If your company already has, or needs to apply for, a DUNS number, you may know that the DUNS numbering system was developed and is maintained by a public company called Dun & Bradstreet. What is this company, and what else do they do?
Dun & Bradstreet is a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange; their primary business is to provide information on businesses and corporations, primarily for use by lending institutions in an effort to determine creditworthiness. Information kept by D&B can also be used in business-to-business marketing efforts and for other purposes. D&B’s database has become a clearinghouse of information and a standard source; the company currently has information on more than 190 million companies worldwide.
Dun & Bradstreet can trace its history to July 20, 1841, when Lewis Tappan created the Mercantile Agency in New York City. This company was formed to fill a growing need — to provide, through a network of correspondents, reliable and objective information about companies, primarily credit information. As the 1800s wore on, control of the company passed from Tappan to Benjamin Douglass, and then to Robert Graham Dun, who in 1859 renamed the firm R.G. Dun & Company. Dun was able to expand the company nationwide and internationally.
Meanwhile, in 1849, John Bradstreet founded a rival company in Cincinnati; Bradstreet popularized the use of credit ratings and published the first book of commercial ratings. The rival companies were both successful, but the heated rivalry began to take its toll during the Great Depression; in 1933, the companies merged to form Dun & Bradstreet. The merger was successful largely because of the efforts of Dun’s CEO at the time, Arthur Whiteside, who began to emphasize the marketing of business “services” rather than “products.” Whiteside was able to lead the merged company out of the Depression and to introduce modern business practices.
D&B gathers its vast amount of information through public records, newspapers and other publications, trade references, telephone interviews, telecommunications service providers, and other sources. Company revenue is derived primarily from subscriptions, sales of individual business reports, and third-party licensing agreements. Various subsidiary companies provide additional revenue.
Apart from business reports used to make credit decisions, D&B also offers sales and marketing products such as its Market Identifier Database, providing marketing professionals with business data appropriate for both sales prospecting and customer relations management. D&B also assists with supply management, helping firms assess the performance of current or prospective suppliers to mitigate risk. Various other business services include helping companies monitor and improve their own credit ratings, ensuring compliance with government regulations, and other services.
Of course, Dun & Bradstreet is best known for maintaining the Data Universal Numbering System, or DUNS; this numbering system was introduced in 1963 to support the company’s credit reporting activities. According to the system, each business entity is assigned a unique nine-digit number; the numbers are random, the digits having no special significance. More than 100 million DUNS numbers have been assigned to companies around the world; the number has become such a standard that organizations such as the European Commission, the United Nations, and the United States government use DUNS numbers to keep track of business entities. DUNS numbers are recognized and often required by more than fifty industry and trade associations worldwide. Any entity making a grant application to the U.S. government is required to have a DUNS number, and many U.S. government agencies require vendors to have a DUNS number. It doesn’t cost a company anything to obtain a DUNS number, and the process can be done over the phone.
When any entity becomes a standard clearinghouse of information, as D&B has, there is the danger that the entity will be tempted to use its authority and influence in less than beneficial ways. Dun & Bradstreet has largely avoided temptation, maintaining its strong reputation; it remains a reliable and transparent private company. There are some complaints that the company has become too aggressive at pitching its products. Obtaining a DUNS number is free, but D&B phone representatives handling DUNS number requests have been known to make misleading sales pitches at the same time, sometimes informing customers (wrongly) that a paid service, such as a credit self-monitoring package ($449), is also required. One small business owner complained that the D&B representative informed him that his company’s credit score in D&B’s database was low, and that the only way to bring it up again was to purchase the self monitoring service. Such tactics, however, seem to be the exception rather than the rule, and you can always politely (or firmly!) tell an aggressive phone representative that you don’t require any paid services.
