Patent ID: 6983278

Claim:
A method comprising: storing a plurality of bills of material (BOMs) in a processing system, each BOM describable as a tree with each node an element, each BOM being associated with an owner of a set of owners, such that BOMS associated with different owners are stored in the same processing system; and uploading data via a network from a local file system for storage in a data server for association with a particular BOM of the BOMs, wherein the uploading includes: selecting the data for upload and linking to the particular BOM; requesting the upload from an application program; receiving from the application program a redirect to the data server: sending the data selected for upload to the data server according to the redirect; at the data server, receiving a ticket issued and authorized by the application program; at the data server, storing the data in encrypted form; and linking the stored data with the particular BOM to form additional information for the particular BOM, such that different users may be assigned different remote access privileges to the uploaded data, the assigning of privileges automatic according to the role assigned to the user or an entity of which the user is an employee.