Virtual Data Rooms as a Solution

As the world moved from the agricultural platform to the industrial environment, businesses were formed to meet this new need. Businesses have their own requirements: raising capital, selling all or a part of the business, buying a competitor and other finance type requirements. Simple transactions could be satisfied by the local bank; however, when companies grew larger the deals got bigger, they needed legal and financial advisors. Complicated by the fact that the company was operating in several states, and potential buyers could be found all over the country. The founding of the deal room or data room. Legal firms began hosting the event as part of their services; this was a closed room with all the documents arranged on tables for potential suitors. Representatives would diligently review all details and make recommendations to the investors they represented; thus the term due diligence.

With the introduction of smaller format printing presses, copiers and faster mailing services, printing companies such as RR Donnelly, Merrill and Bowne began offering document creation and distribution to their printing services. This group was the first generation data room providers. At some point they began to lose market share to digital documents and overnight services. To combat this, they acquired digital virtual data room providers to fill this lost market share.

Enter the Second Generation

In many ways our data room history is parallel to desk top publishing and the demise of traditional printing. CompuGraphics, AM/Verityper and Mergenthaler were giants in their time but they lost to the new second generation players like Apple and Adobe.

DataRoomZ Virtual Data Rooms is one of the oldest of the second-generation data room providers. Second generation VDR providers are the new “fleet of foot” digital deal room providers. They offer excellent security tools like SSL encryption for data at rest and data in motion. They have an extremely easy to use user interface and lots of features that make a room quick to set up, load and start closing the deal the same day. They will host the application and the data at hardened, extremely secure data centers with SSAE 16 Type II certification.

Unlike the previous generation with millions invested in facilities and thousands of employees, second generation VDR service providers can deliver superior service with excellent security at a fraction of the first generation’s cost. This second generation has taken the data room from a sequential process with days of process time (distribution) to a totally parallel and global selling environment… at a fraction of the previous cost.

Third Generation?

What lies ahead for the third generation of VDR? Companies are now discovering they can get the functionality of the first generation providers at a fraction of the cost with the new generation of data room providers. Instead of a $5,000 a month room that is shut down the moment the deal is done, now the companies are starting to use virtual data rooms for all their departments. Legal, H/R, sales, vendor relations, engineering and other departments want their own data room for all their documents; like the past need for private networks.

DataRoomZ   is already testing and developing new features that broaden the value of the data room. Virtual Data Rooms will become the conference room of the future and be a place to house, share documents securely and collaborate with total control.