Komatsu is using Microsoft Information Protection to control access to engineering design documents, enabling it to implement conditional access and automatic time limits, to safely share these with clients and the Komatsu supply chain.

"This is everything about how our machines are put together, so it's very important that we protect that information—there's nothing more vital than our intellectual property," Dave Vilwock, senior manager of application development at Komatsu, said in a Microsoft blog.

The company now plans to use the solution beyond its supply chain operations. "[The system] protects our IP without our security measures getting in the way of collaboration and innovation," said Vilwock.