A data room is a space used for housing corporate documents, usually of a secure or privileged nature. It can take the form of either a physical room or an online virtual space. A data room can be used for a variety of different purposes, but typically for M&A due diligence after signing a non-disclosure agreement.

A virtual data room (VDR) is an online space to serve the same purpose as a traditional data room. Unlike a physical data room which contains paper documents usually in binders, a VDR is a virtual depository for indexed digital folders and documents. A VDR can gives managers better control over the documents and is accessible to multiple groups of users back-to-back at the same time.

Due Diligence is a process of seeking and reviewing information about every aspect of a business entity in order to assess the risks and the true value of the contemplated business deal.

Using a virtual data room to share the sensitive corporate documents during the complex due diligence process has become a norm for international M&A practitioners. Docutone VDR not only will minimize the business travels and reduce the production of paper documents needed for performing the due diligence, it will also substantially accelerate the due diligence process and keep every sensitive document under your strict control throughout its lifecycle.

Cloud-based storage systems (such as Google Drive, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive) and virtual data rooms have a lot in common. Both are cloud-based document storage and sharing platforms. But they serve different purposes.

A cloud-based storage system would be a good choice if you just want to share some articles or homework with your fellow schoolmates. But if you work on a M&A deal and have a lot of sensitive due diligence documents to share with potential buyers, you’d better choose a virtual data room like Docutone, as cloud-based storage systems will never give you the level of security and control over the sensitive documents that a VDR would do.

As part of the due diligence process in a typical M&A deal, sellers need to disclose large volumes of due diligence documents to buyers. Many of these documents are confidential in nature and must be kept securely even if after they are made available to buyers.

With the bank grade security and rich and yet easy to use features, Docutone VDR allows you to grant, track and rescind document permissions at any time to ensure users will only access to documents the way they are permitted. Docutone VDR also allows you to permit and streamline questions raised by buyers and prepare answers securely and efficiently.

Not all VDRs are the same. If you want to choose one for your M&A deal, consider the following criteria:

Security. Security is obviously of the utmost importance when choosing a VDR. Make sure the VDR is hosted on certified data centers and all data/documents are encrypted in their full lifecycle no matter they are in transmit, in use or at rest.

Easy to Use.  You will need a VDR to have all the features you need to keep all the document access and permissions under your control. And yet it should be intuitive and easy to use without steep learning curve.

Analytics & Reporting. You will want to look for a VDR that is capable of both keeping track of data on all users, activities and documents within the data room and generating valuable insights.

Customer Support.  You will also want to find out whether the VDR has in place a responsive customer support. A good customer support should be in local languages and should be 7 X 24.

Compliance. Last but not the least, the VDR you consider for your deal should meet regulatory compliance requirements, such as privacy protection under PIPL, GDPR and CCPA and data migration restrictions under China’s Data Security Law.

VDR Q&A is a feature built in the VDR that allows designated VDR users to ask project related questions and receive answers.

VDR Q&A is essential to the management of questions and answers during the due diligence process of M&A deals. It will not only help you to streamline buyers’ questions but also help sellers respond accurately and efficiently to buyers’ questions.

A full-fledged Q&A session could lead to high volume of questions that need to be managed, tracked and answered timely and carefully.

Traditionally these questions and answers were exchanged between buyers and sellers in Excel spreadsheets, which was inefficient and messy.

Docutone VDR introduces integrated Q&A to help centralize questions and respond to buyers safely and efficiently.

Docutone supports every aspect of your document needs in the M&A due diligence process. We cover your due diligence document collection, sharing as well as analytical reporting based on users’ behaviors. In addition to VDR Q&A, Docutone also provides real time inter-group collaboration and action alerts to ensure the efficiency of the deal processing. Last not the least, Docutone also offers integrated book binding services for producing due diligence report binders and/or project closing binders (bibles).

Regain control of project documents, with first class security technology and easy to use features to speed up your deals and yet safeguard the deal safety and security.

Strategically deployed in China with global content distribution network (CDN) support, Docutone offers not only truly the best VDR access but also a VDR service that is fully in compliance with the China laws.

No, you don’t need to install any software, addons or plugin to use Docutone VDR. All you need is one of the mainstream browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari.

Yes, Docutone VDR has gone mobile. Now you can access Docutone VDR through Wechat mini-program without the need to install any application, addon or plugin.

You will be supported by Docutone Support Team 7 X 24 in either English or Chinese subject to your choice.

We are fully aware of the importance in the privacy compliance. As a result we have amended our Privacy Policy and have put in place measures to mitigate risks under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL).

• Docutone is hosted on the data center that has obtained all top certifications regarding the privacy protections, including ISO/IEC27701:2019, ISO/IEC 29151:2017, ISO/IEC27018:2014 and BS 10012:2017
• Our Privacy Policy is fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA and PIPL. Measures required under GDPR, CCPA and PIPL have been adopted and will be constantly reviewed by Docutone to safeguard users’ privacy interests.
• Your data is always under your control. If you are the manager, our AI aided personal data redaction feature can help you to redact sensitive personal information from the documents in the data room.
• We store your data in China so you don’t have to worry about your important China data might be transmitted to outside China.
• We regularly review our compliance practices and provide staff training on data security and privacy protections.

Docutone’s servers are all located in China in order to comply with Chinese data security laws and regulations. Accesses to our servers are accelerated by our global Content Distributed Network (CDN) technology no matter where you are in the world.

The data center hosting Docutone is among the safest of its kind and has obtained over 100 certifications for its safety and compliances. To name a few,

• CSA -STAR
• ISO27001 information security
• ISO/IEC 27701:2019
• ISO/IEC 29151:2017
• ISO/IEC27018:2014
• BS 10012:2017
• Singapore MTCS T3
• SOC1/2/3
• China Information Security Certification (CCIS)

Docutone data centers are also equipped with intrusion detection systems and active antivirus system to prevent intrusions and viruses.

Keeping your data and documents safe is of the utmost importance to Docutone. We use the industry leading security technology and best practices to safeguard your data and documents.

• redundant architecture to avoid having single points of failure;
• 256 bit SSL encryption technique to encrypt data and documents in transit;
• AES 256-bit encryption to encrypt data and documents at rest;
• two-factor authentication to prevent user passwords and accounts from being compromised;
• permissions to give you granular document access control;
• dynamic watermarking to protect against unauthorized sharing of sensitive documents;
• Screen Guard to prevent abusive photo taking of sensitive information;
• audit logs to provide analytics on all activity within the virtual data room;

customizable NDA to make all users legally bound by the confidentiality obligations before they can access to the data room.