Sensitive legal documents used to be stored in traditional data rooms. These spaces were quite secured, under constant surveillance, and accessed only by authorized personnel.
However, as the world evolves, physical data rooms are becoming obsolete, and virtual data rooms are becoming the more preferred choice, especially in the legal industry. In addition to having top-notch security measures, they can also store vast amounts of essential data, offer more flexibility in handling files, and there is a record of every document that has been accessed and by whom.
Why and who uses a virtual data room?
To put it simply, a virtual data room is an online storage repository where confidential and sensitive documents and files are stored. Virtual data rooms are used primarily by professionals like lawyers, corporate business people, accountants, etc., to ensure utmost privacy and when conducting business.
Virtual data rooms are valuable assets because they control how users navigate through the stored information. They keep track of who accesses which documents and when.
A virtual data room is a significant improvement from the typical physical data room. There is no single location, hence, authorized people can access files from anywhere. Because of their ease of use, convenience, and reasonable fees, VDRs are fast replacing physical data rooms in the business world.
Data room benefits for lawyers
Online data rooms offer many benefits to organizations. In addition to having solid, up-to-date security measures, they also provide these benefits:
- No need to rent a physical data room
This is perhaps one of the most important benefits of using a VDR. Lawyers and other professionals can eliminate a dedicated physical storage space. Hence, a company saves money that otherwise would have been spent on rent, furnishings, security, and maintenance.
- No need to travel to a physical data room
The use of online data rooms automatically eliminates the need for travel, as well as other related expenses such as food and lodging. All files can be reviewed online—saving time and increasing workplace productivity.
- Compliance
Organizations using data rooms are certified and need to comply with necessary international privacy and disclosure standards. These include Service Organization Control (SOC) 1-2, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and ISO/IEC 27001:2013.
- Control over documents
Using a data room gives an organization control over sensitive data. The system permits them to see who accessed the documents and when. That is, document tracking with activity logs is recorded accurately.
- Document protection
Documents and files are highly protected in online data rooms. Virtual data rooms provide several security features that administrators can choose from. There is the remote wipe, remote shred, option to set a watermark on each document and some data room providers go as far as providing fence view.
- Ease of use
Data rooms have made the storage of large amounts of sensitive information more straightforward than ever. A data room also has an intuitive interface and can be used on both Android and iOS devices in mobile applications.
Legal services that benefit from data rooms
Many areas of law can benefit greatly from the use of data rooms. Data rooms for legal firms are not uncommon, and here are the primary law practices that benefit from them:
- Corporate law. This area of law deals with mergers and acquisitions, which includes transactions requiring much paperwork. For the duration of the transactions, legal parties can review documents and finalize transactions in the data room.
- Intellectual property attorneys. Data rooms are crucial for this set of legal workers because it provides a secure environment where licensing arrangements can be agreed upon and exchanged. These attorneys use the data room for many purposes, but the major one is storing their intellectual property.
- Litigation. Litigation attorneys use data rooms to streamline their judicial processes and exchange sensitive information immediately. Secure online data rooms are perfect for collaboration between legal teams.
- Real estate. Real Estate attorneys can restructure asset-backed mortgages in data rooms. Also, data rooms can be used to organize foreclosures, sales, leases, and other real estate transactions.
- Legal due diligence. Using an online data room, lawyers can draft and store legal documents for due diligence.
Data rooms are essential for corporate organizations, especially those that thrive on privacy and paperwork like law firms. Online collaboration platforms can significantly improve organizational productivity in addition to saving valuable time and costs.
Law firms that make use of these platforms often have more time on their hands to focus on other legal matters without having to worry about the mountain of paperwork they need for their cases or the expenses involved with traveling to a physical site.
There are many data room providers. However, positive results can only be realized when organizations go for the best. Not all data room providers are appropriate for all businesses; hence, if you want to know the perfect service provider for your business, visit our homepage.