How a Virtual Data Room Works: Roles & Responsibilities
17 December, 2022A Virtual data room (VDR) protects a business confidential documents and data. In this age of rampant cybercrime, these protections are critical. A data breach can not only lead to million-dollar ransom demands but can also damage a company’s reputation with a loss in customers, revenues, and market share.
ShareVault’s VDR meets the challenge, with an ultra-secure online platform where a business can store and share confidential documents and data. ShareVault makes it easy to organize and archive thousands of documents. And, ShareVault provides the system administrator with tools to control who has access, and what a user can do with a document. Below is a list of users allowed to access data room documents and their assigned rights and responsibilities.
Who Can Access a Data Room?
ShareVault limits access to specific authorized individuals. The VDR administrator controls who gets access to folders and documents, as individuals or as a group. User access may be limited to persons in the company or can be extended to outside parties who bring special expertise or regulatory review to a project.
1. Administrator
The administrator has complete control over VDR settings and content. He or she can give or deny user access to folders, documents, and data and delegate different roles. The VDR administrator can also determine what users can do with documents. For example, admin can prevent users from printing, downloading, or taking a screenshot of documents.
Some tasks may require printing documents that include sensitive or confidential information. In these cases, the administrator can use ShareVault’s dynamic watermarking feature to engrave the document with a proof of ownership.
Some projects require collaborative development of a proposal or document. Such a “work-in-progress” document is particularly vulnerable to hacking. ShareVault offers an optional feature to address that need: Dynamic Native File Protection (DNFP). DNFP encrypts documents while they are being generated and revised. Once the document is complete, it can be stored in ShareVault’s secure archives, ready for use in a proposal or submission.
2. Team Members
Team members who are authorized by the administrator have access to folders and files - but their use of those files is defined by the administrator. For example, the administrator can permit a user to view and save a document, but not to download or print it. The administrator can also set a cut-off date, after which the user loses access and document permissions.
3. Specific Departments
For some projects, the administrator can define access based on the activities that are allowed. For example, the administrator may allow the accounting department to access financial records - but to protect sensitive information, he or she may deny access to any non-accounting company team members. With ShareVault, the administrator has extensive control over access and use of all documents.
4. Third-Party Users
Some projects require input from third parties such as lawyers, accountants, analysts, and others with specific expertise. In these cases, the administrator sets up an access password protocol and defines the permissions for the third party, such as view, print, etc. Once a project has reached its final stages, these third-party users may include industry regulators, arbitrators, and government officials.
5. M&A Team
In the case of an M&A transaction, parties with access to the deal room can include:
- Sellers of the company
- Buyers of the company
- Attorneys representing seller and buyer
- Strategic partners
- Government regulators
Get a ShareVault VDR Today
Finding the right virtual data room service provider for your business can be challenging. ShareVault helps ensure secure document sharing by providing extensive controls over document access and user permissions. ShareVault secures critical data, improves your company’s efficiency, and cuts operational costs. Contact us today for a consultation about your VDR needs.