Tag: Credit Scores

Global Database

Global Database Build a List supports expanded growth, ownership, and industry variables.

UK-based Sales Intelligence vendor Global Database continues to expand its content and functionality.  Recent platform enhancements include expanded prospecting variables, industry coding, and list enrichment.

New screening variables include

  • Annual Growth: Turnover, Headcount, EBITDA, Net Profit, Liabilities, and Exports
  • Ownership: Parents, Number of subsidiaries, Foreign parent, Number of shareholders
  • Industry: European and North American industry codes, Industry Keywords

International SIC and NACE codes are available across the full company universe.  Global Database also implemented an NLP tool that crawls company websites and identifies keywords and business descriptions.  This descriptive content is then mapped to over 100,000 industry keywords.

“The SIC code is outdated when it comes to new industry verticals, such as Big Data or E-commerce, and if you are looking for such companies by SIC Code, they will be classified as: 63990 – Other information service activities n.e.c., explained CEO Nicolae Buldumac to GZ Consulting.

Global Database now supports company and contact list enrichment for Salesforce and MS Dynamics.  Users upload a list that is matched against its reference database and enriched with over 80 variables and match score confidence.  Matching employs registration numbers, corporate names, domains, phone, postal codes, etc. 

Global Database also provides an interactive report with match rates and segmentation.  Enrichment analytics include match rates, list averages, company status distribution, turnover distribution, top five companies, and pie charts for employment, years in business, and industry.  A location map is also displayed.

Other data tools include CRM maintenance, APIs, and web forms with auto-population.

The Global Database universe now spans 130 million companies and 118 million contacts:

Global Database Counts as of October 2021.

Most of its data is from trade registries, publicly available sources, an in-house data research team, and a few data vendor partnerships.  Direct emails are available for 17 million contacts and mobile numbers for 1.6 million.  If a contact does not have an email or phone number, Global Database integrates with two data vendors, where this information is requested via API in real-time.

Global Database continues to expand its universe of credit reports, with instant Business Credit Reports now available for 350 million companies.  If a country does not support instant reports, customers may request a new investigation from on-the-ground resources.  These reports are delivered within five to seven business days.

Credit reports are priced between £19 and £80, with the UK and Irish reports at the low end.  Most continental European credit reports are priced between £35 and £40.  North American reports are also priced at £40.

Global Database Employee tab.

Vertical IQ – RMA eMentor

Vertical IQ industry intelligence is now available via the Risk Management Association’s (RMA) eMentor program, a “self-service, subscription-based knowledge hub” for credit professionals.  The combined tool marries RMA’s Annual Statement studies with Vertical IQ’s plain English industry overviews, helping credit team members prepare for calls, assess credit risk, and improve their credit knowledge.  Other tools include Best Practices, eCases, interactive worksheets, and trackable exams.

RMA has long collected US private company industry norms to assist with credit and lending decisioning.  RMA multi-year financial ratios are available by NAICS code and stratified by assets and revenue.  

Vertical IQ industry overviews help bankers prepare for meetings, understand industry trends and issues, and assess potential loan risks.  Vertical IQ provides 250 reports covering over 1,000 industries.  Vertical IQ research is directly viewable within eMentor and downloadable as PDFs.

“With the addition of Vertical IQ’s industry knowledge to eMentor, RMA makes a great platform even more indispensable for the bankers who rely on eMentor to better understand the risks and opportunities financial institutions and their borrowers face,” said RMA CEO Nancy Foster.  “eMentor powered by Vertical IQ arms bankers with the market intelligence that is crucial throughout the life of the loan—from initial meetings with borrowers, to putting together a financing package that is right for them, to monitoring loan performance.”

Global Database Credit Reports

UK-based Sales and Risk Intelligence vendor Global Database is launching company credit checks for nineteen countries.  Credit data is gathered via APIs from leading regional European providers of company and credit data.

The new reports include credit scores and limits; payments and inquiries; mortgages, charges, and county court judgments; directors and shareholders; group structures; trading addresses; five-year financials; key performance indicators and ratios; credit score and limit histories; company identifiers (e.g. registration numbers, tax ids, tradestyles), year incorporated; auditor; and document filings.

US data includes UCC (liens), bankruptcies, and payment histories.

Coverage currently spans

  • Americas: The United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil
  • Europe: The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Benelux, Ireland, and the Nordics
  • Asia: Japan, Thailand, Vietnam

Credit reports are available for all registered companies in the supported countries.  What’s more, coverage will grow rapidly with plans to support 120 countries by the end of the year with “instantly available credit reports.”

“By the end of Q1, we will have a credit report for every single country, including offline reports in areas where company information is much more difficult to get. Essentially, a client will make a fresh investigation request, and our partners will collect this information from on the ground sources.”

