Deals in business involve large volumes of confidential documents which need to be shared with and reviewed securely. Data is often time-sensitive and teams must review documents simultaneously to complete due diligence. In the past, physical sharing of these documents required several parties to travel and spend money in order to review the documents together. Virtual data rooms allow these teams to access the files remotely, without the need to travel, thus reducing costs and allowing companies to complete deals more quickly and efficiently.
Virtual data rooms are accessible from a variety of providers, but they are not all made in the same way. Certain providers of virtual data rooms are better suited to certain industries and transactions, whereas others offer more advanced capabilities.
The most effective deal rooms online allow users to view documents with a high-quality view that is quick and supports many file types. They also offer a variety of permission options and offer data on document viewing and user activity. A number of these virtual deal room providers are SEC and FINRA conforming and place security as their top priority. One of them is FirmRoom that offers the option of a trial period for free as well as a flat-rate pricing model instead of a per-page approach.
Investment banks need software that is easy to use and secures sensitive information for high-stakes transactions. They must speed up the M&A due diligence process, share management presentations with prospective buyers in seconds and ensure the security of investor communications using remote data control tools and helpful insight dashboards. They need to also manage and track the progress of various tasks like creating reports, reviewing documents, and complete Q&A.