How to Choose a Data Room Service Provider
If a business is required to quickly collect and review vast amounts of information in order to make critical business decisions, such as M&A deals or fundraising rounds it can be difficult to sort through tens, if not hundreds of thousands of documents. A virtual data room (VDR), a secure, digital environment to store and share data that is easily accessible to all parties, can be a great solution.
It’s crucial to know what you want from the VDR. This will help you pick the best one for you. It is then possible to avoid the pitfalls of features, and pick the one that allows you to complete your project quickly and without risk.
The essential features include the ability to grant permissions at a granular level, a flexible technology for watermarking files that adds unique identifiers and datestamps each one, an activity report of users, and the ability to be notified when files are modified. Other features worth mentioning is the ability to personalize your workspace to reflect your company’s brand identity, including logos, color schemes and invitation emails, as well as to add conditions and terms, watermarks, headers and footers to uploaded and downloaded files.
Look for a vendor which offers trial periods for free to get you started, and flexible pay-as you-go plans with no long term contracts. Also look for a company that understands the regulatory compliance which may be required by some industries and builds this knowledge into their software using features like audit trails, version control and the ability to prove that the risk warnings have actually been read and understood by users.