Global Database Managing Director Nicolae Buldumac

“We now offer a unified solution to our customers where they can identify their customers, get contact information for key executives, and run due diligence checks on new suppliers,” wrote Buldumac.  

Buldumac emphasized that the Global Database platform supports multiple global departments. “All this information is available in one single license, and this will save cost for many companies, as very often you need to pay a license for sales and marketing solution and another license for compliance.  Also, not many companies offer such information globally, and this is where we have a USP.”

During Q3, Global Database onboarded Amazon, Vodafone, WeWork, Dyson, and the Italian Trade Agency.  Global Database’s business has increased during the pandemic as firms look for more clients, require tools for assessing business risk, and source digital sales and marketing solutions in the absence of event marketing.

The credit risk solution will be offered both as a bundle with the existing sales and marketing platform and as a standalone product.  Pricing will depend on volume and countries, with discounts available for bundled subscriptions.

Global Database has sales and support offices in the UK and Moldova.

D&B Hoovers Gooses Its Content for Current Users

Spend Capacity is one of three new risk metrics available through D&B Hoovers.

D&B Hoover’s customers are enjoying additional risk scores and industry content through the end of May.  This benefit is perfect timing for adding value to their offering on a short-term basis as it allows customers to test out additional content and functionality for two months at no charge. Sales reps are under great pressure to build and maintain their pipeline through improved targeting and messaging.

Likewise, Relationship Managers at banks are under immense pressure to process CARES PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) across a broad set of pandemic-impacted industries.

Supplementary material includes

  • First Research industry overviews
  • DecisionHQ flags (does the location have purchasing authority?)
  • Spend Capacity (A spend ranking score versus other companies)
  • Growth Trajectory (Will the company grow, shrink, or remain stable over the next 12 to 18 months?)

In Family Trees, a star icon flags locations with purchasing authority.  All three predictive scores are available as search filters in Build a List.

First Research reports [sample] are a set of plain-English industry overviews which help sales reps, Customer Success Managers, and relationship managers who sell and service across a broad set of industries quickly understand industry basics and trends. Core content includes

  • Industry Description: Competitive Landscape; Products, Operations, & Technology; Sales & Marketing; Finance & Regulation; Regional & International Issues; and Human Resources.
  • Top Companies
  • Financials: Industry statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the US International Trade Commission. Also includes valuation multiples.
  • Industry Forecast: Inforum Forecast
  • Industry Growth Rating
  • Trends & Opportunities
  • Executive Insight: Key Topics by C-level job Function
  • Business Challenges
  • Call Prep Questions: Conversation Starters; Operations, Products, & Facilities; Customers, Marketing, Pricing, & Competition; Regulations, R&D, Imports, & Exports; Organization & Management; Financial Analysis; and Business & Technology Strategies.
  • Industry Indicators
  • Industry Websites
  • Fast Facts

The Call Prep Questions and Executive Insights offer great value to non-experts. If you are a relationship manager or territory rep, you are likely speaking to individuals across many industries on a daily basis. It would be impossible to develop true expertise in all of those industries. These sections help professionals ask intelligent questions and tailor their conversations at the account and persona level.

First Research reports are available as an integrated service in D&B Hoovers, via the D&B Direct API, as a standalone service, and as individual reports.

First Research reports are written at the eight-digit Dun & Bradstreet SIC-code level and associated with company profiles by these codes. They are also available through the Research and Reports module.

Dun & Bradstreet is also offering risk solutions for business and government during the Covid pandemic:

Dun & Bradstreet: Business Insights for Business & Government in the Age of COVID-19

Dun & Bradstreet launched a free COVID-19 Business Impact Research Platform for government agencies.  The service provides data, analytics, and insights to government decision-makers to assist with

  • Risk mitigation and risk initiatives
  • Prioritizing emergency management and economic support programs
  • Determining workforce disruptions and supply chain risks.

British and Canadian versions of the service are in development.

Dun & Bradstreet is also providing services to FEMA, the US Small Business Administration, and the National Economic Council at the White House to assist with CARES Act funding and administration.

Small businesses may review and update business information at no charge before applying for CARES Act funding.  They can then monitor their Dun & Bradstreet scores and ratings.

“We recognize that communities are managing through unprecedented circumstances.  Our team of data scientists are lending their skills and analytics capabilities to help organizations across public and private sectors as they face the economic downturn resulting from this global pandemic. We are all in this together and consider it our duty as a trusted advisor to find ways to use our insights and mission-critical data and analytics to help businesses manage risk and turn uncertainty of the moment into confidence in the future.”

Dun & Bradstreet President Stephen C. Daffron

Dun & Bradstreet is also offering free health scan tools for supply chains, portfolios, and pipeline risk.

