No deal breaker: Virtual data rooms for secure M&A projects

Mergers and acquisitions are strictly confidential business dealings. At the same time, the due diligence process requires the exchange of information. To ensure that this information exchange is secure, confidential and efficient, precautions need to be taken. Unfortunately, the opposite usually takes place: information is still shared via email and ultimately stored on a file server at the M&A consultancy. Then, once the files have been shared, there are no access rights, security and version control in place.

Now, imagine a world in which every party in the M&A process can share and access information, of course with access control, but without the hassle of long, confusing and sometimes overlapping email threads. Look no further: Our Doxis Virtual Data Room is the perfect solution. It helps everyone in the M&A process to exchange content swiftly and in a highly secure way. You always have the latest version on hand and benefit from a logical structure with easy upload and access functionalities. M&A consultants maintain an overview with an intuitive, highly secure admin tool. Virtual Data Rooms with Doxis is the optimal alternative to those of classical deal room providers, because it offers a range of features that enhance the process and make it more secure. Our licensing model supports the easy and flexible integration of external parties and access from different devices. The same security standards apply to every device, whether it’s a mobile phone or desktop version.

Forrester analyst Cheryl McKinnon recently discussed this topic in her blog post and report (Confidently Conduct B2B Negotiations With Secure Deal Rooms, Forrester Research, Inc., November 10, 2016). She analyzes modern M&A solutions based on interviews with 21 vendors and user companies — and we were one of the vendors sharing our ideas and insights in this field.

Added features compared to classical deal room solutions

The Virtual Data Room by SER not only features classical ECM and BPM functionalities, but it also impresses users with its secure collaboration and access control. This makes our solution highly germane and useful for M&A consultants and their clients.

Features at a glance:

• Access and permission control protecting sensitive data and information
• Rights management with permanent and temporary access
• Secure collaboration with internal and external parties
• Workflows
• Archiving
• Classification, metadata
• Activity tracking and audit trails
• Annotations and versioning
• (Automated) retention times
• Intuitive and comprehensive user experience across all devices: Windows, web and mobile client

Data sovereignty requirements (especially in Europe)

Secure, confidential and compliant content and process management beyond pure M&A projects

Virtual Data Room with Doxis is not limited to M&A projects, but also supports use cases, where security, confidentiality and access control are crucial. In the Forrester report mentioned above, analysts identified the following areas that benefit from virtual data rooms:

• Procurement and bid solicitation
• Executive committee or board of directors meeting management
• Venture-capital-raising activities
• Document distribution with regulatory agencies
• Legal matter collaboration

Moreover, we believe that secure and confidential data handling is a crucial part of today’s business environment, not only in M&A, but in all areas of business in which confidential information is handled — internally or with external partners.