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 Even after a document has been downloaded, access permissions might be withdrawn;Watermarks.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: 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.
