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- Dun & Bradstreet is an analytics company providing risk management, marketing, and business credit reporting solutions.
- Dun & Bradstreet issues D-U-N-S numbers, like Social Security numbers for businesses.
- D-U-N-S numbers help small and medium-sized businesses establish credit and compete in the marketplace.
Having the right business data and insights helps companies make informed decisions based on accurate and up-to-date information, saving them time and valuable resources. Data-driven decision-making also helps businesses stay competitive by identifying potential risks or areas where they're underperforming.
Dun & Bradstreet stores data on millions of businesses worldwide and offers credit scores and risk assessment tools. It also helps businesses with sales and marketing intelligence and supply chain management solutions.
Business Insider's personal finance team reviewed Dun & Bradstreet and found it to be the world's leading supplier of business data and insights with numerous features and services to grow your business.
Dun & Bradstreet Overview
Dun & Bradstreet is a global company that provides businesses with proprietary data, software, and analytics to help them lower costs, mitigate risk, achieve their marketing and sales goals, and more. Today, Dun & Bradstreet serves about 135,000 clients internationally, across multiple industries.
Dun & Bradstreet's formation can be traced back to 1841 when Lewis Tappan established the Mercantile Agency in New York City, one of the first organizations formed to provide clients with business information. The company later acquired a new name, R.G. Dun & Company, after Robert Graham Dun purchased the agency in 1859.
R.G. Dun's rival, John M. Bradstreet Company, was founded around the same time in Cincinnati. The two companies' rivalry intensified as the US entered the 20th century. Eventually, in 1933, Dun & Bradstreet was officially established amid the Great Depression as the result of a merger between R.G. Dun & Co. and Bradstreet Co. In July 2020, Dun & Bradstreet launched its Initial Public Offering to accelerate their growth strategy.
Today, Dun & Bradstreet provides a wide range of services to help businesses achieve their goals and remain competitive, including credit reporting, risk management, and market research.
Dun & Bradstreet Products & Services
Dun & Bradstreet has been the leading provider of business information, data, and analytics for almost two centuries. Here are some of the key services the company offers.
Business Credit Reporting and Analysis
D&B Credit
One of Dun & Bradstreet's key offerings is its business credit reporting and analysis. With a subscription to D&B Credit Insights, you can view other companies' business credit reports to determine their creditworthiness and see their past legal events, such as bankruptcies and judgments. Dun & Bradstreet's business credit reports include multiple ratings, scores, and performance-based data that can predict and showcase a company's reliability and financial stability, such as the D&B® Delinquency Predictor Score, the D&B Viability Rating, and the D&B® Failure Score.
Many companies and government agencies rely on D&B data when researching information about another business, and the D-U-N-S Number is one way they can identify a business's credit file. The D-U-N-S Number, short for Data Universal Numbering System, is a nine-digit unique identifier for businesses created by Dun & Bradstreet. Businesses may be asked to provide their D-U-N-S Number when filling out partnership applications and credit applications so that other parties can thoroughly assess their credit risk by accessing their business profile.
Risk Management Solutions
As mentioned earlier, Dun & Bradstreet helps businesses in managing credit risk through detailed analytics and predictive modeling. Besides providing credit risk management tools, Dun & Bradstreet also offers other products that deal with third-party risks, such as the following.
- D&B Supplier Intelligence: Allows businesses to screen suppliers and actively monitor risk changes.
- D&B ESG Intelligence: A sustainability analytics solution that allows businesses to assess and track their business partners' ESG performance.
- D&B Climate Risk insights: Helps businesses understand climate risk's impact on their business.
- D&B Compliance Intelligence: Helps compliance teams effectively and efficiently verify, assess, and monitor compliance risks of third parties and customers.
Sales and Marketing Solutions
Dun & Bradstreet also offers various products in sales and marketing intelligence to help businesses target and engage with the right prospects. Some of its sales and marketing solutions include the following:
- D&B Audience Targeting: Helps businesses improve audience targeting in their advertising campaigns by providing access to the D&B Data Cloud — comprised of over 400 million business records — and mapping the data to over 300 million cookies and mobile device IDs.
- D&B Visitor Intelligence: Identifies a business's anonymous online visitors to optimize their site experience for the identified audience and transform prospects into solid leads.
- D&B Buyer Intent: D&B Buyer Intent helps businesses prioritize their strongest prospects so that they can engage them early in the buying cycle.
- D&B Hoovers: This software helps sales teams build prospect lists and research target companies to find revenue opportunities.
- D&B Direct for Sales & Marketing: Allows businesses to stream and integrate Dun & Bradstreet's real-time data into their systems using the D&B Direct API.
