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.
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FirmRoom
Score 10.0 out of 10
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FirmRoom is a cloud-based virtual data room. The solution helps organizations to manage due diligence, and other information-dense processes, through secure document management and file sharing. Features such as drag and drop, bulk upload, & smart search enable seamless collaboration. Additional key features include data tracking, data analytics, audit trails, customized notifications, individual and bulk invitations, bulk file upload, and a user activity tracker. The vendor states FirmRoom…
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.
This is a great data room for a simple transaction. It does not offer all of the bells and whistles like some data rooms--but the price point is a fraction of what those data rooms cost. And I think this is a great solution for an M&A project. I'm not sure it would be as good for tracking what users viewed a document or how long--although in all honesty, I didn't see such features. These days, most clients want to try and use Dropbox or Google Docs and I feel that firm room is a far superior solution to those often-used choices and the price point is not very painful and does not decrease the attractiveness of the offering.
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.
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.
In expensive cost and simple design. There was basically no onboarding needed and you can sign up for yourself online. Security standards are similar to other M&A data rooms, but pricing is much less expensive. Never have to worry about permissions when adding new users to the virtual data room.
