A virtual data room (VDR) is a space that allows multiple parties to access documents. They are often utilized in the due diligence process for M&A as well as fundraising and corporate restructuring. They provide a more controlled environment than email and have been proven to boost productivity by eliminating the need for meetings.
Typical vdr services include features such as:
A complete audit trail that tracks who has uploaded and edited, downloaded, or deleted files. This is crucial to prove conformity in the case of a dispute. A good data room should also allow you to control user access at the document, folder, and individual levels of files.
Users can also add notes to documents in the data room. Notes are only accessible by the person who created notes and are not visible to anyone else viewing the document. This is helpful in the review and clarification of important documents and accelerate the negotiation process.
It is also important to find a data room provider that has features that can improve the efficiency of the process of making deals, such as video calls, integrated chat and Q&A. Additionally, a reputable data room provider will provide flexible subscription plans that can be modified as a business’s needs change. A data room should also offer automated email notifications to help you keep track of deadlines, tasks and uploaded documents. For example, IDeals’ iDeals platform offers its customers detailed reports of activity inside the virtual data room on an individual page basis. It also sends automatic emails about each event. This helps them stay on top of what investors are interested in and speed up the process of closing.