Little Venice Partners (LVP) is a boutique financial advisory and corporate development firm specializing in company growth, project equity and debt advice, as well as managing the M&A process from both the buyer and seller perspective. Based out of the Mayfair district in London, LVP has clients all over the world working on multimillion dollar projects.
Working in this industry, absolute security of stored data is a must, so LVP sought a way of sharing files in a secure way with both its clients and investors.
Robert Frodsham, an associate at LVP, explains, “After one of the partner’s Dropbox accounts was compromised as part of the standard way cloud file sharing and licensing works, access to our stored data was being shared with unintended third parties. Following this unauthorized access of information, we realized that we needed a more secure solution moving forward and decided to look elsewhere.”
LVP sought a new storage solution that would better prevent future data breaches and allow for frictionless collaboration, as LVP’s clients are located around the world. After some preliminary research, the firm began testing a number of secure alternatives to replace their cloud storage provider. Unlike most mainstream products, secure collaboration services like virtual data rooms tend to be difficult to integrate into the day-to-day office environment. Their effective and secure deployment often requires technical expertise from IT staff, while employees can struggle to stay productive using services that are less intuitive than consumer-grade options. After trying a number of products, LVP eventually decided to incorporate Tresorit into the firm’s everyday workflow.
“The area we focus on with our product is enterprise or business file sync and share with a cloud based service,” says Chris Houle, COO of Tresorit. “We employ a method of encryption which essentially ensures that you never have any unencrypted information anywhere other than the device of the person who owns the data or the device of the person with whom the owner is sharing data. Anywhere along the way — whether in transit, in the cloud, on the server, in possession of the vendor —it’s encrypted.”
Robert and his associates found it easy and quick to set up an environment for sharing highly sensitive documents between several firms collaborating on their deals. Business partners have experienced no problems in installing and using Tresorit. Meanwhile, LVP retains total control over its deal documents thanks to permission levels and recently launched central administrative features in Tresorit for Business. Since switching to Tresorit, LVP hasn’t experienced any threat to its data and is able to work with clients without thinking twice about whether or not data can be shared and stored securely.
“The cheapest non-Tresorit quote we got for hosting a data room was about 600 EUR to set it up and then 500 EUR a month thereafter,” says Frodsham. Currently, LVP has a Business account with Tresorit allowing for a total of 4TB of cloud storage, with the firm constantly cycling new data in and out. Relying on the level of control Tresorit provides, LVP is able to utilize it as a secure, easy-to-use data room at only 20 EUR a month per user.
The firm is currently handling a highly complex merger and acquisition process, with the overall procedure involving input from nearly a hundred individuals from a multitude of consulting and legal firms working on the deal. Tresorit allows LVP to manage the project without giving up control over which files can be accessed, downloaded to a device, printed, or shared. With Tresorit embedding security straight into data itself, LVP is able to ensure that their data can no longer be accessed and distributed after the financial transaction is over with any particular client.
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