TIMS3 Security

Custom design TIMS3 security structure to suit a wide range of needs.

At the root of TIMS3 Security, the system ensures that no two people are ever allowed to edit the same document at the same time. This file locking mechanism safely guards against valuable documents being overwritten, illegally modified or removed from the system.

With TIMS3 there is no separate login, all user authentication is integrated within the Windows NT/2000 Domain information. The users login name and group membership is checked against the user record inside of TIMS3. TIMS3 will automatically register new users and assign them access rights. The users status will be assigned based on their TIMS3 profile, granting them appropriate access rights on the system. TIMS3 security is broken down into two interfaces: Access Rights and User Privilege Levels.

Access Rights govern the overall security structure of TIMS. These rights affect both users and reviewers - not administrators who are exempt from these rules. This is set up in an easy to use matrix covering: Projects, Company, Contact, Document, Document Sets and Revisions. For each of these system objects there are four access actions: Review, Edit, Insert and Delete, and four levels of permissions: All, Group, Owner or No Access. Using these tools administrators can easily create a very specific security model for their needs.

User Privilege Levels is a table that stores the records of all the users on the TIMS3 system. Administrators can adjust individual user rights easily. Users can be assigned No Access, Review Only, Regular User, or Manager/Administrator Access privileges. The rights for Users and Reviewers are contingent upon the system Access Rights (above).

Open vs. Secure Projects

An open project affords little security as its project directories are similar to shared map drive locations. Any security must be performed manually. Any file locking must be performed by the application to ensure no two or more users are able open/edit a document at the same time. Open projects are the way most people work today with shared access to specific network drives. Open projects are supported by TIMS3 to 1) ease the conversion to secure projects, 2) allow a mix of environments to support Novell or Banyan servers, 3) provide enterprise wide data access all through one user interface.

A Secure project is a project where the data can only be accessed through TIMS. Users never work directly with the data, the data is always copied to the local workstation from one ore more file servers before any editing is performed. TIMS does not use mapped drives or shares or FTP to transfer the files. TIMS uses only its own proprietary file check-in/out methods. This is the preferred method of data security for TIMS3 installations.