What is the Firmex virtual data room?

Firmex is a Toronto-based global provider that focuses on delivering secure data rooms for processing deals, diligence, and compliance faster. Their estimated yearly revenue oscillates around $20M while employing between 51-200 workers. Since 2006, Firmex ensures the sharing of confidential documents conveniently and securely. 

It’s also important to mention that Firmex virtual data rooms are user-friendly and cost-effective relative to other providers. The platform integrates into the current workflow smoothly regardless of the industry. Besides, the vendor delivers excellent customer service, which significantly increases user ratings.

As for use cases, the Firmex virtual data room is a good choice for:

  • Investment banking
  • Corporate transactions
  • Private equity
  • Law practice
  • Due diligence

Firmex features 

As a virtual data room provider, Firmex’s focus has always been on protecting file sharing and making sure that critical documents are easily accessible to authorized personnel. 

The main features offered by a Firmex VDR are document management, data security, user invitations, user activity logs, and reporting. They provide these unique benefits to businesses using their software solution:

  • Simple integration. Thanks to Firmex’s fantastic support team, a company can seamlessly integrate data rooms into workflows regardless of the industry.
  • Two-factor authentication. This unique login procedure prevents unauthorized access because it only allows authorization through the user’s mobile phone.
  • User access management. The functionality allows admins to manage access permissions to confidential documents for individual users and groups.
  • Drag-and-drop upload. You can drag and drop documents of up to 10 GB from your computer and mobile app, which simplifies document sharing and uploading.
  • Automatic indexing. The virtual data room automatically organizes documents, and users can find files easily using OCR (optical character recognition).

Firmex secure data rooms compliance

Compared to some alternatives, this provider chooses reliable data storage practices. For this reason, compliance with international information security standards is integral to the Firmex data room ecosystem. 

SOC 2 Type 2

This compliance indicates that the system is protected from unauthorized access by third parties and is available for use only as agreed or intended. In addition, SOC auditors check Firmex virtual data rooms annually.

GDPR

The Firmex virtual data room adheres to European standards for secure data exchange and storage. Its clients can choose a location for keeping documents — the USA, Canada, or Germany. In the US, the AWS sub-processor complies with the EU-US Privacy Shield.

HIPAA

HIPAA requires providers to take many administrative, technical, and physical security measures. Additionally, adherence is verified at the highest levels, making a HIPAA-compliant vendor more reliable and trustworthy. 

Firmex virtual data rooms pricing

There are a couple of ways to gain access to a Firmex data room. The company’s most popular service subscription is its annual package, but it also offers shorter-term packages. Unfortunately, the latter is less flexible, and here is why.

First, Firmex doesn’t provide plans shorter than three months or a drive capacity with less than 1GB of storage capacity. If a company needs an archive backed up and stored on a USB stick, an additional $250 fee is assessed — plus $50 for shipping. Furthermore, each additional USB copy incurs another $130 charge. 

Firmex data rooms offer various plans for fixed-timeframe projects. Subscriptions can be purchased for plans of between 3-9 months and include unlimited internal and external users and one Firmex virtual data room space.

  • 3-month plan includes 1 GB of storage: $2,500
  • 6-month plan includes 1 GB of storage: $4,000
  • 9-month plan includes 1 GB of storage: $5,500

Every additional MB costs $1. 

There is also a second model, which is not limited to a monthly contract but rather assumes ongoing cooperation on multiple projects. The annual-subscription package is based on the number of internal licenses (users within the same corporate domain) and the number of GB required. The Firmex cost structure provides you with: 

  • A branded site
  • 24/7 support and scheduled training sessions
  • Q&A capabilities
  • Firmex redactor services
  • Drag-and-drop documents and folders
  • Group permissions
  • Reports

Firmex is a virtual provider that boasts to be an essential service for mid-market M&A, governance, and sensitive documents’ handling. It offers convenient pricing plans that respond to the needs of a variety of companies, no matter how small or large. Their free trial provides the opportunity to test the Firmex virtual data room solution before committing a subscription.

Firmex virtual data rooms free trial

Firmex offers a free trial to subscribers. During the two-week trial, you will have access to 1GB of storage space and the ability to host 10 users. Additionally, the Firmex team provides you with a personalized training session.

Firmex support and deployment

The company offers 24/7/365 exceptional customer service in multiple languages. Your data is archived, so you can restore documents should you need them. Furthermore, if a more complex issue arises, the support team will help train your workers to navigate through their virtual data room software. And finally, there are educational FAQs, helpful articles, and how-to videos. 

Firmex virtual data room provides its users with a downloadable app for iPhone mobile devices — unfortunately,  there isn’t an Android mobile app available. 

There are no direct chat options on the site, and to report a problem, you would need to fill out a form. The absence of a dedicated Android app and limited customer support are the main setbacks of using the Firmex virtual data rooms.

FAQ

What is Firmex?

Firmex is one of the most widely used virtual data room solutions for complex deal-making. Leaders in M&A, compliance, litigation, procurement, and financial transactions enjoy Firmex’s excellent support and intuitiveness, which add value to their online document-sharing and collaboration initiatives.

How do I download my entire data room from Firmex?

You can download the entire data room from Firmex. However, since the download can be quite bulky, the Firmex provider recommends downloading the data room in parts, namely by downloading in subfolders, up to 10 GB each.

Does Firmex offer analytics or reporting on user activity within the platform?

Firmex offers analytics about the project’s activity and reporting on user activity within the platform. This way, you can identify the most active projects in the data rooms, the most proactive users, groups and companies logged in, and those interested in tax documentation.

How does Firmex handle document version control and tracking changes?

Document version control in Firmex is an accurate audit trail of information exchanged. You can handle multiple versions, which are automatically numbered. As for tracking changes, this is available to users depending on roles. For example, Content Viewers see the latest version, while Content Contributors track changes and add new versions.