Typically, mergers and acquisitions are challenging. You have two or more parties to negotiate, evaluate, and do other necessary audits. The advent of the internet has changed the whole picture. Now, it’s easier and less time-consuming. Besides, you are just a click away from matter experts to discuss transactions, share valuation, and many other things.
Forbes has highlighted that organisations are fond of online merger and acquisition platforms. Even in 2022, 88 percent of companies increased or maintained their expenditure on technologies, according to Ziff Davis. This trend is not new. In 2021, the world registered the highest number of deals.
Deals are happening online. But, it’s really confusing to find which platform is better.
This post has all such crucial points that you should consider seriously before finalising the one for an M&A deal. Let’s go through them one by one.
How to Choose an M&A Platform in 2023?
1. Cloud-based deployment
A cloud-based platform provides virtual space to carry out online conversations and store data of whatever happens on your platform. Bankers Deals, for instance, is a SaaS-based application. Being run through the internet browser, it stays on 24X7. For operating, you need not install or update licensing management system. It brings value for money and is affordable. You don’t have to pay any upfront hardware cost because it follows a pay-as-you-go model of payment.
Here, the scope of utilising advanced AI modeling is huge. If you consider the aforesaid example, the Bankers Deals application shows real-time notifications from buy-side and sell-side companies. It means that such applications can let you discover deals in real time. This is how users can have a limitless experience of online deals.
2. Collaboration tools
With collaboration tools, it’s like a walkover to enjoy self-service. You can see every updated data on your application. It right away flashes when either party updates its profile, its company’s data, or any other details. Sometimes, business entities add their preferences. Here, this point is crucial because the chances of finalising the deal are huge if you prior know the preferences.
Sometimes, you find this feature with subscription packages. It allows you to continue the discussion offline and give a final touch to the deal-making online. If this feature is there, you can directly talk about the agreement, valuation, due diligence, and other things that are necessary for mergers and acquisitions.
These features make the process way more productive. You can invest your valuable time in drafting policies, and strengthening the production cycle.
3. E-signatures facility
E-signatures refer to electronic signatures. It’s a digital service, which is integrated with online mergers and acquisitions applications or software. If this facility is there, you can save many hours of travelling. Otherwise, you will have to devote time to go to the target company for signing and scanning ancillary documents. With it, the deal would enter the document verification phase. The user can access it from any browser on any compatible device.
However, signing key transaction documents (e.g. sale and purchase agreement) and deeds online may not be a good idea because it requires witnesses. But at least, they can be transferred prior to thoroughly reading and observing.
In the nutshell, the signatory can sign the documents through a few keystrokes from any location in the world. The beauty of these mergers and acquisitions platforms is that the user is guided by the application (without any human interaction). It requires no other software to install. Nor does the signatory require creating an account. It prevents further corrections in the signature.
4. Standard data security
Data security is crucial because the entered data are no less than a goldmine. You can see two-form authentication during the login process. With it, you verify your account. This step ensures end-to-end security and confidentiality of your personally identifiable information and other details. A few advanced applications filter the list of unlikely buyers or sellers to provide more relevant data for negotiation or the next round of discussion. The buy-side firms become aware of upcoming deals timely.
These digital deal-discovery platforms have a clearly defined policy to build trust. Besides, such platforms follow compliance like GDPR, which prevents illegitimate use of data here. The penalties for misuse, unauthorised access, or data loss are there in some countries. Therefore, investing in these platforms is a safe decision.
You may check if it’s SOC 1/2 & ISO 27001:2013 certified, or if it ensures SOC 2 Type II certification and AES 256-bit encryption. It shows that the platform is secure and the best to trust.
5. Pipeline visualization and task-tracking tools
The most amazing feature of such platforms is that the sell-side advisors can easily upload investment mandates. On the flip side, buy-side companies can share their preferences. You can have a crystal clear view of the total deals available, converted, and in-process via visuals. The graphical presentation of the entire app journey of users can help you find opportunities in no time.
Besides, the users can understand the wholesome picture of all available and progressive deals at a glance.
The last one is the cost of a subscription. You have to pay a certain amount to enjoy its real-time benefits. These all features help you to make a final decision about selecting the best online M&A deal platform.
Summary
To choose the best merger and acquisition platform online, you need to check a few features. These are related to data security, visualisation and tracking, e-signatures, collaboration tools, and cloud-based data management.
