Choosing the accurate virtual data room or best data room providers might be hard. An array of providers exist; however, not all of them cater to particular business needs. Another issue is how to set up the purchased VDR without facing difficulties. Today, this virtual data room review will help you through with the data room setup, and speak of the tips that can promote efficient due diligence or venture capital transactions.
What to Consider Before Turning to Data Room Services
The first thing to do before the setup of the data room software is to have a clean-cut scheme of the involved key documents for due diligence (or other operations), as well as key roles (people who will access those documents). Think of the VDR as a desktop with folders, or a room with cabinets. Each will have its particular documents, and keys to open those folders/cabinets. Then, if you are the main one, think of who will be authorized to access all the files or a part of them alongside you. For instance, VDR allows you to hide some files from public access.
In simple terms, you should act as an administrator who will supervise the projects, documents involved, and guests who can view and edit them for effective transactions.
The second thing is to divide the files according to their importance and protection. Depending on your choice of provider, a number of protection features may exist. For instance, the following security perks may be offered:
- Remote Shredding. The access to the file is controlled via document encryption. Even after a document has been downloaded, access permissions might be withdrawn;
- Watermarks. When a document is read, printed, or downloaded, you may allow automated watermarks to appear on top of it. Watermarks can be customized with the user’s identity, IP address, time, and date of document access;
- Fence View. One user can only view the center of the document because the remainder is hidden behind a sliding barred screen;
- Spreadsheet Viewer. Some virtual data rooms will have an exclusive feature of securely examining and analyzing Excel documents online. The viewer can download, decrypt, watermark, and render documents in any web browser, not in PDF, but in original secure Excel format.
Note, it is always up to you to decide on the protection of files and their importance for further storage. You can make the documents or certain due diligence folders extremely secure with no printing, no screenshots, no downloading permissions, and a large digital watermark. On the other side, you may also make the involved files simple to download and distribute.
Now, let’s head to the actual setup of your picked online data room software.
Tips on Virtual Data Rooms Setup
Ideally, people who are far from such software should seek experts’ guidance. However, let’s relieve you a bit. Modern virtual data room providers ensure to make their software so intuitive and user-friendly that the whole setup is manageable for non-tech-savvy people too. Just follow the next basic steps:
- Open your VDR, and check what security measures and features are available. As was hinted above, there might be access control, watermarking, copy protection, expiration, NDA, and reporting all in one platform.
- Set up the reporting. You should observe how, when, and for how long your receivers/third users may interact with your files. Simply, you should have a full history of users’ activity within certain folders and documents. Reports are crucial for those who want to know which investors are more interested in the process. You can receive projects reminders and follow-ups.
- Divide the data rooms per stage. If you want to guide the involved parties per stage, from the offer to actual investment, separate the files. Some folders might be open for checking only to those who show a strong interest in investment.
- Refer to your company’s or investors’ due diligence checklist. It means that your VDR will feature folders particularly for existing assets, obligations, contracts, perks, and future difficulties of the firm. It will facilitate the search for one or another file.
Then, you just invite the involved parties to your electronic data room and set up their access – restricted or unrestricted to certain files. Do remember, you can guide them step-by-step depending on their interest in the project. No need to spill all beans from the start.
Final Thoughts
That’s it for the basic and error-free setup. Depending on your business goals, you may also want to integrate additional features. For example, if you focus on overseas transactions, and tasks, you are most likely to set up the languages supported. Your investors may access a virtual data room in English, German, Spanish, French, as well as Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and other languages. The same concerns notifications which you or investors may receive upon heading to the new due diligence or private equity, etc operations.