Flexible document security for procurement agents

A computer system for implementing document security for procurement agents, the computer system comprising:

• a computer processor;
• and
• a memory to hold program instructions, the program instructions to perform,
• establishing user authentication credentials for at least two procurement agents, first user authentication credentials having at least a first business unit association for a first procurement agent, and second user authentication credentials for a second business unit having a business unit association for a second procurement agent;
• initially granting limited access to a first set of documents, the first set of documents being initially under control of the first procurement agent and initially inaccessible by the second procurement agent;
• initially granting limited access to a second set of documents, the second set of documents being initially under control of the second procurement agent and initially inaccessible by the first procurement agent;
• storing a document access rule for the first procurement agent, the document access rule to describe access to at least one selected document of the second set of documents;
• and
• executing a procurement application, the procurement application comprising instructions to:
• receive an access request from the first user to access at least one document from among the second set of documents;
• confirm the first user authentication credentials;
• retrieve the document access rule for the first procurement agent;
• allow access by the first user to the document from among the second set of documents when the retrieved document access rule covers the access request;
• and
• deny access by the first user to the document from among the second set of documents when the retrieved document access rule does not cover the access request.

A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor causes the processor to execute a method to implement document security for procurement agents, the method comprising:

• establishing user authentication credentials for at least two procurement agents, first user authentication credentials having at least a first business unit association for a first procurement agent, and second user authentication credentials for a second business unit having a business unit association for a second procurement agent;
• initially granting limited access to a first set of documents, the first set of documents being initially under control of the first procurement agent and initially inaccessible by the second procurement agent;
• initially granting limited access to a second set of documents, the second set of documents being initially under control of the second procurement agent and initially inaccessible by the first procurement agent;
• storing a document access rule for the first procurement agent, the document access rule to describe access to at least one selected document of the second set of documents;
• executing a procurement application, the procurement application comprising instructions to:
• receive an access request from the first user to access at least one document from among the second set of documents;
• confirm the first user authentication credentials;
• retrieve the document access rule for the first procurement agent;
• allow access by the first user to the document from among the second set of documents when the retrieved document access rule covers the access request;
• and
• deny access by the first user to the document from among the second set of documents when the retrieved document access rule does not cover the access request.