Virtual Data Rooms

A virtual data room (VDR) is an online repository of data that can be used by businesses to share critical documents with external parties in a highly-secure online environment. VDRs are typically used during financial transactions and serve as virtual “meeting” rooms where buyers, attorneys, accountants, and other professionals can safely review confidential documents. A virtual data room provides businesses with the tools to meticulously collect, organize, share, and monitor important business files during transactions.

With the omnipresence of computers in our world, practically all companies now rely on software and technology tools to run smooth and efficient businesses. Virtual data rooms are an ideal solution for companies looking to embrace a ‘paperless’ approach in regard to the storage, sharing and tracking of their business-critical information.

Virtual data rooms are most commonly used by companies during deals, such as mergers & acquisitions and fund raisings, to securely share highly-sensitive business-critical documents with multiple parties both in and outside the organization. Information stored in VDRs is often highly-sensitive and of high importance to the owners of companies; therefore, safeguarding this information is also of the highest importance

In addition to storing financial records required for financial, tax, and legal purposes, companies also use virtual data rooms to store documents that could be considered intellectual property such as copyrighted information or trade secrets. With the constant and daunting presence of modern-day cybersecurity threats, virtual data rooms serve as the ideal solution for companies looking to ensure the absolute safety of their business-critical data.

The usage of virtual data rooms has now become the norm for modern-day financial transactions. Advances in online security over the past decade have vastly accelerated the redundancy of physical data rooms, which were proving to be both unproductive and problematic for parties involved in deals. Data rooms provide companies with a highly-efficient and convenient platform to securely execute the sharing and tracking of their business-sensitive information from anywhere across the world at any time. The most prevalent uses of a data room is for the following types of transactions: Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Audits, IPOs, Fundraising, Loan Applications and Processing, Strategic Partnerships, Intellectual Property Management and Board Communications.

One of the greatest strengths of a virtual data room lies, without doubt, in its security. A data room offers unparalleled security features that are designed to shield business-critical documents and prevent the leaking of a company’s sensitive information into unwelcome hands.

VDRs are also an ideal and hassle-free solution for the secure sharing and tracking of business-critical information with multiple parties during transactions. A virtual data room allows you to:

• Assign varying security levels to users and documents
• Apply view only, printing and download restrictions to documents
• Place dynamic watermarks on viewed and/or printed pages for document security
• Monitor and track the login activity of each user
• Know and control who has accessed each document and how many times

In order to choose the right data room (VDR) for your organization, there are 7 key things you need to look into:

1. Security

   Choose a virtual data room provider that pays attention to three primary areas of security: Data security (virus & intrusion protection, data encryption and network firewalls), Feature security (password complexity, change and expiration requirements, inactivity timeouts, etc.) and Physical security (offsite data backups, data redundancy, fire protection, biometric access, etc.).

2. Document Access Controls

   Choose a virtual data room that enables you to adequately control access to business-critical documents with features like assigning specific security controls to users and documents, specifying view only, print, or download permissions for documents & users, dynamic watermarks and establishing time frames for user access.

3. Reports to Track User Activity

   Choose a VDR that allows you to monitor the activity of every user and also gain insights from all tracked user and document activity in the data room.

4. Features Tailored to YOUR Needs

   Choose a data room that provides you with the EXACT features you need to ensure seamless transactions and does not overcomplicate the process with unnecessary features that encumber you.

5. Pricing

   Choose a VDR that offers transparent pricing models that meet your needs.

6. Proven Track Record

   Choose a virtual data room with a proven track record in facilitating transactions within your specific industry.

7. Customer Support

   Choose a VDR that has a customer support team dedicated to providing clients with the kind of rapid support they need and expect!

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