Egnyte vs. Firmex Virtual Data Room

Egynte is best suited for companies that SharePoint is not the best fit for. This includes managers unfamiliar with SharePoint specifically, and those really looking for a replacement for a file server in the more traditional Windows sense. SharePoint has more or less done away with any management that resembles Active Directory or File Explorer. Egnyte's web portal is incredibly straightforward. I would say Egnyte is less suited for companies that have licensing access to SharePoint already and do not have a ton of files or granular sharing and security needs

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.

Incentivized

• Sharing files externally with passwords, link expiration and granular control of permissions
• File syncing across end-user devices using a client installed onto the computer for seamless integration for end-users as if they had mapped a drive directly to their machine
• Implements 2FA for secure access

• Status updates
• Visual display
• Organization capabilities

Incentivized

• The main drawback of the system that it is lacking in managing the uploading of large or huge files, even though the large files can be easily downloadable but the upload takes a lot of time.
• While uploading the system sometimes starts lagging and the file after sometimes needs to upload again.
• Egnyte is lacking in syncing multiple platforms at the same time. It gives access to one platform at a time which somehow hinders the work while migrating a large amount of data.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

We found that usage of Egnyte in our supported clients, with sufficient bandwidth, provided all the features and stability we required. The billing setup was fair and the support provided was ample for end users and well as our in house admins. There was a concern about high usage clients but this was taken into account during the vetting process.

Incentivized

Really easy to use the interface. The web browser is very intuitive and I have not had any notable issues with this. It's easy to work on documents as a team, and the only issues we have to tend to come with Apple apps and downloading large files to WebEdit. It's very similar to the filing systems that come on Apple and Windows devices so not a steep learning curve.

Incentivized

Egnyte works very well across all platforms and as an add-on to other programs. Load time is close to nothing. Reports can be made in no time as well. All in all no performance issues. We can see that it depends on the local network connection. If you're running with fiber there won't be any issues.

Incentivized

I never had to reach out to customer support for Egnyte. I don't know any coworkers who have had to reach out to Egnyte for support either. As far as I am concerned, the support team is doing a good job since I have not had to reach out to them.

Incentivized

At the time when this was implemented (over 5 years ago and still in production), there were issues with syncing and reliability that Egnyte did not have, and have continued to impress with. Other providers have improved a lot and Egnyte is fairly costly, but switching costs would be high to move away from it to similar solutions.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• Allows us to easily communicate important data securely with other offices (not just sending via email)
• It allows everyone in our office to be working on the same information at the same time
• It meshes so well with salesforce that I can't really picture what our practice would look like if we didn't have the combination.

Incentivized

• Positive impact on conducting due diligence efficiently.
• Positive impact on being responsive to fast-moving transactions because of the e-mail updates when new documents get uploaded.

Incentivized