CreditSafe US Credit Reports

CreditSafe USA added payment and trade line intelligence to its US credit reports.  Expanded intelligence includes trade line information from business leases, commercial credit cards and term loans that will enable businesses to make better, more informed decisions.  Other information includes total credit utilization, past due amounts, at risk balances, and closed accounts.

“While business credit reports and scores are traditionally put together using a variety of public and private information covering business demographics and company-to-company trade payment data, the addition of payment data showing not just how a business pays its bills, but how it pays its term loans, commercial cards and other debts takes our reports to another level,” said Matthew Debbage, CEO of Creditsafe’s Americas and Asia-Pacific division. “Creditsafe has built its reputation and success on doing things differently. We are committed to changing the way business information is used and by adding in this payment data to our U.S. offering we are continuing to do just that and to provide American businesses with a compelling option. Our Analysis shows that a typical user will now have the added benefit of seeing financial payment data on over 40% of previously ‘thin credit file’ companies. We believe this increase in data availability is a complete game-changer.”

CreditSafe USA Closed Account Details
CreditSafe USA Closed Account Details

The new financial details span $220 billion in commercial transactions from 400 financial institutions.

A 2016 Manta survey of small businesses identified a “major knowledge gap” concerning business credit scores.  The survey of 3,000 businesses found that almost three in four did not now their own credit score and sixty percent did not know where to obtain such intelligence.

CreditSafe Expands South American Coverage

With the exception of a few countries (e.g. Argentina, Chile, Iran, Philippines, and South Africa), CreditSafe now offers coverage of all the major commercial markets.
With the exception of a few countries (e.g. Argentina, Chile, Iran, Philippines, and South Africa), CreditSafe now offers coverage of all the major commercial markets.

Company and Credit profiler CreditSafe continues to expand its global coverage with the addition of coverage for Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. The additional 230,000 profiles are available across all CreditSafe offerings. The three countries represent more than $38 billion in US exports. CreditSafe already provided coverage for Brazil, but still lacks deep coverage for Argentina, Chile, and Peru. Globally, CreditSafe provides deep coverage for AsiaPac, North America, and Europe, spanning 240 million entities.

“While these countries are too often popularly portrayed as difficult, worrying or even downright scary, they all represent great export markets for American companies” said Matthew Debbage. President of Creditsafe’s American and Asia-Pacific operations. “For far too long businesses have been denied access to key information on possible business partners in this region leaving them unprepared when it comes to assessing both risk and opportunity.”

CreditSafe supports over 200,000 global subscription customers including 10,000 in the United States. The firm maintains 14 global offices.

DueDil Posted Strong 2016 Turnover Growth; Positions Itself for European Expansion

DueDil's new credit risk filter allows users to filter prospects by the degree of trade credit risk.
DueDil’s new credit risk filter allows users to filter prospects by the degree of trade credit risk.

European private company information platform DueDil recently filed its 2016 financials with Companies House. Revenue increased from £1.21M to £2.25M. The startup continues to run in deficit (£6.17M), but that should be anticipated for an information services startup that is rapidly expanding its content and functionality. DueDil averaged 75 employees last year, up from 46 in 2015.

DueDil’s losses expanded last year as it pursued the European company intelligence market which it believes is becoming more hospitable.

“In the last 12 months, our competitive landscape has changed dramatically, Bureau Van Dijk got sold for $3.3 billion to Moody’s, and Dun & Bradstreet divested its Benelux division. This, along with our much better unit economics, gave our board and management team a clear signal to grow the product and the team and start to compete directly with them. The higher costs are the result of growing our product coverage from the UK and Ireland to pan-European, soon to cover 100 million+ companies.”

  • CEO Damian Kimmelman

Because subscription services are ratable, growth in revenue lags billings. Although enterprise sales grew 100% last year, much of this growth won’t show up in the top line until 2017. DueDil had its best quarter in Q1 and then grew 60% in Q2.

“Over the last 6 months, we have grown sales 5% week over week and are continuing to do so,” said Kimmelman.

To fund growth until its next equity round, the firm recently issued a £900,000 convertible note and plans to issue a £1.1 million convertible note. “I think you can assume that we wouldn’t be so bullish on a convertible if there hadn’t been an immediate liquidity event in sight,” Kimmelman told Business Insider. “I am not trying to be coy but that is all I can say.”

In product news, DueDil added Credit Risk and Ownership filters to its list building module. Sales and Marketing can employ the credit risk filter to remove prospects that are unlikely to pass credit checks or to target higher risk companies. The filter can also be used by credit risk and procurement teams during the onboarding process allowing them to streamline the processing of low-risk companies.

Ownership search filters assist with targeting firms with concentrated shareholdings which are “ripe for takeover.”  New Ownership screens include Total Shareholding Count, Individuals Count, Companies Count, and Shareholder Name.

