ShareVault allows you to revoke a user's permission to open a document, even if the user has already downloaded and opened the file to their computer or device. Because ShareVault protects all of your files with AES-256 bit encryption, you can make sure that the party that backed out of the deal (or which you cut out of the deal) no longer has access to any of your confidential information. Plus, ShareVault incorporates this functionality without requiring clunky plug-ins that frustrate users and slow down the document review process.

It is essential that you have flexibility in assigning permissions for a particular user or group of users, which will allow you to gradually give certain groups more access to documents that have higher confidentiality. With ShareVault, you can quickly change permissions as a group moves along the merger and acquisition process. You can easily specify whether or not users have the right to print, save, copy/paste text, capture the screen or access the original document, and whether a watermark should be applied.

Any viewing policy in ShareVault can have an expiration date to ensure that your users are motivated to view documents promptly. By automatically enforcing deadlines associated with your merger and acquisition process, you can move the M&A timeline along more quickly. It is also a great way to ensure that you don't forget to revoke access to a user at a later date when he or she shouldn't have access to the information anymore.

ShareVault gives you a detailed audit trail showing which users and groups have viewed your confidential documents in the M&A process. By filtering the activity by date/time, activity, group, user or tag, you have valuable information about which party is interested in which aspects of your business. This also enables you to prepare for any questions that the third party may have about your business. Moreover, you can filter activity with a graphical timeline as well as with a scrollable list of events, providing detailed metrics that are invaluable for assessing the progress of M&A due diligence.

Two-step verification, also known as two-factor authentication, provides added security by requiring the user to enter a secure code upon login (delivered by text message to the user's phone, or via the Google Authenticator app, which is available for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry). You can trust that your documents are secure, even when you are sharing them with users who aren't as concerned about their security as you are. What's more, ShareVault automatically logs users out after a specific amount of idle time, but when they log back in, they see the exact screen that they were last on, saving time and frustration.

By automatically converting documents to PDF when uploaded (except when you choose not to do so), ShareVault ensures that your documents cannot be altered by a third party who is accessing your data room. You can also set the permissions to either allow end-users to access the original document or to prevent them from accessing it, such that they can only view the protected PDF. In this way, you can give some more trusted groups access to the original Excel file, for example, while others who haven't yet gained your trust can only see the PDF version.

You can send documents out for signatures using DocuSign, without requiring that those documents leave the secure location within ShareVault. You can also integrate with Box, DropBox, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365, such that any updates you make to a certain directory or directories will also be updated in ShareVault for your end-users to see. And within ShareVault, you can take advantage of all the powerful DocuSign features, such as email alerts, signature placements, form fields, template design, and the eSignature workflow flexibility.

Your end-users can easily ask private questions about your documents and then have the question routed to Q&A Moderators, who will be notified whenever your users ask questions. Moderators can forward questions to appropriate subject matter experts, and then approve or reject the response before replying to the end-user. The moderator(s) can decide to share questions and answers with other users, or just with the one who asked the question. This feature prevents the accidental leakage of confidential information that occurs if questions are answered via email.

Even with the best M&A software tools, mistakes can be made. That's why we have made it easy to double-check that certain users and groups cannot see confidential information that is stored in your ShareVault. Using ShareVault's "View As" feature, you can view your files from the perspective of a particular user, giving you more confidence that permissions are set correctly, and that users can't see information they shouldn't be able to see.

Ease of use is a crucial feature of any software. If it is difficult to use, mistakes are more likely to be made, and admin users will complain about the time it takes to set the software up and use it. In addition, your end-users will have a difficult time finding what they need, causing them to spend less time viewing the documents you want them to see. Though ShareVault is feature-rich, highly secure, and powerful, it is also intuitive and user-friendly.