By Doug Cullen, Datasite Chief Product and Strategy Officer
Cloud computing has become an increasingly popular way for businesses and organizations to store and access data and applications over the internet, without the need for on-premises hardware and infrastructure. In fact, last year, global cloud operator and vendor revenues reached $544 billion and are expected to grow to $1.712 billion by 2029.
As businesses continue to create huge amounts of data, accessing, retrieving and analyzing that information is also becoming more critical to identifying new revenue streams or products, as well as streamlining and optimizing operations. Especially with today’s market uncertainty, businesses need to be agile, flexible and adaptable to the changing conditions. Cloud-based technology and tools can help businesses achieve these goals in several ways.
Often offered through pay-as-you-go or subscription models, cloud-based services can be a more cost-effective option for businesses, who can also quickly scale up or down their use, depending on demand. Cloud-based collaboration tools can facilitate collaboration among team members and stakeholders, improving communication and productivity. Additionally, they often have better security and disaster recovery options to protect data and maintain business continuity than traditional on-premises solutions. Cloud-based platforms and tools can also automate many repetitive, time-consuming, and tedious tasks, such as data entry, invoicing, and inventory management, freeing up time for businesses to focus on more strategic tasks. They also can provide businesses with real-time insights and data analytics, allowing businesses to make data-driven decisions and improve their performance.
Many industries benefit from cloud-based services, including the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) industry, especially when it comes to deal management. Cloud technology can support all aspects of the workflow, including sourcing opportunities, due diligence, closing deals, securing data, and repeating for future transactions. This provides dealmakers not only increased flexibility around their deal flow but also more efficient and secure deal management.
Often stretched by heavy workloads, dealmakers are under unprecedented pressure to manage more with less. And with so many deal teams running both buy- and sell-side transactions simultaneously, using one platform with seamlessly connected applications that can handle every transaction type and every phase of the deal simultaneously provides dealmakers with the flexibility to better manage their costs, reduce compliance risks, and increase their overall productivity. This is particularly important because with every week that due diligence drags on, the risk of a deal coming apart increases by close to 50%. And with the price of due diligence at around $100,000 a week, those costs can add up quickly if there are delays.
Additionally, current market conditions have made it even more essential that dealmakers stay deal ready. Yet, most dealmakers manage their strategic transactions through disparate, unconnected systems which are not purpose-built, such as spreadsheets and emails. This means managing the deal lifecycle is often a manual process. For example, 75% of dealmakers manage their pipelines in spreadsheets and 55% rely on direct or self-sourced deals, that they also manage in spreadsheets. Managing static documents can become cumbersome – connected cloud-based solutions can smooth these processes.
Deal documentation and due diligence are critical parts of any M&A transaction, but they can be time-consuming and prone to errors when managed manually. Cloud-based document management and due diligence tools can help automate the process by providing a centralized repository for all documents related to a deal and by managing all due diligence activities with version control, permissions management, and automated workflows to manage the review and approval process. Cutting out the labor-intensive parts of M&A both speeds up the process and reduces the time-consuming tasks that can lead to burnout in the industry.
In M&A, cloud-based solutions can also leverage artificial intelligence to access large amounts of data and insights instantaneously, allowing dealmakers to identify trends, make predictions, develop strategies with greater accuracy and precision, and improve their M&A performance.
Cloud-based solutions have been a game-changer for businesses of all sizes, providing greater flexibility and scalability as they will continue to play a critical role in helping businesses be more agile and responsive to changing market conditions. As new technologies emerge and cloud providers continue to innovate, businesses will have even more opportunities to transform their operations and drive growth, and these new technologies will be vital to a company’s long-term success.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.