The best virtual room providers offer a variety tools to suit different industries and use cases. Choosing the most appropriate platform starts with determining what your online deal room will be used for: whether it’s to speed up due diligence, facilitate M&A, or serve as a permanent document repository. Then, select a vendor that is capable of delivering the necessary functions in a cost-effective way and with minimal efforts.

Some of the most popular features include multi-platform support and cross-device compatibility, drag-and drop file upload, customizable interfaces, granular access control and permissions, two-factor identification, session timeouts and a full audit trail. Many top providers offer additional security measures such as data encoding, multiple layers authentication, and strict accessibility policies.

The first step of selecting a reliable virtual data room provider is to check its website and look at the feedback on review platforms. Check if the company is recognized by major players in their industries and whether they have successfully completed my company projects with the vendor.

Firmex is an example of a virtual dataroom that is widely used to manage M&As and fundraising by private equity, law firms and biotech corporations. The solution has advanced collaboration tools such as group chats, instant messengers built in and integrated instant messaging to streamline communication. Q&A management is also streamlined with automatic questions being assigned to the most qualified experts. It allows users to attach documents to their comments, integrates with cloud solutions and has a range of role-based processes to automate the process.