Dropbox DocSend helps business professionals to securely share and control content. Dropbox DocSend's link-based system is used to set security preferences for each stakeholder, receive notifications each time someone views a file, analyze content performance on a page-by-page basis, and create modern virtual deal rooms. With DocSend, business can offload administrative burdens and securely share the most impactful proprietary information faster. DocSend’s Virtual…
$10
per month per user
Firmex Virtual Data Room
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Firmex in Toronto offers a Virtual Data Room touting bank level security and customizable DRM, as well as two-factor password access and authentication and compliance with strict international privacy laws (e.g. HIPAA, SOC 2, UK Data Protection Act, etc). Beyond this the VDR offers tracking and versioning, dynamic watermarking, and other security and collaboration features.
DocSend works really great if you want to send out a doc to a prospect and want to track when they open it and what content they view. The reporting on this works really well and I've been happy with this functionality. Where it falls short is when you're trying to use it for a live demo utilizing the join.me integration. There are a lot of issues when you try to switch your screen and it only works 2/3s the time. I'd prefer an all-in-one solution instead of this Frankenstein model.
Firmex Virtual Data Room is well suited to complex mergers and acquisition transactions. For example, we recently used it when acting for a potential purchaser involved in an auction transaction for a business unit worth approximately $1 billion. In that scenario, the vendor uploaded all of the documents to the data room and each of the bidders (and each of their lawyers, outside accountants, etc.) had access to the same documents. There were over 1000 documents uploaded to the data room (the index was around 100 pages I think), so it was a good way of managing such a large volume of documents, and such a large volume of users.
DocSend has a newer feature called Spaces, it lets you place multiple files into a single "deal room". Unfortunately for us, we need it to support nested file structures for larger content sets. Their support team says this is on the way.
I'd like to be able to change the icons for links add to Space, currently, they're a default icon.
Navigating the UI is just a bit laborious, it feels like it should be easier to get to link creation since that is what you're doing 90% of the time you go to the site.
This is a bit of a stretch, because as far as I know, no data room provides this, but I think it would be interesting if they added a feature to manage supplemental due diligence requests. In almost every transaction I've been involved with, the buyer has supplemental due diligence requests, either because the seller did not want to provide a document or because they did not think it was sufficiently material (or they just forgot!). These supplemental requests get handled separately, using a Word or Excel document, but I think it would be nice if it could be handled directly in the data room. The reason this would be handy is that you could include dynamics links in the questions (Page 2 is missing from Document 1.1.2 - and then there is a link right to Document 1.1.2) and in the answers (See Document 3.3.4 for the missing financial statements - and then there is a link right to the missing document).
This is partly on the users, but I do not like it when a data room allows you to delete a document without there being an ongoing reference to the deleted document. It makes it hard for the other side (the purchaser) to keep straight the numbering of the due diligence documents. At a minimum, the software should just keep the numbering of the documents the same with an "Intentionally Deleted" next to the deleted document.
DocSend is more convenient than DocuSign if you are already using Dropbox, otherwise a lot of these solutions come down to pricing and preference on user interface. For us, DocSend was great until our needs changed to needing a more sophisticated contract management tool. With further integrations and API accesses in the future, I think it will be easier to have all systems communicating and working together .
I think Firmex has one of the best visual displays -- I like its basic user interface a lot. It's easy to recommend that clients use it who have no prior datasite experience because they onboard quickly. It is far more intuitive than Dropbox and has more organizational capabilities. Merrill is a close competitor as it also offers a sleek design and user friendly interface.
