The Q&A process during due diligence is not only frequent but also necessary, because this way both parties can rule out any unpleasant surprises later on and more easily come to a common agreement. However, if you engage in the management of stakeholder requests, you run the risk of confusion, or even accidentally violate the confidentiality of your data. If you use familiar methods, such as Excel or email, questions and answers are delayed and can take an unfair amount of time, which will end up slowing down the M&A process. There are many advantages to using online Q&A, and we will discuss some of them below.
All the information you need is in one place
One of the nicest and most comfortable perks of online Q&A is that all discussions will be in one centralized location. Also, for greater comfort, you will be able to categorize different types of questions into the categories and topics they will address and even assign specialized professionals to answer accurately from their area of expertise.
Often, your potential partners’ questions can be duplicated, and if you used to have to spend a lot of time for repeated answers, now you can form an entire section of frequently asked questions that every user can read, and save your time waiting for an answer, and your time writing it.
There are no limits in online Q&A spaces, you can ask as many questions and answer as many. Each question has a personal identifier that you can mark and return to later. Among the vast amount of information you can easily find what you are looking for if you type in a keyword, all the questions that contain that word will be available to you.
The chance of human mistakes is also unlikely because online Q&A automatically registers every incoming question and you can easily see the answer and the status of the question.
A tamper-proof audit trail
This gives you the assurance of your transaction because platform administrators can track each user’s activity, including sign-in, download, and presence on a particular document and how long they were there.
When you conduct a sensitive process such as closing a deal, you can request a digitally signed copy of all information from your Q&A provider for the final archiving of the deal, and this document is not editable. It is very important to keep the events and materials of the transaction archived, as they can be of great help in case of any further misunderstandings, accusations, or clarifications.
Security – encryption, auditing, and control
Security measures also play an important role in the success of your deal and the overall well-being of your company. With detailed permissions features, space administrators can decide who can ask questions, who is allowed to answer them, and who can see a particular question. But also, you can completely hide the Q&A section, which is useful if you’re doing due diligence with several potential clients at once.
Q&A owners have control over everything, you can schedule times when people can ask questions, and you can create closed periods. All activities that take place inside the platform are encrypted from the gaze of unauthorized users. It also eliminates the possibility of important data being mistakenly sent to the wrong user.
Use virtual data rooms to muster the discretion to use quality question-and-answer sections. They contain absolutely all of the benefits described above and also help with organization and data management.