TransCare is a globally active consulting company specialising in transportation and logistics. They succeed in shifting more transports to rail, optimising transportation costs, and developing efficient terminals. With excellent networking, potential sellers and buyers of businesses are also helped to move discreetly in the market. Worldwide, TransCare has successfully completed more than 1,500 projects. We sat down with Caroline Jahncke, Head of Finance at TransCare, to discuss how the Drooms’ platform has streamlined their approach to M&A transactions.
Here’s a glimpse into our conversation:
Could you tell us about your journey with data rooms and how you discovered the need for one?
Previously, we had not used a dedicated data room during our M&A activities and have only been involved in data rooms when accompanying a buyer. Based on these mixed experiences we were looking for a secure way to share data with potential buyers and stakeholders. Email was ruled out due to the amount of data involved. SharePoint was also not an option due to concerns about data storage and security.
How did you go about selecting the right provider for your needs?
Due to one specific case, we were pressed for time – we only had about two to three days for the selection. We conducted online research, considered two to three providers, and tested two of them, one of which was Drooms. Drooms emerged as the best fit for us.
We evaluated usability, speed and structure. Another important criterion was data security, such as the location of the servers. We wanted to be sure our data was secure and in Europe. Access control was a crucial factor as well. Once we saw that all of our criteria have been met by Drooms, we chose this platform.
Could you share your onboarding experience with Drooms?
It was very positive. We had already been active in the test environment and using the platform is relatively intuitive. Our dedicated Drooms Customer Success Manager helped us with the finer, technical details during onboarding, and we were ready to add the data in the structure we wanted.
Could you elaborate on the projects or transactions where you used Drooms?
Our Drooms projects are M&A deals and involve setting up a data room for a company’s audit and evaluation by a potential buyer. This includes a variety of document and data types, such as organisational charts, finances, contracts and ongoing business information. We then make this data room available to potential buyers and stakeholders.
On average, how many parties are typically involved in these projects?
Usually, besides us, at least four parties are involved – the seller and their advisors, and the potential buyers and their advisors. On our side we have about four colleagues who use it regularly, two of which I would consider as Drooms “Power Users”. They oversee the data collection and preparation of the data room, as well as handle the Q&A processes.
Are there any advantages you’d like to highlight?
We’ve participated as readers in other data rooms that aren’t on the Drooms platform. Drooms stands out not only for the aforementioned reasons but also for the speed of document searches and the possibility to preview of different file formats on the platform. Some systems only allow viewing of PDFs, and handling other file formats is cumbersome. Even if you just want a quick look, you have to save the data on your local file system, which wastes unnecessary time. The Q&A feature is also very good and helpful. Furthermore, the translation function is great, even if we haven’t used it much so far. Especially for international clients and projects, it’s a valuable feature.
Have you ever required any assistance from our Customer Success team?
Yes, there was a minor technical issue once. A friendly colleague helped me resolve it in the middle of the night – that was great. To know that Drooms has Customer Success Managers available around the clock, even on holidays, is very reassuring.
Based on what I’m hearing, your experience seems quite positive. Would you recommend Drooms to others?
Absolutely and with complete conviction. We’ve already successfully used Drooms for multiple M&A deals in the last three years.
Do you have any advice for other companies in the phase of identifying a solution? You mentioned that testing is worthwhile.
The opportunity to test the system is ideally suited to convince yourself of the advantages of the Drooms data rooms. We give it a clear recommendation for use.
