The Power of the

D-U-N-S Number in Data.com

NATIVE DATA SOLUTION FOR SALESFORCE.COM
JUNE 2015
The D-U-N-S Number
Established in 1963, Dun & Bradstreets Data Universal Numbering System, commonly known as the D-
U-N-S Number, is a unique global business identification system that identifies, validates and links to
more than 240 million businesses worldwide.
The D-U-N-S Number is a unique, non-indicative, nine-digit number assigned to every business location
in the Dun & Bradstreet database that has a unique, separate and distinct operation. The D-U-N-S
Number is assigned to all types of business organizations including sole proprietorships, corporations,
partnerships, non-profits and government entities. D-U-N-S Numbers are used by industries and
organizations around the world as a global standard for business identification and tracking.

Not just a number but a system

The D-U-N-S Number is not just a number it is a system for maintaining accurate, comprehensive and
timely information. Solely maintained by Dun & Bradstreet, this system is an integral part of our patented,
proprietary DUNSRight Quality Process a process encompassing five quality driversGlobal Data
Collection, Entity Matching, D-U-N-S Number, Corporate Linkage and Predictive Indicatorsthat work
sequentially to aggregate, standardize and enrich information.

The D-U-N-S Number is recognized globally

Used by the worlds most influential standard setting organizations, the D-U-N-S Number is recognized,
recommended or required by over 200 government, trade and industry organizations around the globe.
In the United States, the Federal Government has relied on the D-U-N-S Number for over 30
years. In 1994, Federal Electronic Commerce Acquisition Team recommended the D-U-N-S
Number be adopted government-wide as a contractor identifier within the Central Contractor
Registration (CCR) system because of its universal use in industry and government, nationally and
internationally, as a unique supplier identifier and because it is the only reliable mechanism for
cross-walking to other numbering systems. Since then, the D-U-N-S Number has been more
widely adopted across the U.S. Government for intra-governmental transactions, grants
management and transparency reporting. Major retailers and supplier portals also rely on the D-
U-N-S Number as a requirement for supplier registration.
Across Europe, Asia and the Middle East, the D-U-N-S Number is also embraced as the
business identification system. In Germany, Unique Partner Identification Key (UPIK)a unique
and uniform online cross-company identification system to set-up and maintain information about
business partnersis standardized on the D-U-N-S Number. In Japan, the D-U-N-S Number is
recognized as the only global identifier for business entities. The governments of Dubai and Abu
Dhabi both require the D-U-N-S Number for business registration.
International organizations such as World Customs Organization (WCO), recognizes the D-
U-N-S Number as the acceptable identifier in its WCO Customs Data Model, and International
Trade Data System (ITDS) has recommended the D-U-N-S Number as an alternative identifier
for all ACE transactions. The D-U-N-S Number is the business entity identifier recognized by the
FDA Data Standards Council. The United Nations also uses the D-U-N-S Number as their
Consignee Party Identifier.

The Power of the D-U-N-S Number in Data.com Page 2|5

Some Facts about the D-U-N-S Number

It is a universal standard. The D-U-N-S Number has existed for over 50 years and is relied on by
businesses and government agencies around the world.
It is global. D-U-N-S Numbers are currently assigned to 240+ million businesses locations in more than
200 countries around the world.
It is unique. D-U-N-S Numbers are assigned to the lowest possible organizational level, i.e. business
locations with unique, separate and distinct operations.
It is persistent. Only Dun & Bradstreet assigns D-U-N-S Numbers which helps ensure accuracy,
completeness, timeliness and cross-border consistency of information. We follow rigorous rules for
assignment and maintenance. Prior to assignment, there must be validation from multiple sources.
It is constant. The D-U-N-S Number stays with a business throughout the duration of its life cycle,
including name and address changes, changes in corporate structure and even bankruptcy. Once assigned
it will not be re-issued or re-assigned.
It is non-indicative. The nine digits in a D-U-N-S Number are not indicative of any aspect of the
company to which it is assigned.
It is intensely maintained. Dun & Bradstreet invests more than $1 million every business day in
maintenance and enhancements of our database of D-U-N-S Numbered entities. More than 30+K
sources are used in the data collection with more than 5+ million updates performed against the database
each day.
It enables. It enables crosswalks to other agency-specific identifiers, and enables a complete single view
of an entity allowing users to understand their risk and/or opportunity.
It organizes. The D-U-N-S Number organizes information for internal ERP, CRM and registration
databases. And because of the D-U-N-S hierarchal nature, it reveals relationships between 18+ million
business locations that are part of 4+ million corporate families worldwide.
It is free. Any company can obtain a D-U-N-S Number on their own business for free in accordance
with Dun & Bradstreet standard turnaround timeframes and policies.

