A virtual dataroom (VDR) provides a secure platform for collaboration and sharing of documents in various business processes. VDRs are especially useful for M&A due diligence, financing, legal proceedings, and other critical projects requiring the disclosure of sensitive information to third parties beyond the firewall of the company.
Some traditional VDR providers require users to download and run the software on their desktops or use plugins to protect themselves. This can slow down the review process and impede access to VDR. It may also prevent some prospective buyers from participating. Modern VDR provides a seamless user experience and native browser support, resulting in the most robust, flexible and intuitive solution.
Many VDRs provide a well-organized repository of documents. They also offer search capabilities that can identify text within most file types, including PDFs and Excel documents. This sort of detailed activity tracking is particularly important for M&A due diligence and fundraising as it assists administrators in determining how much interest their documents have generated with bidders or investors.
In addition, many VDRs allow for folder level security and user permissions to ensure that only those who are required to see a particular document can access it. This feature is typically used by venture capital and private equity companies to share reports with limited partners, portfolio companies and investors to ensure confidentiality and speed up the review process. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies use VDRs in addition to share intellectual property and results of clinical trials with research partners and regulatory agencies.