Data rooms take the next step and include AI and Machine learning

Virtual data rooms (VDR’s) have transformed M&A. By allowing online collaboration, they contributed to streamlining and improving due diligence and document sharing, reducing overhead, saving time and thus contributing to the bottom line. In 2020 Dealsuite entered into a strategic partnership with Admincontrol, part of VISMA and market leader in the Nordics, in order to offer its clients a best in class virtual data room.

Not just for due diligence

VDR’s started out as the digital equivalent of the conventional physical room where documents were stored during a due diligence investigation. By now a lot of functionalities have been added that greatly improve not just (remote) due diligence, but help facilitate the entire deal. For sellers, it is useful to see who has viewed a document during an audit. With the help of data mining tools, buyers and investors can quickly analyse documents to help predict future risks, pitfalls, and trends.

Managing access

When sharing large volumes of data in a centralised hub, cyber security is of the highest importance. Leading VDR providers have taken important measures to ensure this aspect of their services. They provide users with a great amount of flexibility in controlling access to documentation. At any point in the deal process, users can control access rights, based on pre-assigned ‘roles’ in the due diligence process. Administrators can set user-rights and manage who is permitted to carry out restricted activities like printing or downloading documents. Labelling is used to organise according to a topic. You can, for instance, label and group all questions related to HR-issues.

AI & Machine learning

The next step in the evolution of VDR’s is the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to analyse, classify and verify documents. Data from Admincontrol shows that users on average upload over 8,000 pages to a VDR. Manually reviewing large volumes of data is a burdensome task that takes up valuable resources. Imagine scanning thousands of pages for information pertaining to GDPR compliance, or for change of control clauses. AI and ML tools can do this job a lot faster and often more accurately, as algorithms are better at recognising patterns than humans. Covid-19 has accelerated all aspects of digitalisation in M&A, and VDR’s are no exception. Over the past year, the number of M&A practitioners that adopted VDR’s for due diligence and other aspects of M&A, has grown significantly. We can safely expect this trend to continue.

Dealsuite data room

Dealsuite CEO Floyd Plettenberg explains the benefits for Dealsuite's customers: ‘M&A professionals find deal partners and deal opportunities through our platform. Their next step is to open a data room, which can now be arranged directly through Dealsuite. We selected Admincontrol as our partner because of the quality and ease of use of their data room. Due to the size of the Dealsuite network, we can offer these data rooms to our customers at very attractive rates.