What is Master Data?

Master data is the most important data you have. It’s the information about your customers, suppliers, partners and prospects. It is fundamental to understanding your business entities and commercial transactions — and gives you a clear view of the building blocks of your relationships. Dun & Bradstreet helps you with master data management by providing the foundational elements (entity management, hierarchies and linkage) aligned to meet your business objectives. With Dun & Bradstreet’s pre-mastered commercial content, you get one clear picture of your business universe with de-duplicated records, additional company data and related businesses linked in corporate families.

Why is master data management important?

Master Data Management is essential in today’s business environment because of the sheer volume of data (customers, vendors, suppliers, employees, etc.) that every company deals with. Without a proper master data management system in place, the risk of bad data, data duplication and data inconsistencies go up. This negatively affects not only business processes, but also any marketing campaigns run by the company. Furthermore, with a master data management solution in place, companies can easily derive meaningful insights from their data in order to make important business decisions. Properly structured and updated data saves time and efforts for every department of an organisation.

Master Data Management Importance

Benefits of Managing Your Master Data

  • Get rid of duplicate data from systems
  • Remove bad data so that the data available can be used to derive meaningful insights
  • A structured form of data entry ensures that data is entered properly into systems
  • Save time and efforts that go waste as a result of bad data
  • Enrich existing data with demographic and firmographic elements for driving better business decisions
  • Ensure data consistency across the business ecosystem
  • Helps various departments access a single source of truth

Benefits of Master Data

Everything You Touch Today
Turns to Data

You are leveraging data in new ways across your enterprise; from finance, marketing and technology to sales. You're looking to use data and technology at scale and to engage with customers, vendors and partners to gain competitive advantage. However, with the overwhelming volume and velocity of data, what should be creating great insights is creating chaos. At Dun & Bradstreet, we help you find the truth across all your data silos.

Providing Value on Your Master Data Management Journey

Dun & Bradstreet helps you create a trusted view of your customers, prospects and vendors across your systems, regions and departments. We offer the breadth and depth of content that makes our firmographic data even more meaningful. Regardless of where you are on your Master Data Management (MDM) and data integration initiatives, we provide the value you need. Just ask the 90% of the Fortune 500 companies who use us.

Over 400 MN

30,000+ sources

By collecting data from these global sources, we turn data into insight.

We Help You Master Your Data

We have the organisational data structure to connect your disparate sources, the deep data and global coverage you expect, and the dependable quality and consistency you require for your master data content. With D&B Master Data, you have the ability to connect and integrate through multiple systems or workflows, enterprise partners across your ecosystem and a growing network of software alliances and syndicated data sources.

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Standardise Your Data Structure

Unlock the potential of your data — with your commercial entities connected to our organisational foundation.

Achieve global consistency. From a universal standard for business identification to discovering the value of interconnected relationships to supporting industry classifications and standard geographies, we have you covered.

dnb-master-data-deepen-your-knowledge-of-business-entities

Deepen Your Knowledge of Business Entities

Getting a clear picture of the entities you do business with is critical for business success.

If you want to grow your most valuable relationships, you require a trusted view of them — one that offers both the global breadth of harmonized data from more than 190 countries and the local depth of D&B’s pre-mastered commercial content.

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Master Data You Can Trust

Collecting, enhancing and enriching data to ensure it is always high quality, dependable and consistent.

We give you the data confidence to make profitable decisions for your business by our relentless focus on data quality and governance and the DUNSRight™ Quality Process of aggregating data from a range of global sources.

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Connect Data Across Your Ecosystem

Maximise your investments — ensure master data consistency across regions, markets and your enterprise.

From our patented Entity Matching process to our delivery options that integrate into all types of systems to working with best-in-class workflow providers, we help you maximise your investments and seamlessly integrate with other data sources.

FAQs

A Master Data Solution helps eliminate data silos, standardize information across systems, and enrich existing records with high-quality data. This leads to more accurate insights for sales and marketing, improved compliance tracking, and better decision-making across departments. By creating a single source of truth, businesses can operate more efficiently and confidently.

