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shadow-it / speed / consulting-hacks

Client Needs Access by 9 AM: The 20-Minute Deal Room Setup

The Partner wants a portal. IT wants a 2-week lead time. Here is how we ship the Deal Room in 20 minutes.

Paolo Pivot Paolo Pivot

The 16:40 Panic

It is a classic Consultant Scenario. The Partner has promised the world to the Client. “Yes, we will have the data room ready for your team by tomorrow morning.”

He hangs up the phone. He looks at you. “Make it happen.”

It is 16:40. The IT Helpdesk closes at 17:00. You have gigabytes of PDFs, Excel models, and sensitive IP. You cannot email this. You need a Portal.

The Blocker: The “Ticket” Mentality

If you follow the “official” corporate procedure, you are dead in the water.

  • You submit a ticket.
  • IT reviews the ticket.
  • They ask “Who is the owner?”
  • They set up a SharePoint site with default permissions that nobody understands.
  • The external sharing settings are blocked by default.

Mamma mia. By the time you get the link, the client has already hired another firm. The client does not care about our internal bureaucracy. They care about speed.

We cannot let the tool be the bottleneck.

The Ship: The 20-Minute Protocol

We go Guerilla. We use a dedicated Data Room platform that bypasses the friction. Here is the drill.

  1. The Spine (5 Minutes): Do not invent a folder structure. Load the template.

    • 01_Kickoff
    • 02_Financials
    • 03_Legal
    • 04_Working_Docs

    Structured. Clean. No “New Folder (2)”.

  2. The Brand (5 Minutes): Upload the Client’s logo. Upload our logo. Change the background color to match the deck. Why? Because when they log in, it must feel like their house, not a generic locker.

  3. The Load (5 Minutes): Drag and drop. Bulk upload. Watch the progress bar. Assolutamente satisfying.

  4. The Invite (5 Minutes): Add the email addresses. Set permissions to “View Only” for the sensitive stuff. “Download” for the working files. Click Send.

Done.

By 17:05, the link is in the Partner’s inbox. “Here is the room. It is branded. It is populated. It works on mobile.”

This is how you win trust. You turn a logistical nightmare into a polished deliverable before the Partner has even finished packing his bag.

Ship today. Apologize to IT later.

FAQs

Is this Shadow IT?

Shadow IT is just a word for 'Getting things done while IT is in a meeting.' We prioritize security, but we do not prioritize bureaucracy.

Why not just use Dropbox?

Because Dropbox looks like a consumer tool. A Deal Room looks like a branded enterprise solution. Perception is reality.

Can I really do this in 20 minutes?

If you have your folder spine templates ready? Yes. 15 minutes if you have had enough espresso.