- D&B Connect: Allows businesses to connect with their customers and suppliers, streamline operations and manage risk.
- D&B Optimizer: helps businesses identify, match, and streamline their business data.
Benefits of Using Dun & Bradstreet
Dun & Bradstreet provides services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), helping them establish credit and expand their business. For example, the Credit Insights tool allows SMEs to stay informed about changes in their credit profile, and its Credit Builder program helps SMEs proactively build and strengthen their business credit.
Having a D-U-N-S Number also benefits SMEs trying to grow, obtain a bank loan, win contracts, and compete with other big players in the industry, as it makes them more credible.
Besides helping SMEs establish and build credit, Dun & Bradstreet offers a wide range of sales and marketing solutions to help these businesses expand their online presence, reach new customers, and find their next buyer. For example, its Lead Concierge product allows SMEs to build up to 100 targeted and high-quality leads for free.
Pricing & Plans
Dun & Bradstreet offers custom pricing plans depending on your business needs that include:
The DUNS Number
D&B provides this business identification number free of charge, which can help a business establish its creditworthiness and build business credit. It can also help a business confirm its active status to creditors, government agencies, and other companies.
D&B Hoovers Sales Intelligence Software
D&B costs: Free version: $0 monthly; Basic version: $49 monthly; Plus version: $149 monthly. The Enterprise Plan is available at a custom price and is designed for more comprehensive business needs. To get a price quote, contact the sales team directly.
Dun & Bradstreet Customer Reviews
According to Dun & Bradstreet's customer success stories, First Horizon Bank of Memphis, Tennessee, was able to outperform competitors in terms of customer experience by leveraging D&B's tool to help them transform customer data into relationships and interactions.
More specifically, after taking advantage of D&B Rev.Up ABX, a marketing solution that empowers business owners to drive targeted campaigns, First Horizon Bank was able to improve its content messaging and customer experience.
"Our investment in D&B solutions has enabled us to connect customer experiences to drive measurable outcomes that span the entire funnel and create efficiencies of scale," says Jason Scott, Senior Vice President of Marketing Technology & Operations with First Horizon Bank. "D&B Rev.Up ABX is a cornerstone for us in the commercial space, supporting targeting and segmentation. It gives us the ability to resolve identities that are coming in from our different channels, including our web channel, using the [D&B] Visitor Intelligence option."
Who Should Use Dun & Bradstreet?
Dun & Bradstreet has services and options that can benefit all businesses, from small to large enterprises. Sales and marketing teams can benefit from its prospecting tools and market insight, and risk management professionals can use Dun & Bradstreet's business credit scores and risk assessments when making financial and lending decisions.
Dun & Bradstreet Alternatives
While Dun & Bradstreet has a host of strong offerings to assist with business growth, there are alternatives that you may want to consider.
Experian
D&B focuses exclusively on business credit, while Experian monitors both business and personal credit. D&B only provides a company profile, while Experian provides more detailed information, including company background, collection agency information, and payment performance on government contracts.
Experian's business credit score ranges from 0 to 100, with 80–100 considered excellent. A D&B rating can impact the terms of future financing and business contracts for both small and large businesses.
Equifax
Dun & Bradstreet is a business credit reporting agency, while Equifax offers both business and personal credit reporting.
Dun & Bradstreet's database contains commercial data on over 240 million companies, while Equifax's contains information on over 800 million consumers and more than 88 million businesses. You generally don't need to register your business with Equifax, but you do need to request a D-U-N-S number from Dun & Bradstreet
Small Niche Providers
There are smaller business providers that may be focused on your industry or a specific tool that your business needs. Companies like Uplead are similar to Dun & Bradstreet. Do some research and see if a smaller company may be a better fit.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dun & Bradstreet
A D-U-N-S Number, or Data Universal Numbering System Number, is a unique nine-digit identifier assigned to businesses by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) and is widely used as a standard business identifier. While you're not required to have a D-U-N-S Number to operate a business, this nine-digit identifier is important since lenders and potential business partners use it to help determine the reliability and financial stability of a company they want to work with.
Dun & Bradstreet has information on more than 420 million companies worldwide. By analyzing this data using Dun & Bradstreet's systems, businesses can gain insight into the credit risk of potential customers, suppliers, or business partners and reduce bad debts.
D&B's data is updated once a year. This information is collected by Dun & Bradstreet through Secretary of State filings, direct investigations, trusted news sources, and the SEC.
Yes, Dun & Bradstreet's data is reliable for international businesses. The D-U-N-S Number not only identifies millions of companies worldwide but is also recognized and recommended by over 240 government and industry organizations worldwide. The United Nations also uses the D-U-N-S Number as its Consignee Party Identifier.
