Egnyte vs. Firmex Virtual Data Room

If you're simply sharing and syncing across devices and don't care about granular security permissions, this is an easy win. If you're needing more control over the ability to restrict users from deleting folders, sharing folders, and allowing only certain groups to be able to view a folder, this can work but will ultimately give you arthritis as you'll end up having to perform a multitude of clicks for a task that should be able to be done in a fraction of the action. Have a folder template that allows for the first two levels of folders to be view only and the third level allowing file/folder creation and deletion? Have fun setting each of the third level folder's permissions-- they should give out free wrist braces. When discussed with their engineers about this function, a suggested $28,000 custom script was suggested. I don't believe them when they say that they haven't heard of other customers wishing to assign rights to multiple folders-- Something any sort of real admin would require. It simply isn't important to them, which is fine. The current ability

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.

Incentivized

• Drive map tool on Windows and flexibility on client configuration, can change drive letters fairly easily if needed.
• New user setup is straightforward and permissions not too difficult to set up and assign.
• Support has been fairly responsive and helpful with issues as they have come up.

Incentivized

• Status updates
• Visual display
• Organization capabilities

Incentivized

• We often have issues with WebEdit, changes not saving/overwriting
• No functionality to drag and drop files/folders within the UI, can only move things by going through Move > Select location
• When previewing Word files in the browser, tracked changes are not shown so there can be misunderstandings when quickly reviewing documents

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

We found that usage of Egnyte in our supported clients, with sufficient bandwidth, provided all the features and stability we required. The billing setup was fair and the support provided was ample for end users and well as our in house admins. There was a concern about high usage clients but this was taken into account during the vetting process.

Incentivized

Really easy to use the interface. The web browser is very intuitive and I have not had any notable issues with this. It's easy to work on documents as a team, and the only issues we have to tend to come with Apple apps and downloading large files to WebEdit. It's very similar to the filing systems that come on Apple and Windows devices so not a steep learning curve.

Incentivized

Egnyte works very well across all platforms and as an add-on to other programs. Load time is close to nothing. Reports can be made in no time as well. All in all no performance issues. We can see that it depends on the local network connection. If you're running with fiber there won't be any issues.

Incentivized

I never had to reach out to customer support for Egnyte. I don't know any coworkers who have had to reach out to Egnyte for support either. As far as I am concerned, the support team is doing a good job since I have not had to reach out to them.

Incentivized

Egnyte syncs with Windows machines better than any competitor I have come across. The service focuses on just this platform and their in depth focus shows in the end result. Google is not really made with Windows in mind. Box is cumbersome and the web portal is not easy to use. SharePoint sync to PC is terrible.

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.

Incentivized

• The promising advantage of Egnyte is that user can access their files from the cloud anywhere without any cumbrance like connecting to VPN or other third-party soft wares.
• No risk of data loss.
• The platform is lacking in changing the parent administrator of a folder as if one person is the administrator of the file or folder and when needs to change it becomes clunky and does not supports it properly.

Incentivized

• Positive impact on conducting due diligence efficiently.
• Positive impact on being responsive to fast-moving transactions because of the e-mail updates when new documents get uploaded.

Incentivized