In many companies, the IT systems and tools used result in a heterogeneous landscape. This applies not only to the CAD and CAE systems used to calculate, develop and verify mechanical components, electrical/electronic (E/E) components and software, but also, to a certain extent, to the tools used to manage the data from the various authoring systems in the context of CAD and CAE data management. The growing trend towards interdisciplinary development of complex mechatronic products and systems brings with it an increasing variety of authoring and management systems that need to be integrated. This makes it more difficult to harmonize the development processes at enterprise level, with the result that data does not flow between the various departments and disciplines as smoothly as should be the case to allow processes to be optimized properly.