People who work in the energy industry have a unique set of needs when it comes to sharing files securely with other companies. While virtual data room companies claim they have the full solution, many lack the ability to brand and have a clunky user-interface.
This is where SmartFile Enterprise or Business can come in handy. Both options give you a great user interface and tons of security and reporting options for your virtual data room.
Ultimately, there’s a few things energy companies need for a virtual data room:
- Granular User Permissions
- Encrypted File Transfer
- Encrypted File Storage
- Protected Storage
- Analytics
- Logs (in CSV format) of User & File Behaviors
- Notifications and Usage Alerts
- Fully Brandable & Responsive Browser Interface
- Ability to Search OCR Documents (like PDFs)
- Large File Size Limits (up to 2 TB)
While there are other features that are nice to have, these are critical elements that should be important for energy companies, especially for two individual institutions working together on a project. Let’s focus on a few areas above in which SmartFile can help you create a successful virtual data room for all parties involved…
Virtual Data Rooms for Energy Companies: Encrypted File Transfer, Monitoring and Storage
It’s important that the folders and files are secure. Energy companies access a wide variety of large, sensitive files:
- Meter Readings
- Architectural Diagrams
- Surface Geophysical Maps
- Contracts
- Due Diligence Files
- CAD Drawings
- Accounting Documentation
- NERC/FERC Regulatory Documents
You need security for files like that. Luckily, SmartFile encrypts files during storage and transfer, protecting every document. In fact, even our datacenters have high grade encryption and physical safeguards on-site. By the way, SmartFile uses many layers of Firewalls to help protect your data. Within these layers are differing firewall technologies, reducing the risk of a single firewall vulnerability affecting your data.
Your files are also monitored. We keep logs for as long as you need access. If a file gets deleted, you’ll know right away with SmartFile’s instant or consolidated hourly notifications. SmartFile can also restore files up to 7 days after deletion. Also, by analyzing the CSV logs, you could identify unusual behaviors by username or IP address, raising a red flag that might save an important deal. Likewise, you get audit controls, where administrators can review site, file and user activity. Administrators can view and search activity by username, IP address, file path and time/date stamp as well.
It’s also worth mentioning that we offer some of the highest file transfer limits in the file storage industry at 2 terabytes. You won’t have to worry about annoying pop-ups or errors telling you that your files are too big to share with SmartFile. You also get unlimited file storage with our unlimited plans, ensuring you never need to worry about file size limits within your virtual data room whatsoever.
Virtual Data Rooms for Energy Companies: User Roles and Permissions
Is your project in a constant state of flux from a personnel stand point? Are people added and removed from the project on a regular basis? Our easy to use granular user permissions and custom user roles allow you to add or remove personnel from a virtual data room.
Furthermore, as the administrator, you can configure password policies, including password history, expiration and complexity controls for your virtual data room.
Finally, when a user logs in for the first time, you can display terms and conditions that they must accept via a checkbox, ensuring they understand your policies.
Virtual Data Rooms for Energy Companies: Custom Branding and Responsive UI
Let’s face it, your brand is important. You should control your virtual data room’s branding. This means adding your logo and colors to the virtual data room. SmartFile gives you this ability.
With that in mind, your virtual data room needs to work on every device or browser without any installs to make sure users don’t try to circumvent it by using their own consumer file sharing products. SmartFile’s responsive HTML5 design does just that. It works on every type of device, without the need for an app.
On a similar note, the design is user friendly. It’s easy to drag and drop files into SmartFile. The application’s UI is so easy that you won’t need to worry about employees using their own Dropbox account to share files. They’ll love the interface and they’ll figure it out quickly.
By the way, there are other ways to access your files too, such as secure FTP or webDAV, if you prefer those methods.
Virtual Data Rooms for Energy Companies: Long Term Usage
The bottom line is virtual data room companies cost a lot for just one aspect of your business. SmartFile has tons of use cases outside of virtual data rooms, such as enterprise storage, secure FTP, file sharing and more.
You can also create NEW virtual data rooms without any extra cost, because you’ll just pay the monthly or annual fee for your SmartFile product.
Interested in giving SmartFile Business, our cloud based product, a chance? Here’s a free 14 day trial, no credit card needed. You’ll find out quickly if SmartFile’s a fit your business, both inside and outside your virtual data room.