Privacy is a top priority here at Brainbase. With the addition of 'External Collaborators,' our customers now have more power than ever when it comes to deciding who can view their sensitive data, whether it be on their contracts, within their sales reports or product submission processes, and more! 

The licensor gets to manage the roles and permissions for the external users, or Collaborators, that they invite to work with in-app. This also helps with visibility so they know exactly who has access to what data. 

Note: Roles and permissions from a user’s internal company account have no bearing on the roles and permissions granted to the user by another company when they're invited as a Collaborator. 

To learn more about assigning internal user roles, click here. 

Collaborators are external users that a company has invited to the app who have definable levels of permissions based on the licensor's preferences. Each Collaborator can be assigned specific roles that are customizable on the licensor's side. For example, this is great for larger enterprise customers who only want their agencies to have access to the specific data required to function in-app. 

In short, only invited collaborators will have access to data for the companies to which they were explicitly invited. 

To invite a collaborator, you'll need to locate that company in the 'Companies' tab, meaning that the company needs to have already been added in-app beforehand. For more on adding a company, click here. They'll also need to have a contract in Brainbase already in order for you to invite a collaborator. 

We'll use the licensor company account called 'Science Toys Limited' as an example, here. Clicking on it from the list view will take you to the 'Company Details' page, which will display any pertinent information about the company.

You'll find the 'Collaborators' section directly beneath the list of contracts associated with 'Science Toys Limited.' This will include the list of preexisting Collaborators who've been invited to work with the licensor, as well as an 'Add Collaborators' button. 

Once you've clicked 'Add Collaborators,' the following popup will appear, where you can enter the email addresses for the users you want to invite to view the data belonging to 'Science Toys Limited.' You'll also be able to specify the role that you want this user to have in relation to your company data. 

In this example, I'll invite Sarah as a Collaborator with the 'Submission Reviewer' role for this company, and then click 'Save' to send the email invitation. 

Once you've clicked 'Save,' you'll see a green success message flash across the top of the screen. The invited user(s) can also now be seen in the 'Collaborators' section. 

Sarah received the email shown below, which she can accept in order to start working as a collaborator with Science Toys Limited.

Once she's clicked 'Accept Invite,' she'll be taken to the profile creation page to continue setting up her account:

It’s critical to understand the concept of data ownership and the boundaries of a company account. Those elements are the basis of forming an accurate perspective on how roles & permissions function in our app. 

Take, for example, a 'Company' that exists in Brainbase. What is it and where does it exist?

When someone adds a company ('Companies' → 'Add company'), we add a global object and make an alias of that global object in the company account.

In each company account, you can have an alias of that global company object with some attributes and configurations specific to that company account. This is the lens through which the app views settings that a specific company account applies to a global object.

Let’s start with this scenario:

The BrandAid company account has its own internal users (i.e., people that work at that company).

The SpecialAgent company account also has its own internal users (i.e., people that work at that company).

BrandAid and SpecialAgent need to collaborate together on some specific things. How does this work, now? 

So, what if someone at SpecialAgent thinks more people need access to view the contract?

They would need to contact someone at BrandAid and ask for those people to be added as collaborators to the company, 'SpecialAgent' inside BrandAid’s account (BrandAid → Companies → SpecialAgent → Collaborators).

Previously, contacts were used to add/invite new users, typically when the company is brand new to the app. Now, 'Contacts' are just simple data points to promote collaboration across different teams. 

Think of it as a business card - for example, a licensor can add their finance team's contact information for licensees to reach out to if they need to discuss anything related to sales reports or contract terms. 

Previously, when adding or editing a contract, there were several settings that could be defined. Those settings would govern what users at external companies could do. 

With this update, those options will no longer be visible when adding/editing a contract. 

Instead, those permissions will be granted to Collaborators on a per-Collaborator basis (based on the roles assigned to them) for the external company. 

For example, if someone at Starship Brands, Inc. wanted a user from Advanced Robotics Manufacturing, Inc. to be able to submit sales reports and add submissions, they would need to create a role that includes those permissions, and invite a collaborator under the 'Advanced Robots Manufacturing, Inc.' company that includes the role(s) they created with those permissions.

Company admin users will be able to edit both internal and external user roles and permissions from the 'User Management Section. There are 'External' or 'Internal' tags for each user to specify their relationship to the company's data, as well as an indication of their overall access status:

Clicking on a specific user from this page will take you to their user profile, where you can further customize the level of access they'll have to your data as well as review their current access and permissions both internally and externally. 

This page includes toggle switches to turn on/off access to company data and to make an external user visible to other companies in the different user pickers found around the app. 

If you're a user that's been invited to multiple companies as a Collaborator, you'll be able to easily toggle between them by clicking on your initials/profile photo in the bottom-left corner, clicking on the visible company name, and then choosing the one you'd like to use in order to see the relevant company data. This will be used heavily by agencies working with many licensors. 

Admins of a company should have the last say in what permissions their company’s users can receive from other companies that want to collaborate with them.

Now, an admin of the company account for which the user is a member can have the final say in what permissions that user is allowed to receive by external companies that invite the user to collaborate with them.

For example, if an admin disables Contracts → 'Approve' permission, then the user will not be able to receive that permission from other companies that invite them to collaborate — even if the role they assign to the user includes the permission.

Only users with the applicable permissions will be able to invite external collaborators for their company, which can be found under the 'General' header on the permissions page for their specified role.