International identifier

An international identifier is a number of different size which comes above or beside the national identification number and helps to identify a company over several countries in the world.

The main tools used as international identifiers are : EasyNumber, DUNS number, International Suppliers Network, European Business Register, international Business Identifier Code (BIC/ISO 9362, a normalized code for trade, especially popular in banking area as the international Bank_code - also known as Bank Identifier Code, Bank International Code and SWIFT code),...

Practical applications

The use of international identifiers is relevant in a wide range of business functions:

• Financial Department:

Consistent basis for risk assessment.

Handling of corporate transparency issues.

• IT Department:

Data access improvement: cross-base access, cross-base requests.

Update of the different databases: cleaning of duplicates, address maintenance.

• Sales Department:

Manage multi-channel sales activities.

Address updating.

Prospect targeting.

• Marketing Department:

Access to up-to-date profile information.

Removal of inactive companies.

Basis for a portfolio analysis

External links

http://www.ebr.org/

www.dnb.com/

http://isn.icharter.org/

http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/docs/2009/interconnection_of_business_registers/working_document_en.pdf