Along with credit scores and ownership filters, DueDil supports a broad set of financial screening filters spanning 40 million companies in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Benelux, Norway, and Sweden with additional European countries in queue.

DueDil added four new shareholder filters for identifying firms "ripe for takeover."
DueDil added four new shareholder filters for identifying firms “ripe for takeover.”

Creditsafe Expanded Country Coverage

CreditSafe Global Coverage Map
Creditsafe Global Coverage Map

Commercial credit and business profile vendor Creditsafe expanded its coverage footprint to over 100 countries with the addition of sixteen Middle Eastern and North African countries.  Creditsafe is now able to provide real-time reports for 240 million companies.  Key new countries include Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon.  In 2016, the firm added Southeast Asian coverage along with 40 million Chinese company profiles.

“This mark’s the single largest and most significant database expansion we have done to date.  And, it completes our global offering.  No one in the marketplace offers such a comprehensive solution supported by an incredible portfolio of analytics,” said Matthew Debbage, CEO of Creditsafe USA and Asia.  “Not only have we added critical financial data on thousands of public and private companies to our platform, but we are providing insight on many located in Middle East and Africa which have proven to be complex economies in the past. We can now provide International Database Reports on millions of companies instantly online. No one else in the market offers the level of data that we do.”

Based on its coverage map, the most significant gaps are in Latin America (e.g. Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica) and Africa (e.g. South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia).

Creditsafe processes over one million daily updates collected from over 200 sources.  Furthermore, the firm claims that 99.9% of report requests are delivered in real-time.

Last year, Creditsafe launched US and UK sales intelligence services under the Sales Joe brand.  The product provides prospecting, look-a-like customers, light SFA tools (e.g. notes, dialer support, meeting scheduling), task tracking, and deal opportunity forecasting.

Sales Joe Deal Opportunities assist with pipeline tracking.
Sales Joe Deal Opportunities assist with pipeline tracking.

“The big development during the year was launching our new lead management tool, Sales Joe, which enables businesses to build effective sales campaigns using company information gathered from Creditsafe’s extensive database,” said Chris Robertson, global sales director at Creditsafe Group.  “Our positive results have been fueled by strong customer retention, an increase in new business, and a further expansion and strengthening in our international offering to UK customers.”

Creditsafe revenue has grown 28% over the past twelve months.  The firm maintains 18 offices and supports 200,000 users each day.  Globally, Creditsafe employs 1,500 headcount.

Creditsafe USA posted $12.8 million in 2016 revenue with a three-year CAGR of 75%.  Creditsafe opened US operations in 2012 and services 14,000 US customers out of its Lehigh, PA office.  “Over the past several years, we have focused incredibly hard on building our business and brand in the US,” said Debbage.

Creditsafe UK also posted strong growth with 2016 revenues up 12% to £35.5 million and pre-tax profits of £8.1 million.

“More growth is expected in 2017, our 20th anniversary year,” added Robertson.  “The growing sales force and the new products and technology being introduced this year will ensure our momentum continues and we further set ourselves apart from our competitors.”

Infofree: SMB Prospecting, Credit Scores, SFA, and Mobile App

Infofree mobile creditIn the past two weeks, SMB Sales Intelligence vendor Infofree has added 16 million US emails and light credit report information to its service.  Infofree provides low cost access to business and consumer databases for the SMB market (they also serve some enterprise clients, but their sweet spot is SMB).

The service has a number of similarities to Infogroup’s Salesgenie service, so prospects would be well advised to evaluate both offerings before signing up for a contract.

Key features include business and consumer prospecting; light sales force automation (SFA) features such reminders, tagging, and note taking; business trade credit profiles; events databases (e.g. New Businesses, New Movers); and a mobile app.

Infofree is not a candidate for strategic sales teams.  Profiles and screening are thinner than found in enterprise sales intelligence vendors.  You also won’t find sales triggers, public company financials, company news, or industry research.  Instead, the product should be viewed as an SMB service designed for industries that sell to both businesses and consumers (e.g. office supplies, insurance agencies, communications services, food services).

Infofree also includes a light SFA service called CRM101 which serves as a contact and list manager.  Users can store notes, set up reminders, and assign tags within CRM101.  Furthermore, CRM101 is available through their mobile app, allowing for quick note taking after field sales calls.

Other Android and iOS mobile features include mobile prospect lists, map viewing of prospect lists, click-to-call, click-to-email, driving directions, and company and credit profiles.

Infofree.com is priced at $79.95 monthly or $799 annually. The annual subscription includes up to 10,000 downloaded records per year with additional records available for five cents each.  Volume discounts apply for multiple seats.

Infofree is one of the eleven vendors I profiled in my just published 2015 Field Guide to Sales Intelligence Vendors.  In the coming weeks, I will provide mini-profiles of each of these vendors in my blog.  I have already published a few: