Integrating Dun & Bradstreet with InfoSphere MDM
Dun and Bradstreet's D-U-N-S® Number can be used as a party identifier in InfoSphere® MDM.
Dun and Bradstreet's (D&B) aspiration is to be the most trusted source of commercial insight, so its customers can decide with confidence. Every business in the D&B database is uniquely identified by a nine digit number, called the D-U-N-S Number. The D-U-N-S Number is widely used for keeping track of the world's businesses. Many major corporations and governments require their suppliers and contractors to have a D-U-N-S Number.
As delivered, InfoSphere MDM integrates with D&B from a matching perspective in order to store the D-U-N-S Number as party identifier for organizations. Additionally, InfoSphere MDM provides sample code to demonstrate how InfoSphere MDM data can be enriched with business intelligence from the D&B global database.
InfoSphere MDM clients must have a license agreement with D&B in order to take advantage of the D&B integration offered by InfoSphere MDM. If InfoSphere MDM clients do not renew their license agreement with D&B, it is the client's responsibility to remove D&B-licensed information from the InfoSphere MDM database if necessary.
InfoSphere MDM integrates with D&B using FTP, which allows customers to electronically and securely send batches of data to D&B for matching and enrichment.
- Matching, which is integration with InfoSphere MDM in order to store an organization's D-U-N-S Number
- Data Enrichment, which is integration with InfoSphere MDM in order to enrich an organization's party record with information from D&B, such as demographic data, legal hierarchy and other information. This process is implemented as a sample.
To get and use the D-U-N-S Number, a list of InfoSphere MDM organizations and matching data elements is extracted and sent to D&B. D&B follows its patented Entity Matching process to match the organizations from the InfoSphere MDM batch feed with organizations in D&B's global database. A corresponding list of organizations with D-U-N-S Number and match result data is returned to InfoSphere MDM in the Match Result file. InfoSphere MDM uses Batch Framework to facilitate the processing of the inbound batch file and persists the D-U-N-S Number as party identification if the match Confidence Code is high enough. The logic of analyzing match Confidence Codes is externalized as InfoSphere MDM external business rules.
To get D&B's business information for parties, a list of InfoSphere MDM organizations identified by D-U-N-S Numbers is extracted and sent to D&B for enrichment purposes. A corresponding list of organizations, along with D-U-N-S Number identification, name, address, demographic, and hierarchical data is returned. This information can be used by an InfoSphere MDM customer to populate the InfoSphere MDM database with enriched party information.
Both Matching and Data Enrichment integration scenarios use tab-delimited batch files to exchange information between D&B and InfoSphere MDM. InfoSphere MDM provides parsers to parse the delimited batch data and produce transaction request Java™ objects. InfoSphere MDM customers can reach an agreement with D&B to use different batch file formats, for example, fixed width format. If a different file format is chosen, InfoSphere MDM customers can implement new parsers and re-configure InfoSphere MDM batch process to use them instead of the parsers provided with the product. See Customizing matching profiles and parsers for more details .
D&B's batch process can support international languages using the UTF-8 character set. InfoSphere MDM customers requiring support for international languages should make sure D&B is aware of this requirement for their batch process.