Due diligence is a process whereby a company holds all the cards for potential partners, allowing outside experts to examine its data, financial and legal reports, assets, revenues, expenses, etc. in detail. In such cases, you should always be on your guard, and take good care of the security of your confidential information. To give an interested party easy access to the necessary materials, but also to ensure and protect yourself, a virtual data room will help you. In this article, we’ll look at exactly how it can help your company during due diligence.
Strictly protecting Excel files – how does it work?
Excel, is one of the most commonly used files that contain important confidential company information, along with PDPs. The spreadsheet is used in financial reports and other revealing documents whose submission is mandatory during the due diligence process.
A virtual data room is not only a place to conveniently store and share documents but also a reliable means of protection against both external dangers and insider threats. VDR is the ideal solution for due diligence for a multitude of reasons, the key one being, of course, security. Below we will provide data room features that allow you to securely share your excel files with outside users:
- Data encryption is more of a protection against external threats of data leakage, which will not allow the document to be stolen if an attempt is made to hack the system, as the information in the document will be useless to unauthorized users
- Access control to the document – uploading the Excel file to the space, as well as any other document, you can set its visibility to other users. Thus, the circle of users who can view the document will be significantly narrowed, which will increase its security
- Control of interaction with documents – you can fully control the level of protection of any document, including Excel, preventing unwanted interference with its content and its illegal distribution. You have the right to prohibit copying, editing, downloading, printing, screenshotting, and forwarding the document, and to allow some of these actions only to trusted people
- Watermarks-protect your ownership of a document. They contain information about how the file was uploaded to the system and also information on how and by whom the file has been used all this time
Other benefits of VDRs for due diligence
In addition to protection capabilities, data rooms are also great tools for document management, transaction management, and collaboration. They simplify work, save time and money, and make the entire process much faster and more efficient. Here’s how VDR solutions accomplish this:
- Mass document uploads – A complex check involves a large number of documents that need to be uploaded into the space. But you can do it in just a few clicks without spending too much effort or time
- Automated Formatting – VDR will convert files into the format you want, or support multiple document formats so you don’t need to format them at all
- Automatic indexing – helps you categorize and logically organize all your documents so they are easy to find and intuitively located
- Smart Search-finds the document you need using one or more keywords
- Collaboration Tools – These minimize the number of meetings between you and your partners during a transaction. You’ll be able to calmly discuss any issues that arise right in the VDR space without the use of third-party apps. Use the encrypted chat or Q&A section. Here you can ask or answer questions, participate in discussions, and easily return to the discussion thread for more information if needed