How Our Customers Use Data Rooms

Data Rooms  – A Household Name in Due Diligence

In a transaction management process, data rooms are your best friend. Companies of all sizes should always be prepared and organised to experience due diligence at any time. You never know when a buying or selling opportunity might arise.

Previously, only companies undergoing larger transactions would need to be worried about having a data room ready with relevant information. But now, even small companies understand the importance of security and control around due diligence. 

The Many Roles of a Data Room

Our customers spend on average 27 days preparing documentation before launching a data room. To get ahead of the game, our preparation portal function can help kickstart the process.

A preparation portal is an early-stage data room that is only accessible by the team collecting and organising documentation for the upcoming deal. Your future  due diligence team will thank you for having all the relevant information ready to go at the drop of a hat. 

Who Is Involved in The Data Room?

At Admincontrol, we are used to customers being in a hurry and wanting a virtual data room to be available as quickly as possible. We like to work fast, so the majority of data rooms we supply are set up within a few hours of receiving a signed agreement. We have dedicated client managers to assist with the start-up procedure and who are on-hand throughout the process.

Once the data room has been created, we often seen the involvement of many different parties in the transactions. Some typical roles in the due diligence process are: 

• Admin: Has complete control over the preparation portal/data room.
• Manager: Can manage some parts of the data room but not all. 
• Contributor: Can add, edit, and organise documents. 
• Viewer: Typically the buyer or investor. They have limited access and often have restricted viewing privileges. 

It's important to have clear and set roles so that the organisation and management of the documents don't become muddied and confusing. The more organisation, the better. 

Companies Have Become More Security-Focused

We've found that our customers have become more security-conscious in recent years, and are using clean rooms more often than before. 

But what is a clean room? Essentially, a clean room is a data room within a data room. It's used to share information between buyers, consultants, and administrators under very restricted access terms. This sensitive data is kept safe and is only accessible by a specific clean team. 

After reviewing the information in the clean room, the clean team goes to the client with a report which could make or break the transaction. With the knowledge of both the target and the potential buyers, the clean team can create a report that will help the bidder make informed decisions without knowing all the details.

Why Is the Q&A Function So Valuable?

Many of our customers like to utilise the Q&A function to provide clarity for the other party. A Q&A module provides everyone with a strong overview of questions and answers concerning the documentation within the clean room itself.

Questions and answers can be added while the deal is underway, and the module has options for delegating, sorting, and structuring questions. If these are used, a gatekeeper is assigned to quality-assure questions and answers before they are published. 

The data room provides a complete overview of all activities. This includes when documents were uploaded, if they were opened, etc. Good documentation is important if doubts are raised about what was presented during the process.

Preparations Are Gaining In Importance

In 2024, Admincontrol supplied and managed 1,809 data rooms. There was considerable growth in all the Nordic countries and the UK. 

We've also seen that customers are setting up a new data room immediately after a transaction has ended. This is likely to help them easily complete any future transactions that might come their way. When the data room is based on a previous transaction and is well maintained, this will result in a more complete data room, and the probability of additional questions concerning the next transaction is reduced.

This shows that our customers have become more aware of the importance of an early start. The better prepared you are for a future acquisition, the greater the chance of a streamlined due diligence process.