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There are many ways attorneys can make use of a virtual data room in their practice, including efficiently managing and storing data, securely transferring large volumes of documents outside the firewall and much more.
As I’ve discussed in the past, online collaboration platforms generally allow for far more secure communication than email and offer attorneys a secure online location for collaboration.
What I have learned is SaaS business forces you to focus on service. If a SaaS customer is not happy with your company’s support, s/he can “unsubscribe” with far less difficulty than if s/he was dealing with a locally installed system.
When I first went to trademark Firmex virtual data rooms as a software company, the trademark attorney told me that to trademark us as a product company I had to physically be able to “ship” something. “Send us a copy of your product on a disk with packaging.” My reaction was “huh?” – We have the internet – we don’t “ship” software on FEDEX trucks anymore, we let the internet take care of the distribution. According to the Trademark office, then, you’re not a software product company, you are a service company.
The recent advent of the kindle, the iPad and other paper eliminating devices serves as an interesting marker of just how archaic a practice it is to produce physical books for an industry as fast paced as M&A. Using a virtual data room to manage this process can accelerate the transaction process from the beginning, help manage costs and provide security measures that often fall through the cracks
Most of Firmex’s clients are now using the internet to distribute seller’s books or confidential information memorandums when managing a sell-side M&A transaction. However, there are firms that are continuing to create physical books, which can range from 50 to 200 pages. These books are typically distributed to a large number of potential buyers, particularly if an advisory firm routinely markets transactions to a database of private equity firms.
Virtual data rooms allow lawyers to store documents online, offering lawyers and their clients convenient access to important legal files.
In my last post we discussed how digital dictation systems can offer busy lawyers much-needed flexibility in the creation of legal documents. The next step, once you’ve created documents using digital dictation, is to store your documents online using virtual document management and collaboration systems. These convenient and efficient online platforms offer lawyers a 21st Century alternative to traditional document management systems.
Digital Rights Management, commonly known as DRM, refers to the ability to protect various types of electronic media. In recent years, DRM technology has become topical because of its role in protecting digital music and movies that make their way online. However, DRM also plays an important role in the financial transaction world offering security to those who share documents online in Virtual Data Rooms.
Digital Rights Management, commonly known as DRM, refers to the ability to protect various types of electronic media. In recent years, DRM technology has become topical because of its role in protecting digital music and movies that make their way online. However, DRM also plays an important role in the financial transaction world offering security to those who share documents online in Virtual Data Rooms.
The Due Diligence M&A process involves buyers and sellers of businesses connecting with other buyers and sellers to complete transactions. In today’s market place, the process of Due Diligence has been streamlined by collecting the information in digital format and sharing it online in a virtual data room.
In the business world, Due Diligence refers to the act of investigating information related to people and businesses. This can be on a voluntary basis as in conducting a background check on a future employee, or it can be a legal requirement as in investigating the legal issues around a corporate takeover bid. However, the most common type of Due Diligence performed in business typically relates to that which is performed in relation to a merger or acquisition (M&A). Read more…
Most virtual data room providers charge per dataroom, page, number of users. Which are the benefits of an unlimited use virtual deal room model? Why does such a model makes sense?
It has always puzzled me as to why virtual data room providers charge per data room or per page or total number of users. How can any company running a deal know exactly how many pages of documents they will have? Or how many users are going to access the deal room? Read more…
Are you wondering what a virtual data room is and what is it used for? This article should answer most of your questions. If you want to know more, just drop us a line and we will be happy to answer.
A virtual data room (“deal room” or “data room”) is a secure web-based document repository generally used for buyers or investors to perform their due diligence on M&A transactions or investment. It is however an increasing trend in top legal firms to use virtual document rooms to support business and commercial litigation processes for external collaboration and file sharing. Read more…
A traditional data room is a secure room where hard copies of corporate documents are kept for confidential review. Data rooms were primarily used for the sale of businesses. Prospective buyers would schedule time in the “data room” to perform comprehensive due diligence on the business or assets they were potentially buying. The buyer had [...]
A traditional data room is a secure room where hard copies of corporate documents are kept for confidential review. Data rooms were primarily used for the sale of businesses. Prospective buyers would schedule time in the “data room” to perform comprehensive due diligence on the business or assets they were potentially buying. The buyer had to travel (often fly) to the secure location. Then the buyer spends long-hours and often days sifting through thousands of documents. If there were more than one buyer, then each buyer would have to schedule certain days for “data room” or secure deal room access.
Over 250 financial and legal advisory firms are using their own, privately branded Firmex data rooms. Firmex-powered deal activity was up 255% in Q1 2009 versus a 10% decline in Q4 2008. According to Firmex’s M&A advisory clients, the increase is a result of sellers bringing deals back to market. The majority of the increase occurred late in Q1 2009, and the trend is continuing into Q2 2009.
There has been much talk about the “boom and bust” of client extranets and deal rooms. In the late 1990s leading firms such as Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance invested millions building their own deal rooms. Neil Cameron, legal consultant, quoted in LegalIT article : Five Year Review Back To the Future (October 2005) [...]
There has been much talk about the “boom and bust” of client extranets and deal rooms. In the late 1990s leading firms such as Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance invested millions building their own deal rooms. Neil Cameron, legal consultant, quoted in LegalIT article : Five Year Review Back To the Future (October 2005) , says that clients are not interested in using their law firm deal rooms. That in the future law firms will use their clients deal rooms.
On this note I spoke to Gillian Stacey at Davies Ward who have been running numerous deals on “their” deal room for clients. I asked her if clients have been giving any push back on using the Davies deal room? The answer was an emphatic “no”! She says that clients are not in the business of running deals. Many simply do not have the deal frequency or inclination to invest in the technology.
The emergence of online due diligence deal rooms is growing. From a few hundred deals in 2002 to an estimated 6000 in 2006. The two leaders (Intralinks, Datasite) are now being beset with smaller, cheaper alternatives as the market matures. These smaller virtual data rooms are sold through financial printers, who can digitize hard copy [...]
The emergence of online due diligence deal rooms is growing. From a few hundred deals in 2002 to an estimated 6000 in 2006. The two leaders (Intralinks, Datasite) are now being beset with smaller, cheaper alternatives as the market matures. These smaller virtual data rooms are sold through financial printers, who can digitize hard copy diligence documentation and post it online for accountants, lawyers and relevant parties to review.
On the other side of the spectrum are the legal software companies companies (Hummingbird, Interwoven) that have launched “enterprise collaboration tools” that handle due diligence and the actual collaboration over drafting closing documents. Downside is these enterprise tools tend to be generic for many different legal matters and they are not super intuitive for managing transactions specifically. They also require an investment in implementation and IT resources.
All the law firms I have spoken to recently about online transaction management have some sort of legal extranet. But it appears that when it comes to managing transactions online the software is not being used. Either its too complicated for attorneys to use, or simply its not a great fit.
With over 3000 transactions being managed online in 2005 (from 450 in 2002), its just a matter of time until law firms take control of running these deals and implementing online transaction management software.
