Comparing Data Room Providers

Get the facts

A data room is a fantastic tool to streamline processes and transactions that depend on secure document sharing. Virtual data rooms are not all created equal. Some offer instruments that are geared to specific industries or transaction types. Compare the features and capabilities of providers to ensure you are doing your due diligence. Determine which VDRs are the best fit for the specific industry you work.

For example, some VDR software providers specialize in helping M&A due diligence participants. Others focus on the banking, legal and education fields. Some VDRs are designed to help archive and facilitate collaboration in investment banking as well as structured finance.

When you are comparing online document management software pay close attention to the way in which the provider handles permission settings. Some VDRs allow you to easily assign rights based upon each user’s position within the company or contribution to the project. This helps to improve security and collaboration, since each user can only access documents relevant to them.

You can also make use of audit reports in order to improve management and monitor security. They provide comprehensive information on file access the history of viewing and activity. Search functions are crucial particularly if your team works with large volumes. Make sure that your VDR provides optical character recognition (OCR) as well as full text searching by using structures and folders, as well as filters to narrow down search results.