What is the most important thing for your business? Any business is built on funds, human resources, expertise, management, and a set of rules. Still, data or information is one of the most important things for modern-day businesses.
It is needless to say that protecting business data is undoubtedly the primary objective of any business. When it comes to business data security, virtual data room software is a hard-to-beat solution.
Data room software has become a vital component everywhere, including financial institutions, the healthcare industry, clinical trials, real estate portfolio management, mergers, acquisitions, law, and investment banking.
The question is — why is online data room software important for your business? Or how can it add value to your business operations? Read on to get your answers.
Virtual Data Rooms Defined
Virtual data rooms or online data rooms are fully secure cloud-based data storage platforms where any kind of business, professional, service provider, or government organization can safely store, retrieve, share, and manage documents.
An electronic data room can store data in any format, including images, zipped files, videos, audio, documents, presentations, and other commonly used formats.
In addition to being a data repository, online data room software is a highly suitable place for virtual collaboration. That’s because virtual data rooms mostly have all types of communication tools required for business communications. Because of their security and advanced collaboration tools, data room software is often used for board communications.
What makes virtual data rooms different from other document storage platforms is their built-in project management features that are commonly used in transactions like joint ventures, strategic partnerships, acquisitions, mergers, initial public offerings, fundraising, and asset trading.
Why Are Virtual Data Rooms Important For Your Business?
Virtual data room software is a value-packed solution for any business, including yours. Here is how.
1. Cost-efficiency
Any business invests in an asset if it is expected to return something in monetary terms. A virtual data room is just like an asset for the company, and it also helps you save money. For example, the first major expense you can reduce with online data room software is your paper and printing costs.
As a VDR is an online paperless solution where data can be stored and shared online, it minimizes the need for paper documents which decreases paper and printing expenses significantly.
Second, data room pricing models are designed to reduce your expenses whether you need data rooms temporarily or permanently. You can pay only for the amount of data storage space you consume or a flat monthly fee for longer-term data room services. You can also pay per page or per user if you find it cost-effective.
However, always make sure that there are no hidden or implied charges, as some data room vendors may cost you more than you expected. You can read here more about data room pricing — key pricing strategies, hidden fees and extra charges, and data rooms comparison by pricing. It will help you to choose the best-fitting pricing model for your business.
2. Automation
Automation is what businesses seek in every field, and virtual data rooms provide exactly that. A data room software can automate data sharing and document management processes in different ways. Here are some prime examples.
Shared Documents
Using online data room software, any user can create a live document link and invite other users to work on a shared document. All the changes or additions from users will be saved and updated in real-time.
Scheduled Document Sharing
If you intend to share any document at a future date, you can schedule it earlier. All you have to do is specify the users and the time of deliverance; VDR will do the rest. You can also schedule documents to be signed by specific persons. The documents will be shared with the concerned data room users for signing, and they will be notified immediately.
Pre-defined User Roles
Rather than restricting or controlling user activities, you (VDR administrator) can automate user access roles. For example, you can create a user group, upload documents to it, and set documents access settings for users as follow;
- View only: Users who can only view a document.
- Download: Users who can view and download documents.
- Edit and download: Users who can change, edit, overwrite, save, download, and print documents.
You can also set a scheduled data room access for one or more individuals. That means a particular user will only be able to access the data room in a specified time period.
3. Remote Data Accessibility
Simply put, you can have your business data at your fingertips. Virtual data rooms are digital solutions, so they are easily accessible from any part of the globe and at any time. Remote accessibility allows the project management teams, auditors, consultants, advisors, and business lawyers to access data from anywhere and perform their responsibilities remotely.
Apart from that, investors and stakeholders can also access company data rooms, communicate with users, view and analyze documents, and whatnot. The best part is that data rooms can be accessed using mobile or tablet applications. You are just one click away from your corporate documents.
Parting Thoughts
The last thing you want as an entrepreneur or business owner is to see your confidential business data falling into the wrong hands. Imagine unique ideas, strategies, and prototypes of an entrepreneur are stolen by the competitor due to unsafe data storage tools; that entrepreneur can be you.
Using virtual data room software can give unparalleled security to your business data. Consider adopting this solution and let your business benefit from the automation, accessibility, and cost-efficiency offered by this software!