7 Reasons Why You Should be Using One
A corporate repository is simply a place where a corporation houses its documents and critical materials. In the past, the corporate repository would have been a large bank of filing cabinets filled with file folders and paper documents. Today, corporate repositories typically reside in the cloud in a secure virtual data room.
Corporate repositories have many advantages over housing documents in file cabinets or legal boxes.
- Not only can they be neatly organized and indexed, they are also searchable by key word. This translates into less time spent locating documents should the company go through a financial audit or enter into due diligence for fundraising, M&A or partnering.
- They are secure. Modern cloud-based corporate repositories are accessible as needed, but only to those who’ve been granted access. Furthermore, specific access can be granted to different parties on an “as needed” basis. For instance, legal document access might only be granted to the legal team, whereas access to employee records might only be granted to HR.
- They’re safe. Imagine the devastation of a fire or flood destroying the totality of a company’s corporate documents. When documents reside in the secured cloud, they are safe from both natural disaster and theft.
- In a cloud-based repository it is much easier to maintain version control of documents. When documents are revised, an administrator can quickly replace the out-of-date versions by uploading the new documents to the repository. Erroneous data is virtually useless and even possibly harmful and costly to an organization if management teams are making critical decisions based on inaccurate data.
- Corporate repositories are available on a 24/7 basis from any location with an Internet connection. This becomes increasingly valuable as corporations become increasingly global and decentralized.
- Corporate repositories generate detailed audit logs that allow administrators to monitor who saw what and when. Modern virtual data rooms enable monitoring of a user’s activity on a page-to-page basis, even keeping track of how long the user spent reviewing each page of a document, as well as recording the IP address of the user. This functionality can be invaluable during due diligence in assessing a potential buyer or partner’s interests and concerns, and in addressing them proactively.
- Corporate repositories, when housed in a cloud-based virtual data room, allow for the virtual “shredding” of documents, even after they’ve been downloaded. This becomes an important security feature when board members or employees change or when parties involved in due diligence drop out of the process.
Because corporate data is such a huge asset for an organization, effective data management is critical to the success, and even to the survival of a business. A secure online data repository often enables an organization to make better decisions, boost productivity and efficiency, and keep employees better informed. Moreover, in many cases, a secure online corporate repository is necessary for compliance. In today’s datacentric world, employing a central data repository is a critical factor for the optimal operation of an organization’s business processes.