Driving Growth Through Acquisitions
We see a lot of deals. Of the 20,000 projects that were run on Firmex last year, many of them were companies using their VDR subscriptions to drive growth through acquisitions.
In this guide I’ll explain how some of those companies used VDR tools that you are already familiar with to make their buy-side projects more efficient and flexible, so you can get your deal done faster.
The Benefit of a Firmex Subscription and The Power of Template Projects
While each buy-side transaction is different, there are usually some similarities. A Firmex subscription lets you maintain a template library – limitless pre-populated projects that take the guesswork out of getting things started.
Set Up Folder Templates
Each project contains a request list, which is an empty group of folders the counterparty will be uploading documents to. You would pre-populate each project with different empty folder structures depending on the seller’s industry. For example, this corporate healthcare company has project and folder templates for both single and multiple practitioner clinics. This way, there’s no need to upload a folder structure each time you start a new project.
You may also keep these folder structures on your work’s network drive and use Firmex’s drag-and-drop tool to populate your project. You may also use our spreadsheet import template to quickly upload a group of empty folders.
Set Up Group Templates
Each project contains similar groups with similar permissions. Namely, each project contains the target group – the seller, as well one or two internal groups – one group to Administer the project, and the other to review diligence.
The power here is in pre-defining the permissions of these group templates. It takes the guess-work out of setting up groups and permissions:
- Any seller you invite will be able to upload documents.
- Your internal team will be set up to review diligence documents.
- Administrators always have the ability to administer the project.
What this means is that the next time you start a buy-side project, these groups are already pre-defined. All you need to do is add or import your list of users specific to that project.
Easily Transfer and Track Seller Documents
The seller can choose to drag-and-drop documents directly into the data room. This works on any browser, and works with any file type, whether it’s a 2MB spreadsheet or a 2GB map file.
The seller may also Email documents directly to the data room. Each folder in your project may be assigned an email address. This way, even on the go, your client may get documents into the VDR.
Keep Track of Diligence Through Notifications and Statuses
You and your team will be notified via Email as soon as documents are uploaded.
You can establish your own workflows using content statuses and tags to ensure that no documents are missed to keep the deal flow going.
Q&A
Once diligence has been uploaded, Firmex offers a built-in Q&A tool. Follow-up questions can be asked by members of your team, and directed to the seller. They may attach additional documentation where required, or assign the question to a member of their team. Correspondence is kept in one place, so you and your team never miss an answer.
Looking For More Buy-Side Content?
Check out our Firmex Chats episode with John Carvalho, President of Stone Oak Capital and Divestopedia, on buy-side deal aspects like acquisition strategy and post-merger integration.
