Question: should we include Dun and Bradstreet's DUNS numbers?

[siwhitehouse]

Proposal

Dun and Bradstreet

A suggested code for the list (optional)

No code suggested at this time

A short description of the list

A DUNS Number is typically used to identify a company / organization to an foreign entity. The list is maintained by Dun and Bradstreet, a private company that "provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses"

The country or countries that the list covers
Worldwide

The legal form or organizations that the list covers

"The DUNS number is a nine-digit number, assigned to each business location, having a unique, separate, and distinct operation for the purpose of identifying them."

A URL for information on the list, and a URL for looking up identifiers (if available)

Information
International lookup
UK only lookup

Any information on available open data copies of this list

One or more examples of identifier from this list, and how you found them
From D&B's FAQ - How do I search for a company's DUNS number?

If you have access to a Dun & Bradstreet product, you can search for a companies DUNS number within your system.
Please visit the Learning Centre for assistance in using your D&B Product.

Alternatively if you do not have access to a D&B Product and you are looking for a registered UK/I based company, please visit our DUNS lookup tool.
If you are looking for an international DUNS number, you will need to contact the relevant market.

I was able to run a search against "Open Data Services" at https://www.dnb.co.uk/duns-number/lookup/find-my-duns.html and receive an email with the DUNS number.

For the Qatari organisation that provided their DUNS number I had to use the UPIK site lookup as I couldn't find a search on the Middle East D&B site.

[siwhitehouse]

I haven't seen this discussed on here and a Qatari organisation are asking to use their DUNS number.

I have found this discussion on the IATI standard board where the objections to using DUNS are that it is

• proprietary
• closed
• can be used to identify things other than organizations, eg. a building

I'm raising this so that we have a future record of any decision we make, even if that is to reject using DUNS in org-id.

[jpmckinney]

I think it's fine to add it. Being proprietary, closed, and not only scoped to organizations means it will get a low score. Many US data sources use DUNS, and it's useful to be able to use an org-id to classify those numbers.

[duncandewhurst]

I've added this list in #455 because it appears in ISO6523 to which we want to provide a crosswalk/lookup table for OCDS publishers (see open-contracting/standard#987).