While Dropbox and Google Drive are great for sharing files, data rooms offer more advanced features. In contrast to free file storage platforms they are set up to share files in a highly secure environment. They also offer advanced security features, such as auditing, permissions and watermarking that guarantees only authorized individuals can view and download the needed files.
A virtual dataroom enables both parties to conduct due diligence using an organized workflow for each document. This ensures that confidential business information, such as patents, financial results, or product developments are only viewed by interested buyers and ensures that all conversations are kept within the platform. This helps prevent leaks and decreases the possibility of sensitive information falling into the in the wrong hands.
The logs of activity audits are another important aspect of a data room. They provide a comprehensive review of who accessed a document and when. This allows M&A team members to keep track of the level of interest and decide whether to keep the negotiations going or continue negotiations. Additionally, reports from the data room help to keep teams organized by providing a quick overview of the activities of the group (e.g. who has been logged in, who seen and/or edited which documents and when).
A virtual dataroom also allows users to quickly sort through thousands of files with the help of a an efficient search engine. This includes full-text searching, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), filtering by labels and a range of logical operators, and more. Additionally, the ability automatically index and number folders and documents makes organizing and finding huge amounts of data easy.