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Operations
Welcome to D&B: the most trusted source for information you need to make your business a success.
We have been enabling business-to-business commerce for 160 years - and the risks and opportunities of the New
Economy make D&B's information solutions more critical than ever before. We are committed to earning the trust
of customers around the globe who are seeking accurate and relevant information and effective decisions. D&B's
information solutions are growing and evolving, yet at the heart of everything we do is a passion for offering
you the information you need to drive your business success.
D&B is the leading provider of business information for credit, marketing and purchasing decisions worldwide.
More than 100,000 companies rely on D&B to provide the insight they need to help build profitable, quality
business relationships with their customers, suppliers and business partners.
D&B's products and services are drawn from a global database of more than 62 million companies. We gather
business information in 214 countries around the world, in 95 languages or dialects, covering 181 currencies.
To help ensure the accuracy and completeness of our information, we use sophisticated data collection tools and update our database nearly one million times a day.
Our exclusive nine-digit D&B D-U-N-S Number, assigned to each business location in our global database, is
widely used as a tool for identifying, organizing and consolidating information about businesses. Companies
worldwide use it to link information about suppliers, customers and trading partners, providing them a more
complete picture of risks and opportunities in their business relationships.
D&B is playing a key role in the New Economy. We have partnered with leading edge firms from around the
globe, including Oracle, Siebel Systems, Deloitte Consulting, Open Ratings, SAS Institute, and SAP to
integrate Dun & Bradstreet into their offerings. D&B has enabled B2B commerce since 1841 and will continue
to be a trusted source of information powering e-business going forward.
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History
To help American merchants in their decision-making, an enterprising businessman named Lewis Tappan began, in 1841, to establish a network of correspondents that would function as a source of reliable, consistent and objective credit information. His Mercantile Agency, located in New York City, was one of the first organizations formed for the sole purpose of providing business information to customers.
Shortly after he joined the agency, Benjamin Douglass began establishing local offices and hiring full-time employees who became experienced, skilled reporters and interpreters of credit information.
In 1849, the rival John M. Bradstreet Company was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio. Two years later, the Bradstreet organization popularized the use of credit ratings with publication of the first book of commercial ratings. The rivalry between The John M. Bradstreet Company and Douglass' agency intensified as the United States entered the 20th century. Fundamentally, this had lasting effects on the fate of the two organizations.
In 1859, Douglass turned over the Agency to his brother-in-law, Robert Graham Dun. Under the new name, R.G. Dun & Company, Dun continued Douglass' relentless expansion. During the next 40 years, Dun led the Agency all over the United States and across international boundaries, carrying Lewis Tappan's vision into the next century.
As America entered the 1930s, the effects of rivalry and economic depression on both R.G. Dun and The Bradstreet Companies could no longer be ignored. In 1933, the arch competitors merged to form Dun & Bradstreet.
The merger was engineered by Dun's CEO Arthur Whiteside. Using his first-rate diplomatic skills, Whitehead was able to broker a deal with the company's long-lasting and foremost competitor. Whereas previously both companies sold "products," Whiteside increasingly emphasized "service." With great leadership, he led Dun & Bradstreet out of the depression and into the Information Age.
The rapid development of computing and communications technology in the post-war era has been central to the growth of Dun & Bradstreet. During the past 50 years of D&B's history, increases in the speed and volume of cross-border communications have influenced our evolution from a provider of credit reports to a leader in the international information industry.
D&B expanded dramatically during the 1960's by engineering ways to apply new technologies to evolving operations. In 1963, the introduction of the Data Universal Numbering System -- The D&B D-U-N-SŪ Number -- used to identify businesses numerically for data-processing purposes -- helped bring business information into the computer age. This unique business identification system proved so useful that today the D&B D-U-N-S Number has become a standard business identifier for the United Nations, the European Commission and the U.S. Government.
D&B has undergone a period of restructuring in recent years, designed to make D&B a smaller, more tightly focused company. D&B launched an ambitious new plan called the Blueprint for Growth -- a strategy designed to transform itself into a growth company with an important presence on the Web.
We're creating a whole new generation of products and services that give customers exciting opportunities to manage business information more efficiently. We are constantly expanding the size and improving the quality of our global database which now covers more than 62 million businesses worldwide. And we're working hard to continuously improve the high-quality service that is our hallmark.
We're a company poised to meet the new century. But we will always have a fundamental legacy
to define us, a legacy that ties us to our past and supports us as we venture
into the next millennium.
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