However, the events of 2020 appear to have crammed a decade’s worth of upheaval into only a few months. Companies that were profitable just a year ago are now experiencing cash flow problems, particularly in susceptible industries like retail and energy. Many people have determined that restructuring is the best course of action, and they’re seeking advice from experts. If you’re one of those advisors, you’re undoubtedly anticipating a long and stressful week ahead. What you may not understand is that there are measures you can take right now to make things considerably easier.
Don’t Take It On Your Own
After meeting with a number of restructuring consultants, I’ve identified a few roadblocks to overcome. You’re faced with a big list of urgent tasks right away — learning about the client’s company, reviewing the present debt structure, and arranging creditor communications — all of which must be completed in a flash. Having the correct software tools may make all the difference when it comes to organization and preparedness. A virtual data room (VDR) can help with this.
When going through the restructuring process, a VDR is a valuable resource since it provides a safe document store for difficult scenarios. They can make your life — and the lives of your clients and counterparties — much simpler. Assuming, of course, that you’re making full use of your VDR. Here are some pointers to get you started.
You already have enough on your plate dealing with your client’s restructuring plan; you don’t need to worry about a VDR on top of that. Speak with your provider’s project management team, regardless of whatever VDR you employ. They can assist you with anything from VDR setup to data room construction to optimizing your VDR’s features. They’ll have the documents you need if you need to teach your workforce or give setup instructions to a third party, like creditors or possible investors. Make sure your supplier provides multilingual customer service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in case you, your client, or your counterparties want assistance.
Get Organized As Soon As Possible
Begin gathering important documents as you begin to navigate the storm. Even if it’s too soon to share this information with other creditors or investors, it’s best to get it organized now. Instead of hurrying to accomplish everything at 100 miles per hour once the process starts, you’ll be pleased you constructed your index and started feeding in documents ahead of time. Some VDR providers also provide advanced preparation tools, such as artificial intelligence, to help you with the time-consuming processes of indexing and categorizing your data.
Define Your Roles
Keeping track of who has access to what might appear to be the most difficult aspect of due diligence management. You’re taking a major risk if you’re merely utilizing a conventional file-sharing platform and manually giving and revoking rights for every user every time. Something changed. That laborious work may be eliminated with the use of a commercial-grade VDR. These VDRs make it simple to create roles and provide people or groups access to data sets, such as individual documents, groups of documents, or whole projects. In a reorganization process, this flexibility is critical. It will give you the confidence to share information with many creditors and other parties on a large scale without fear of causing the process to fall apart due to a little error or omission.