A virtual data room is an online storehouse for data and information from where the required data can be retrieved quickly and easily. Such online data rooms are extremely essential for modern mergers and acquisitions because of their highly secure way of dealing with data.
Virtual data rooms are perfect for people who lead extremely busy lives. That is why an online data room should be user-friendly and easy to set up. Luckily, most data rooms do not take a long to set up. So, here we provided you with simple and basic steps for customizing your data room setup:
Step 1: Select a virtual data room
First and foremost, you need to decide which virtual data room service provider you would like. There are multiple data room service providers out there, and so you need to do your research before coming to a decision. There are various things that you need to consider before choosing a virtual data room. The most important of them is its security features.
Here we have highlighted some of the essential security features for every online data room:
- Proper physical security of data centers with reliable disaster recovery procedures
- Customized document permissions and two-step verification methods
- Real-time data backup and data-encryption methods
Step 2: Create a structure for all documents
Next, you will have to design a proper structure for all your documents. The structure will determine how the data in a particular data room is going to be organized so that it can be retrieved as and when required. Creating a structure for all of your documents will make it easier for you to share your documents with your users. As a result, the entire workflow will be simplified, and your data room setup process will also become easier. The data room index should contain every detail of how the data has been structured within a virtual data room.
Step 3: Upload files
A virtual data room allows you to upload files in bulk. The users will be able to classify and retrieve documents from one platform. A built-in document view feature is also available for some virtual data rooms. You will be able to upload new documents whenever you’d like and share them with the users of a particular group. This can be done from the Documents tab in the virtual data room. Some virtual data rooms also come with the drag-and-drop option. This makes it even easier for you to upload files to your data room.
Step 4: Setting group permissions and security settings
You can set restrictions and permissions for the different groups who have authorized access to your virtual data room. Few of the common permissions include memberships, requests, etc. Permissions can be set both at an individual and/or the group level. Every group in a particular data room has four different permission levels — view, edit, download original, and download. You can also set file and request permissions for your documents. The permissions can be adjusted whenever you’d like.
Step 5: User Invites
You can also invite new users to the various groups of your virtual data room. Adding new users to the various groups of virtual data rooms is a simple task. To add new users, register their email addresses — they can be uploaded in bulk into the data room. An invite email sent to the new users allows them to join a particular group.
So, this was all about virtual data room setup. The steps are similar for most data room providers, but the most important step is choosing the perfect data room that suits your type of deals.