If your company has decided to purchase a virtual data room, it may face difficulty choosing its provider because the number of offers on the VDR market is enormous. However, if you know about the criteria for selecting this product, everything becomes more manageable. Decent VDR providers provide their customers with security, availability, and effective user interaction. In this article, we’ll look at how to compare data rooms and choose the best provider effectively.
How do I choose my best virtual data room provider?
Choosing a virtual data room is a responsible process because every business has its requirements. The principle of selecting the very first vendor in the rankings doesn’t work here because if the program doesn’t have the features that would be useful to you, no matter how good it is, it will be useless to you. In that case, it is essential to have criteria prepared in advance, against which you can select possible options for your VDR. Below we’ve highlighted a checklist of criteria by which you can begin your search for your VDR provider:
- Determine your main requirements for VDRs – the size and activities of your business, the amount of storage, the specifics of your projects, the level of technology ownership in the company
- Evaluate your budget-what VDR pricing principles will work best for you. Calculate how much you would save by switching to the data room
- Determine what features you need – what VDRs will be used for, what features will be most helpful in your case, and the specifics of security measures
- Make a list of potential VDR providers – discover more providers here in your area of expertise and research their years of experience and development
Once you’ve done that, you’ll be ready to research your potential providers in more detail. Below we’ll look at what to look for when choosing a VDR.
Virtual Data Room Vendor Experience
When researching a vendor, be sure to pay attention to customer reviews. You can review them both on the vendor’s website and other reliable sites. First, it would help determine how successful the data room is in your specific area. Then, examine ratings and reviews based on the program’s overall performance.
The presence of a security certificate and other security measures
The most important thing about security in virtual data rooms has an international license that shows that the programs are fully authorized to handle your sensitive data. The best certifications a VDR vendor can have is ISO 27001B SOC 1 or SOC 2.
Also, check if your vendor has additional security measures such as watermarks, remote destruction, strong encryption, and explicit permissions. Data rooms that don’t provide enough security are entirely useless.
Expertise in your industry
Depending on the industry in which the data room solution specializes, such as real estate, mergers, acquisitions, or law firms, the vendor should emphasize the functionality that will benefit you the most. If VDR has the exact expertise your business needs, your transition to a virtual space for data storage and sharing will become easier. A data room specializing in your industry is more likely to meet your unique needs.
Pay attention to pricing
If you ignore VDR pricing, it can become a big problem, causing you to overpay significantly instead of controlling your budget. VDRs can charge per user, page, storage volume, and flat rate. Explore all of these payment methods and determine which one will be more beneficial to you.
