Data-as-a-Service: stream real-time business data

It’s estimated that 91% percent of CRM data is incomplete, while 70% gets contaminated each year. That’s unsurprising, since today’s business world is changing and evolving at an unprecedented pace.

Because of the dizzying speed of developments, your data needs to be complete, accurate, and available on demand 24/7. After all, decisions taken on the basis of poor data can have sudden and devastating consequences for your business.

Data-as-a-Service

It’s the solution for optimizing your data on your customers, suppliers and prospects: Data-as-a-Service, offered by Dun & Bradstreet in conjunction with Altares, its partner in the Benelux region. Link your ERP or CRM system to the world’s largest commercial database, operated by D&B, and you can stream verified, complete and up-to-date business data and insights on your business relations straight into your applications. Described more accurately, it’s Business-Data-as-a-Service, and it will cleanse errors in data, supplement omissions, enrich company profiles and ensure that information gets to exactly where it needs to be.

How does DaaS work?

The plug-in connects your ERP or CRM system to the D&B database. There’s a plug-in available for almost every system, so you can get started with DaaS right away.

All the records in your company databases are then assigned their D-U-N-S number, a unique 9-digit identifier for every individual business entity. This lets you link up records within your system and match them with the D&B database, to be used as a universal reference for company records. The result is uniform data on your business relations in all your applications.

Thanks to the real-time link between your databases and the D&B database, errors in your company records will now be corrected automatically. As well as being cleansed, your data will also be enriched. Incomplete profiles will be supplemented and extra data elements can be added, for example industry codes and corporate structures.

5 practical applications of Data-as-a-Service

“Completely transformative” is how Dun & Bradstreet’s “data whisperer” Scott Taylor described the idea that companies can stream data into multiple workflows at the same time, benefiting from consistent real-time data whenever and wherever they want. “This makes it possible to create whole new forms of added value all across the business”, says the master data guru.

What new forms of added value does he mean? Taylor says that the 5 main applications of real-time data to keep databases complete, accurate and up-to-date 24/7 are:

1. Less manual data entry

Thanks to the real-time link with the D&B database, all the other company data will be added to your ERP or CRM automatically when you enter a company name. This not only slashes the time that employees spend on typing, but also dramatically reduces the risk of data errors.

Your online registration and contact forms can be linked to your internal systems, which in turn can be linked to the D&B database. So when your customer or supplier starts entering their details, the information will be supplemented automatically. This ensures that you automatically have the right information and that it’s entered into your own systems right away. At the same time, you can also have these external parties’ business data enriched with extra insights.

In other words, you can always be confident that you have high-quality data, that is spread around your organization quickly, while requiring less manual data entry.

2. Automated data cleansing

Incorrect or incomplete data often leads to poor decisions and is lethal to a company’s efficiency. By streaming real-time data from the D&B database, you can ensure that existing and newly entered data is automatically corrected and supplemented.

3. Enrichment of your data on business relations

Once your basic data is in order, you can transform your database into an invaluable information source through data enrichment. This means adding extra data elements, such as industry and geographic codes, corporate structures, and name and address data. By doing so you can build up a more complete profile of your business relations.

4. Extra insights at the touch of a button

Our Data-as-a-Service plug-in lets you integrate your data and insights, speed up time-consuming operational processes and add extra functionalities to your business systems. For instance, with a single mouse click you can call up valuable insights from the D&B database, such as a company’s full credit risk profile. And with the compliance module, you can screen an individual or company at the touch of a button to find out whether they appear on sanctions lists or lists of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) anywhere in the world.

5. Automated decision making

Your company policy will be translated into a decision tree. Together with enriched data and predictive indicators provided by Dun & Bradstreet, this can be used to automate decisions, for instance on granting credit. This means that decisions, for instance on whether or not to accept new customers or suppliers or deliver to existing customers on account, can be taken automatically.

As a result, processing time can be cut by 90 percent, colleagues outside the finance department can also take some credit decisions, customers and prospects will get clarity sooner, and the decision making process will be fact-based, not clouded by emotions.

In command of your business data

By cleansing and enriching the data you hold on business relations, you can discover new growth opportunities, avoid risks, and save both time and money. You’ll be able to explore new markets, remain compliant, gain a 360° view of your customers, make your prospecting smarter and open up new opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. We explain how in our article “Use external business data to achieve growth and cut costs”.

There’s no doubt about it: Data-as-a-Service puts you in command of your business data, which means your operational processes and results too.