflow requires participants to be assigned to business roles. Assign the participants as needed.
Result:
- The participants who have been invited to the Collaboration are displayed in the list.
- The user groups invited to the Collaboration are displayed in the list.
- The solution administrator defines the business roles in the Workflow Properties app.
- The participants you assign get the relevant tasks when the workflow is added.
- The value help is supported for the section Assign Participants, where you enter a minimum of three characters.
Enter a comment if necessary.
Choose Add.

Result

The selected workflow is added in the Collaboration, and the work items table is updated with the workflow details, such as name and status. Choose Expand Node to view the work items in a workflow.

The assignees of the work items can view the work items in the My Inbox app.

Summary

Let's Summarize What You've Learned:

SAP IPD Collaboration enables secure, efficient teamwork on product data, documents, and workflows across internal and external partners.
Users must have the correct roles and system setup to access and use IPD Collaboration features in SAP Fiori.
Collaborations include sections for work items, shared documents, product data, participants, and comments to organize teamwork.
Role-based authorizations control what actions users can perform, such as uploading files or managing participants.
Workflows can be added to collaborations to automate business processes and assign tasks to specific participants.

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