What to Look For in Data Rooms

When most people think of data rooms, they’re likely thinking of the due diligence process for a merger or acquisition (M&A) deal in which both parties review critical business documents. However, these days, data rooms are used for more than M&As – they also help in fundraising and equity deals and company restructuring.

There are a variety of software for data rooms and it’s important to find one that is suitable for the requirements of your company. It should be easy to use and accessible from any place with secure logins and encryption technology. Tools to detect illegal access or downloads are also essential.

Another important feature is the ability to create an organized folder structure that meets your requirements for due diligence or project and assigning uploading and reading tasks to team members within the internal organization advisors, third party consultants or other team members. Access permissions that are flexible and can be customized at both the document and folder level are also beneficial. And when it is time to move to the Q&A discussion section of the event of a deal, look for a solution that includes an intuitive and efficient editing tool that is wiki-like, making it easy to create get more notes that can only be read by you (and not the other party).

The best online data room provides the ability to provide administrators a comprehensive view of the activity of users. This includes the type of documents were looked at, as well as whether they had been printed or downloaded. Users should be able to export their data in encrypted format if they need to. Finally, look for a company that provides continuous technical and account management assistance that is accessible 24 hours per day all year round.