Dun & Bradstreet’s Master Data Solution stands out for its robust data quality and reliability. It aggregates information from multiple trusted sources, including statutory bodies, and ensures continuous validation and regular updates. This commitment to data freshness and accuracy helps businesses maintain a single source of truth, reduce duplication, and make confident, data-driven decisions.

Master Data Solutions are especially valuable for teams involved in sales and marketing, supply chain management, strategic planning, compliance, and finance. By providing a unified and accurate view of data, these solutions help cross-functional teams collaborate more effectively, reduce errors, and make informed decisions based on consistent, high-quality information.

"The process involves three key steps:

- Data Health Scan – An initial assessment to evaluate the quality, completeness, and consistency of your existing data.

- D-U-N-S® Mapping & Enrichment – Foundational and firmographic data is enriched using Dun & Bradstreet’s global database. This step also identifies duplicate records and establishes corporate linkages.

- API Integration & Monitoring – Secure API access is provided to the D&B database, enabling real-time data updates, monitoring, and ongoing data quality management."

"Implementing Master Data Solutions delivers measurable business value by improving data accuracy and consistency. Poor-quality or fragmented data can lead to direct and indirect losses. In contrast, standardized and consolidated data enables:

- Identification of emerging customer segments for targeted marketing

- Mitigation of supply chain risks through better visibility and planning

- Compliance with government regulations via reliable and validated data

These benefits directly impact revenue growth, cost efficiency, and regulatory compliance, helping businesses operate smarter and more competitively."

Corporate Linkage refers to the hierarchical structure or "family tree" of a business entity, including its Global Ultimate parent, subsidiaries, and branches. Dun & Bradstreet’s Corporate Linkage mapping helps organizations gain a complete view of corporate relationships, enabling more strategic and informed decisions when identifying prospects, suppliers, partners, or assessing risk across connected entities.

"Without effective Master Data Management, organizations face several challenges:

- Poor data quality leads to increased operational costs and inefficient marketing efforts.

- Inaccurate or incomplete records can result in missed identification of high-risk suppliers or customers.

- Data silos hinder cross-functional analysis, leading to sub-optimal decision-making and reduced agility.

These issues can negatively impact revenue, compliance, and overall business performance."

Dun & Bradstreet provides ESG-related data, including ESG scores and sustainability indicators, that support accurate and transparent ESG reporting. By integrating this data into your systems, you can assess environmental impact, monitor social responsibility metrics, and ensure governance compliance helping meet regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations.

Yes. Dun & Bradstreet’s Master Data Solutions support efficient supplier onboarding and management by providing verified, standardized, and enriched data. This helps organizations assess supplier risk, ensure compliance, and maintain accurate records streamlining procurement processes and improving supply chain visibility.

"Dun & Bradstreet manages a wide range of master data categories essential for business operations, including:

- Firmographics – Company name, size, industry, location, and ownership structure

- Financials – Revenue, credit scores, payment history, and financial health indicators

- Registration IDs – Government-issued identifiers such as PAN, GST, CIN, etc.

- Compliance Data – Information related to regulatory adherence and legal status

- Risk Indicators – Data on business risk, fraud potential, and operational stability

This comprehensive data foundation supports better decision-making across sales, marketing, compliance, procurement, and finance."

Yes. Dun & Bradstreet’s Master Data Solutions support compliance by providing verified, up-to-date information sourced from trusted statutory and global databases. This helps organizations meet regulatory requirements, reduce risk exposure, and maintain accurate records for audits, reporting, and governance initiatives.

Master Data Management (MDM) significantly enhances customer experience by ensuring that customer data is accurate, consistent, and accessible across all touchpoints. With a unified view of customer information, businesses can deliver personalized interactions, reduce response times, and build stronger relationships, ultimately driving satisfaction and loyalty.

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