The Power of the D-U-N-S Number in Data.com Page 3|5

Why is this important to customers of Data.com?
Buyers now control the buying cycle. Sales information is readily available to anyone and everyone.
Marketers and salespeople no longer control access to product information. Prospective buyers
research products and solutions online and tap into their social networks for guidance long before they
engage with a sales person.
Buyers build business cases and select a short list of vendor candidates all before their first contact with
a marketer or salesperson. Marketers and salespeople must build the relationship quickly by being
knowledgeable and relevant during that first conversation and respond in a way that increases buying
motivation and retains interest. With key insights about a prospective buyer from Dun & Bradstreet,
marketers and salespeople understand what motivates buyers in each industry, know the challenges
unique to their business and have line of sight to their business footprint.
With the power of the D-U-N-S Number at the core of all account related data, Data.com unleashes
these unique capabilities natively within the Salesforce.com platform, empowering users to find new
customers and to identify sales and marketing opportunities within existing customer accounts.
With the D-U-N-S Number and Dun & Bradstreet firmographic data powering Data.com, Salesforce
users can:

Create a single, integrated view of relationships tied together by the D-U-N-S Number .

Access the worlds largest commercial database, with more than 240 million
company records. Dun & Bradstreet's global coverage is more than twice as large as
its nearest competitor.

Determine if their account record has a relationship with business locations that
are part of corporate family trees, providing a unique picture of company linkage
for powerful sales and marketing opportunities (Cross-sell and Up-Sell).

Create data-enriched profiles of customers and prospects that are tailored to the
specific needs of sales and marketing.

Leverage the DUNSRight patented process to turn volumes of data into the high-
quality information that Salesforce customers need in order to create and build upon
their most valuable relationships.

Avoid the expensive cost of external integration and customization by leveraging the
natively built workflows that access Dun & Bradstreet data within Data.com.

The Power of the D-U-N-S Number in Data.com Page 4|5

Best Practices in leveraging the D-U-N-S Number
Dun & Bradstreet customers rely on the D-U-N-S Number as a Global identifier of business in many
ways across a multitude of applications While the D-U-N-S Number is not recommended to be used
exclusively as the unique identifier for an internal account record, it plays a very big role in helping
companies to identify and organize internal account records as well as external data.

The role of the D-U-N-S Number in corporate linkage

Linkage, in general terms, is the relationship between business sites within a corporate family. Linkage
occurs in the Dun & Bradstreet database when one D-U-N-S Numbered business entity has financial or
legal responsibility for another business, creating a Headquarters/Branch or Parent/Subsidiary
relationship. To recognize corporate family relationships, each family member carries up to four D-U-N-S
Numbers: the Site D-U-N-S Number, HQ/Parent D-U-N-S number, Domestic Ultimate D-U-N-S
Number, and the Global Ultimate D-U-N-S Number. All family members within the same corporate
family tree will have the exact same Global Ultimate D-U-N-S Number in common.
More about corporate linkage to be detailed in the knowledge article entitled Understanding and
Leveraging Corporate Linkage in Data.com.

Best practice example

A manufacturing company wanted a better understanding of the
value of its customers and wanted to know where there may be
opportunities to grow the business. Specifically, it wanted to get a
better understanding of the total amount of sales they received
from their customers; and then they wanted to determine if there
was a potential opportunity for growth in those accounts.
The company enhanced its existing data by appending a D-U-N-S
Number, Global Ultimate D-U-N-S and Annual Company Revenue
from Dun & Bradstreet via Data.com to existing CRM records.
With these enriched data elements, they were able to establish a
link between account records, consolidate them, and create a new
unified view of both annual revenue and spend for each of those
customers.
Then with the detailed upward linkage in place, the manufacturer was able to rank and prioritize their
customers and identify cross-sell opportunities across related accounts, upsell within existing accounts,
and find new opportunities with untapped, but similar businesses. This allowed the manufacturer to
conduct a penetration analysis and apply other propensity to spend models.
Going forward, in order to maintain data quality and reduce duplicates, the company implemented an
ongoing process to search its Salesforce org for accounts with the same D-U-N-S Number before
creating a new account. Through its data governance process, when a new account was needed, a data
steward created the account record and enhanced the account record with all of the pertinent Dun &
Bradstreet data, including the primary site D-U-N-S Number, corporate linkage, and other firmographic
data.
Additionally, the overall process allowed the manufacturer to leverage the D-U-N-S Number and
corporate linkage in becoming the persistent link between Salesforce.com and Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) and Master Data Management (MDM) systems, which enabled a robust interconnectivity
among enterprise systems.

The Power of the D-U-N-S Number in Data.com Page 5|5