Online Document Management & Collaboration

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Tag Archives: deal rooms

How Can Lawyers use Virtual Data Rooms in Their Practice?

By Nicole Black July 20, 2010 at 9:15 am

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.

Private Placements: Why not use a Virtual Data Room?

By Aaron Booth July 15, 2010 at 1:18 pm

A virtual deal room is a convenient tool to securely organize and share large volumes of documents during the Private Placement process. An online document repository, or virtual deal room, is an attractive alternative to email for collecting and sharing this information in an organized fashion while keeping the data safe.

Recently, I have been talking to professionals that specialize in issuing private placements. A private placement is a funding round of securities that are issued to a select group of targeted, private investors. In my discussions, it has become apparent that there is an opportunity for professionals in this space to leverage the capabilities of a virtual data room, particularly if they manage more than one of these transactions annually.

Virtual Data Rooms for Financial Audits

By Joel Lessem May 27, 2010 at 9:05 am

Firmex corporate clients are using their unlimited use virtual data room to share financial information with their auditors, setting up all their folders and documents online.

If anyone has ever had the pleasure of conducting a financial audit he/she is all too aware that it’s a time consuming process. The audit process has four main stages:

Planning & Risk Assessment: Are there other factors that could have a material impact on the company and are not evident in the financial reports? What are the risks of an inaccurate audit opinion?
Internal Controls Testing: Are the financial controls rigorous, consistent and accurate?
Substantive Procedures: Detailed review of financial information.
Finalization: Create the audit report.

The Green Efficiency Advantage: Virtual Data Rooms and Developing Renewable Energy Infrastructure

By Joel Lessem May 20, 2010 at 4:49 am

Environmental health is a growing global issue and demand for renewable energy is accelerating. Solar energy has grown at 30% per annum over the past 15 years while wind power grew close to 32% in 2009. As Firmex, virtual data room technology, becomes more cost-effective and easy to use, the software is increasingly useful to the renewable energy industry.

Over the last year, Firmex has been signing a significant number of renewable energy developers - in particular solar and wind energy. As the health of the environment continues to be a growing global issue, demand for renewable energy is accelerating. Solar energy has grown at 30% per annum over the past 15 years while wind power grew close to 32% in 2009. In 2008 some $155 Billion was invested in renewable energy up fourfold from 2004. Investment fell 40% in 2009 due to the economic crisis though experts expect that to rebound.

Life Sciences: Highly Confidential Intellectual Property and Virtual Data Rooms

By Joel Lessem May 13, 2010 at 9:20 am

The process to take a new drug through pre-clinical and clinical trials is extensive. Since the Intellectual Property is so valuable and confidential, Life Sciences firms will generally limit the distribution of documentation in a secure virtual data room – they can watermark, restrict printing and save documents as required.

Many Firmex clients are Life Sciences firms developing new therapeutic medicines. What amazes me about this industry is the time horizon of 15+ years to take a drug from idea to market, costing millions, even billions of dollars. There are 3000-4000 early-stage research-driven firms funded by public markets or venture-capital that take on the technology risk of trying to develop new drug pipeline.

Virtual Data Rooms: Modernizing the Workspace

By David W. Hammer May 12, 2010 at 12:30 pm

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.

Digital Rights Management for Secure Document Sharing

By Aaron Booth April 8, 2010 at 9:55 am

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.

Firmex Enhancements: Beyond Performance

By Randy Rosenberg March 25, 2010 at 8:32 am

Over the next few months, we will be making Firmex simpler for our clients to administer their virtual datarooms / workspaces and interact throughout the application

As developers we constantly focus our attention on the performance of our Firmex platform. While this concentration will always be an important aspect of what we do, it is imperative to direct our attention to exactly what we are developing and how it is being used. Since launching the new Firmex service-based architecture, our web application has experienced huge gains in speed and performance, paving the way for us to develop new ways to streamline workflow for our users.

Gatekeeping the Virtual Data Room

By Jim Rench March 18, 2010 at 9:13 am

An important consideration in the deployment of a Virtual Data Room is the question of who will serve as the gatekeeper to the Virtual Deal Room, determining what information is appropriate for posting and what level of security and access to assign to such information.

The use of a virtual deal room (“VDR”) has become commonplace in modern merger and acquisition practice, replacing the formerly prevalent document room. The advantages of a VDR include reduced cost; reduced security concerns; accessibility to multiple parties simultaneously and 24/7; reduction in actual deal time; and an electronic data trail establishing who saw what and when.

Virtual Data Rooms: Unlimited-Use Closes Deals Fast

By Joel Lessem March 4, 2010 at 10:01 am

Firmex’s unlimited use virtual data rooms expand the use investment banks have for their deal rooms exponentially; hasten deals to close and help avoid unnecessary risk.

In any deal, time is risk. The longer it takes to close a deal, the greater the potential for the transaction to get derailed. Being prepared ahead of time is one way to avoid time delays and risk.

Data Room Performance Improvements at Firmex: An Overview

By Marcel Meyer February 25, 2010 at 12:48 pm

A technical overview of recent data rooms and the speed enhancements for large transactions that are saving our clients considerable time and money when managing transactions with thousands of documents.

Because data room performance is important to our clients, we recently released the first wave of our new software architecture to address the growing demands of our customers.

Alternatives to Expensive and Time-Consuming Air Travel

By Nicole Black February 23, 2010 at 1:30 pm

Lawyers and law firms can avoid costly air travel delays by taking advantage of innovative alternatives to face-to-face business meetings, such as virtual data rooms or online workspace services, which offer a cost-effective way to organize and deliver content online.

Let’s face it, these days, business air travel is a costly proposition—it’s expensive and takes up valuable time. Read more…

Nicole Black 1 comment Cloud Computing, Legal, SaaS, Uncategorized, virtual data room

Online Deal Rooms Trends

By Joel Lessem June 14, 2006 at 4:17 pm

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.

Joel Lessem Leave a comment Industry Trends, Virtual Data Room - FAQ, virtual data room

Tag Archives: deal rooms

How Can Lawyers use Virtual Data Rooms in Their Practice?

Private Placements: Why not use a Virtual Data Room?

Virtual Data Rooms for Financial Audits

The Green Efficiency Advantage: Virtual Data Rooms and Developing Renewable Energy Infrastructure

Life Sciences: Highly Confidential Intellectual Property and Virtual Data Rooms

Virtual Data Rooms: Modernizing the Workspace

Digital Rights Management for Secure Document Sharing

Firmex Enhancements: Beyond Performance

Gatekeeping the Virtual Data Room

Virtual Data Rooms: Unlimited-Use Closes Deals Fast

Data Room Performance Improvements at Firmex: An Overview

Online Deal Rooms Trends

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