A virtual data room (or VDR) is a cloud (as a rule) space for storing and performing operations with various company documents.
With its help, companies can quickly and easily share all necessary data with themselves, their investors, clients, managers, and so on. Virtual data room companies offer an absolutely secure environment that excludes the leakage of corporate information. This is one of the key points explaining the widespread use of electronic data rooms in large businesses (for example, VDRs offer a lot of reasons for mergers to use their functionality).
All virtual data room files are stored in a controlled environment that significantly reduces or eliminates the need for paper documentation. This, in turn, reduces clutter, waste, and more.
Scroll on to learn more about the main features of virtual data rooms and their benefits. You will also get an insight into the main aspects that you should pay attention to when choosing a VDR provider in order to attain great results.
How Data Room Software Helps Improve Businesses
Find out below what you can do with an online data room to boost your business’s performance.
Store and exchange information securely
With the help of the VDR solution, users can store virtually any type and volume of documentation or files. Thanks to advanced settings, you can set restrictions not only on folders but also on separate files so that individual users may see only content that is allowed for them.
Connect all users within your company
Often, among users of electronic data rooms, there are a lot of corporations and companies with tens and hundreds of employees. This solution allows them to coordinate and distribute responsibilities between almost any number of users, as well as adjust the levels of access to information.
Save resources
Regardless of the company size, the issue of cost savings is always relevant. Using an electronic data room, you can replace paper documents with electronic ones, which reduces the cost of renting premises, paying for courier services, office supplies, copier consumables, and much more.
Adopt changes quickly
With a VDR, you can edit files, make changes to documentation, and schedule meetings in real-time. This can be done in a few clicks by users with the appropriate access level. All processes are synchronized so that changes are available instantly to all users.
Features of Electronic Data Rooms
Each electronic data room provider comes with an individual set of features, which also may vary depending on the pricing plan you choose. Though there are some common features, you may read below.
Security
As mentioned above, virtual data rooms can provide a 100% secure environment in which campaigns can operate. The VDR administration can set access levels for different users. Thus, the same file or folder can be available both for full editing or only for simple viewing.
It is also possible to set restrictions on downloading certain files or folders.
In addition to this, most modern data rooms also support a strong authentication protocol, two-factor authentication, digital rights management, advanced encryption security with 128 or 256-bit keys, and more. This helps to avoid various attacks, including man-in-the-middle.
Artificial intelligence
Virtual data rooms make extensive use of the power of artificial intelligence to process multiple documents, messages, and files.
This helps to significantly save time and improve work efficiency. For example, you can be sure that there are no duplicated files in the folder.
In addition, with the help of artificial intelligence, you can easily find the necessary file or a separate section of the document.
Tracking
The functionality of virtual data rooms allows you to track all the processes that occur within the environment. VDR rooms administration can track users who logged in or logged out, how long they were in the system, what files they downloaded or viewed, and so on.
Also, thanks to such information, company managers can get a complete picture of what interests customers, which helps to develop a strategy and meet the needs of both parties.
Drag and drop file uploading
Virtual data rooms allow you to add any files by means of the drag and drop option, which can help save a lot of time.
In addition, many VDR providers offer automatic indexing that helps keep the order of all the files. It makes it easy to find the information you need.
Live chatting
Often, employees of companies can be located in different parts of the globe, which can complicate the process of communication and decision-making.
However, virtual data rooms with built-in live chat features eliminate this problem. In addition, the live chat option provides a written communication chain that team members can return to and explore later.
Tips to Select Data Rooms
Depending on the size of the business and its specification, the focus may be shifted to certain features of the online data room software provider. However, below are the main points that you need to pay attention to when choosing a VDR room.
- Ease of use. The program interface should not be overloaded with controls. Plus, any user should be able to master software easily.
- Suggested security levels. In addition to the above, you should pay attention to the ability to use remote shreds, watermarks, granular documents permissions, and so on.
- Document management. It is necessary to pay attention to the allowed storage volumes and supported file formats that can be uploaded.
- Reports. It is worth choosing software that allows you to conduct a full audit of user activity and receive a group overview and color-coded reports.
