D&B EYES EXPANSION VIA ONLINE SOLUTIONS, TRADE GROUPS

By: Riza T. Olchondra
Originally published in: Philippine Daily Inquirer
 
MANILA, Philippines — Dun & Bradstreet, the world’s leading provider of global business information, is expanding its offerings in the Philippines to include technological solutions for companies with Internet presence.
 
Nicholas Teoh vice-president for Asia Pacific Partnerships, said the 170-year-old company has been targeting “commercially active” businesses, especially those positioning to compete in the global market.
 
Sheila Lina, executive vice-president and general manager of Dun & Bradstreet Philippines Inc., said the company has been working to “significantly increase” its client base in the country.
 
D&B presently has 200,000 Philippine companies in its database. Of the total, 56 have availed of the D&B D-U-N-S Registered Seal. The seal appears on the web site of a company, which D&B has certified to be legally established and commercially active.
 
Clicking on the seal takes a prospective buyer, supplier or business partner to the company profile stored in the D&B database, where suppliers of the U.S. government, the Australian government, and the United Nations, among others, are also registered.
 
Manila Water, the globally expanding water services provider under the Ayala group of companies, has been one of the early adopters of the D&B D-U-N-S Registered Seal, Lina said.
 
Lina said D&B has been talking to trade organizations and individual companies to offer not just the traditional business information service but also the suite of technological solutions, including the D&B D-U-N-S Registered Seal.
 
Emmanuel C. Atienza, business development director for Asia Pacific, said that even companies still focused on the domestic market would benefit from having the D&B D-U-N-S Registered Seal because large companies have started to look for such certification to save time, money, and effort on background checks on prospective suppliers, customers, and partners.
 
Jennifer Peter, assistant director for business development in Asia Pacific, said D&B has been observing a standard global process that would ensure the companies given the D&B D-U-N-S Registered Seal have been legally established and commercially active.