Choosing the right virtual data room is not easy, if only because the VDR market is incomparably large. Providers offer different feature sets, pricing models, and additional features. The challenge for the business owner is to find a solution that can integrate with their existing business system as much as possible and help solve problems to ensure improved performance and visible impact of their services. In this article, you’ll learn how to choose the best VDR provider for your business.
Think about your needs and capabilities
If you start researching virtual data room reviews right away, you will miss many important points and buy the wrong product you need. To buy a profitable solution, you have to keep in mind the basic needs – what exactly you need VDRs for. You also have to think about the finer details and your abilities. You might even want to write them out for yourself on a separate sheet of paper. Below we provide questions to make it easier for you to determine your parameters:
- What do you need VDRs for -what industry do you work in, what kind of transactions do you do most often, and how can VDRs help you
- How much memory you need – depends on the project you’re going to do. If it involves a lot of media files, then you need to stockpile the memory
- What kind of documents will you be storing there? – It is worth taking care about the appropriate level of security for the space
- What team members will be using the VDR
- Will the whole company be using the VDR?
- Will the use of the VDRs affect your everyday work?
Determine the desired features
Once you have decided on the general criteria, it is worth moving on to selecting the features you want to see in your data room. Remember that VDRs serve different purposes. Some emphasize secure storage, others offer features to improve collaboration and due diligence, and others still contain project management tools. Below, we’ll highlight features that are a must-have in a quality VDR:
- Security is a key feature of VDR solutions, but not all providers offer robust security certifications. When choosing a solution, choose only those that comply with the ISO 27081 license and those with dual authentication features, advanced encryption methods, and digital watermarks. All of these features eliminate the threat of data leakage and system hacking
- Document management features – These features help make document management easier. They should include smart search functionality, a built-in viewer, automatic indexing and uploading, and more
- Permissions settings – you should pay special attention to this because different providers offer different levels of access, some more varied than others. Of course, you should go for the former. For example, do you check if your ISP has a “view only” feature? Can you set different permission levels for other users?
- Audit logs – it is better to choose a VDR that can automatically give you all the information about the actions of other users in the documents. This is not only a security measure but also useful analytical data that can help improve performance, transaction, or project management
- Support Service – The quality of the support service plays an important role. Try calling customer service or emailing them in an online chat. Find out how they work? Do they provide 24/7 help?
- Pricing – VDRs offer different pricing models: per page, per user, per GB of storage, and transparent rates. Determine which one of these models will work best for you