When you’re procuring a virtual data room (VDR), time is of the essence and price is always a factor for you and your clients. During discussions with a potential VDR partner, make sure you know what is included in the price. Knowing what to look for will ensure that you avoid surprise discussions around hidden fees, so you can concentrate your time on the deal – not the data room. Here are five things to clarify when obtaining a price for a virtual data room:
1. Price Certainty – Make sure the VDR price is fixed and there are no hidden fees for support, services or additional storage. Any fees for extending the length of the deal should also be discussed upfront, just in case the deal process take longer than expected, which tends to happen.
2. Control – Having full control of documents in your virtual data room is key to successfully managing projects and avoiding bottlenecks. When considering document control, look for features such as document viewing restrictions and group or user-based permission settings. These will also ensure security and confidentiality.
3. Storage – Secure storage doesn’t have to be expensive. Some vendors will flaunt the fact that they store your data on their own secure servers, but if you start asking questions, you’ll likely find that their features don’t measure up against an industry leader like SunGard. SunGard specializes in data storage and security for the world’s top financial institutions and SunGard’s systems account for and manage more than $25 trillion in investment assets and process more than five million trades a day.
4. Training and Consultation – Find out how much training is included for the price and the experience level of the trainers. You don’t want to end up paying extra fees because a system is hard to use and you want to trust the person who is helping you set-up your deal.
5. Support – Anything less than 24/7/365 is not good enough, and shouldn’t cost extra. Deals span time zones and people work after hours and on weekends. You and your clients need peace of mind that all of your users will be supported, anywhere and anytime. At Firmex we pride ourselves on providing our clients with straightforward pricing and reliable service that ensures the client experience comes first.
