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2 Bus. Info. Alert 1 (1990)

handle is hein.journals/busiale2 and id is 1 raw text is: -ations, Gataases ana researcr tecnniques. Contents Dun & Brad- street. An Essential Source of Infor- mation on U.S. Companies For Your In formation Database News New Publications 1 4 5 6 Publishers 11 Index 12 Dun & Bradstreet: An Essential Source of Information on U.S. Companies By Melissa B. Mickey Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) data is probably more widely used in the U.S. business community than any other single source of business information. No less an authority than the Wall Street journal recently described D&B as an informa- tion giant and in a front-page headline called its credit reports a vital tool of business. Unfortunately for D&B, these comments appeared in one of two lengthy expos6s attacking D&B's long-established marketing methods for its credit reports and, even more seriously, the accuracy of its data. (See the front- page stories on March 2 and October 5, 1989.) In the past few months the business press has contained stories on lawsuits by customers, executive changes, and a reorganization of the D&B Credit Services Division. As a business information specialist, I certainly wish D&B a swift recovery and a healthy future-because I cannot operate without their data on millions of non-public U.S. companies. D&B may have its problems, but my life before the advent of its automated information resources was a lot tougher than it is today. A dozen years ago we had to order a D&B report by telephoning the regional D&B office responsible for the town where the company in question was located. Dun's Market Identifiers, introduced on DIALOG in 1982, is a research tool that I use several times a day. Under these circumstances, I can forgive D&B for occasional lapses. Since 1841 Dun & Bradstreet has been collecting and disseminating credit information on U.S. companies, a business that it pioneered and continues to dominate. In recent years D&B has diversified into one of the largest and most sophisticated conglomerates in the information industry. Among its best- known subsidiaries are Reuben H. Donnelley (telephone directories), Moody's Investors Service (Moody's corporate directories), and A.C. Nielsen (television audience measurement). As D&B has grown in size, so has it grown in complex- ity, to the point that even its own representatives find it difficult to pin down which services are offered by which division. This article represents a distilla- tion of my current understanding of D&B's information products, based on several years' searching experience and discussions with D&B personnel. In spite of its multitude of products and services, D&B is still best known for the credit reports it provides to over 80,000 subscribers. Its massive in-house (continued on next page)

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