Eliminating Manual Q&A to Accelerate Deal Flow
In the early stages of our company we ran into a lot of clients that were struggling with putting all of their confidential documents online for transactional due diligence. The Internet was new and there was a lack of understanding and education, no matter how appealing the idea was of making the painstaking process virtual and more seamless. IntraLinks has since established itself as a proven leader in the space — in security, ease of use, and technology. The astonishing aspect of all this however, is running into customers who have standardized on our virtual data room (VDR) but who still manage the Q&A process like it’s 1998. There is a reticence in the community whereby everyone acknowledges the inefficiency of the process but isn’t quite sure how to fix it. I’m going to be running a deep dive webcast on April 7th (in the US) and on April 14th (in the UK) to take people through this functionality in-depth and to give people a chance to ask questions and learn more.
Even though the Q&A process can be completely automated through the IntraLinks platform, old habits die hard. I find that once a customer uses it they never want to go back, but many people aren’t aware of how much easier automating the process can make their lives. Our Q&A is like a better version of your inbox — automatically filtering your emails and forwarding them, with a due-date, to the relevant expert for a response. Additionally, you have the capability of smart filters giving you ease of visibility into where things stand. Instead of looking in every folder to pick up the thread, you can leverage the filters to track the status of different questions and threads in one place.
Control over the process is another aspect customers really like. Given the current process of exchanging emails and spreadsheets, the sell-side struggles with control over when questions are asked, how many are sent at a time, and how often questions are repeated. Instead, you could choose who the question submitters are and you can set the number of questions they can ask while still allowing the buyer group to discuss questions before submitting them. You can run reports to track activity and get intelligence into the questions that buyers are asking. Having insight not only into the number of questions but also the kinds of questions offers up full transparency in the process.
As you move along in the due diligence process, tracking becomes increasingly important for the audit trail. Managing the Q&A within IntraLinks means everything is dated, time stamped, and fully searchable. This means you have the security and reference that all questions on a topic were answered. When you close, this will all be stored on a DVD archive in case you ever need to refer back.
There is a huge misconception that buyers want to maintain the status-quo, but they don’t. For the buy-side, instead of sending 100 questions in a spreadsheet over email, you can ask them in IntraLinks, within the context of the information being reviewed. The faster responses and visibility into your team’s questions and the related answers will further enable the progression of the deal.
Join me on April 7th or April 14th to see IntraLinks Q&A in action, to get your questions answered, and to start moving into the 21st century with your Q&A process. I think once you see how much easier it can be, you’ll leave behind the emails, the spreadsheets, and all the time you used to spend with them. Talk to you soon!