Datasite Diligence is a sell-side virtual data room offering rigorous security and seamless collaboration. Users can categorize and redact with AI, track tasks, answer questions, and analyze progress.
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Firmex Virtual Data Room
Score 6.0 out of 10
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Firmex in Toronto offers a Virtual Data Room touting bank level security and customizable DRM, as well as two-factor password access and authentication and compliance with strict international privacy laws (e.g. HIPAA, SOC 2, UK Data Protection Act, etc). Beyond this the VDR offers tracking and versioning, dynamic watermarking, and other security and collaboration features.
Datasite is well suited for organizing large quantities of a variety of documents into folders. It is not as well suited for Xcel, which generally requires downloading in order to review, but there are quick preview options for Word and PDF items.
Great for transactions involving file sharing where large amounts of documents need to be shared between multiple parties at different organizations. I could also see its utility as a document management site for an entity going through a reorganization or transition. It is not appropriate as a permanent document management system.
Quick preview of document content is something I love! It lets me decide whether the file is relevant to our purposes or not instantly.
Navigating through the folders is also very easy, and the website is also responsive without any lag/stutter.
Although I don't use the feature due to confidentiality reasons, quick translate option is a really great addition to the tool.
Many datarooms can only show excel documents as PDFs for a quick preview. I like the way Datasite Diligence Virtual Data Room has Excel online handler to view the file. This is so helpful!
This is a bit of a stretch, because as far as I know, no data room provides this, but I think it would be interesting if they added a feature to manage supplemental due diligence requests. In almost every transaction I've been involved with, the buyer has supplemental due diligence requests, either because the seller did not want to provide a document or because they did not think it was sufficiently material (or they just forgot!). These supplemental requests get handled separately, using a Word or Excel document, but I think it would be nice if it could be handled directly in the data room. The reason this would be handy is that you could include dynamics links in the questions (Page 2 is missing from Document 1.1.2 - and then there is a link right to Document 1.1.2) and in the answers (See Document 3.3.4 for the missing financial statements - and then there is a link right to the missing document).
This is partly on the users, but I do not like it when a data room allows you to delete a document without there being an ongoing reference to the deleted document. It makes it hard for the other side (the purchaser) to keep straight the numbering of the due diligence documents. At a minimum, the software should just keep the numbering of the documents the same with an "Intentionally Deleted" next to the deleted document.
It is my go to data room provider and I am super comfortable using it. I don't think I would want to use anything else since I can't trust them like I can trust Datasite
Tough to figure out at first but after using the platform for some time, you can get used to Datasite Diligence Virtual Data Room pretty quickly. Would be great to have more of a tutorial up front to better be able to navigate the software, especially starting off as the data dealt with is sensitive.
I think Intralinks is the closest competitor. Relative to the rest of the providers (outside of Intralinks), Datasite Diligence Virtual Data Room is easier to use and more reliable.
I think Firmex stacks up well with Merrill DatasiteOne, and I do not really have a preference between the two. Likewise, there are other data room services out there, and the good ones generally work pretty much the same, and I do not really have a favorite (this coming from someone who has a favorite on most things). Firmex does work much better for complex transactions than Dropbox Business, OneDrive and other cloud base file-sharing services because those services are designed for (1) more general uses, and (2) collaborating across organizations. Firmex is better for due diligence on corporate transactions because of things like the ability to print a complete data room index of 1000s of documents (this makes it easier to tell individuals in the organization who has to review what documents) and strong protections on what people who download documents can do with them (ie: watermarks, locked PDFs so they cannot manipulate the documents). Firmex is optimized for due diligence review, rather than collaboration.
