Dun & Bradstreet Launches Its First Electronic Commerce Venture

Dun & Bradstreet Launches Its First Electronic Commerce Venture To Drive Continuing Growth in Electronic Commerce eccelerate.com? to Market Global E-Commerce Solutions High Wycombe, UK - November 2, 1999 - Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB), the global leader in providing business information, today unveiled a new, wholly-owned subsidiary eccelerate.com whose mission is to provide the tools and information to help its customers conduct secure, reliable business-to-business e-commerce transactions. By leveraging D&B?s global database and the D&B D-U-N-S® Number, eccelerate.com will authenticate, validate and enable business credentials, which facilitate smart transactions and smart decisions at the speed of e-business. As evidence of eccelerate.com?s commitment to providing objective e-commerce business credentials, the company announced today a strategic alliance with VeriSign Inc. (Nasdaq:VRSN), the world?s leading provider of Internet trust services. ?eccelerate.com will take advantage of D&B's unique global information database to bring companies together online and drive continued growth in electronic commerce,? said Lynne Harvey, senior analyst, Information Assets, Patricia Seybold Group. ?This is a logical next-step for D&B, because with the explosion of e-commerce, eccelerate.com creates the ability to access D&B?s database of over 57 million businesses worldwide in an electronic environment.? ?Businesses around the globe already use D&B data to help them make the most informed and efficient decisions possible. With more unknown buyers and sellers coming together in business-to-business e-commerce, we saw an opportunity to deliver this same standard of excellence to a new marketplace,? said Frank Sowinski, President D&B Operating Company. ?Today, we are launching eccelerate.com to capitalise on this explosive market by enhancing trust in the identity of trading partners and delivering objective, global business information seamlessly at the very instant of every business-to-business transaction.? eccelerate.com Establishes New Business-to-Business Standard eccelerate.com will establish the D&B business information database and the D-U-N-S Number, already the de facto standard for traditional business identification, as the foundation for incorporating added intelligence and trust into Internet transactions. eccelerate.com is joining forces with leading e-commerce infrastructure players, such as digital security providers, to leverage D&B?s unique expertise in authenticating and investigating businesses, as well as its database of 57 million businesses worldwide to issue secure and enhanced digital identification. Through alliances, eccelerate.com will establish and extend trust levels for both buyer and seller in every business-to-business electronic transaction. Smart Transactions and Smart Decisions powered by eccelerate.com As more business-to-business commerce is conducted on the Web, it is critical that buyers and sellers identify and qualify potential trading partners using secure identity instruments and objective third-party data, at the time of transaction. To enable Smart Transactions, eccelerate.com has engineered an e-commerce solution that embeds the D-U-N-S Number inside various digital identification instruments to serve as a link between identification and performance information contained within the D&B database: eccelerate.com Authentication & Verification Services for Global Businesses Investigate and authenticate legitimate businesses and corporate clients. eccelerate.com Credentials Issue D-U-N-S Number embedded digital certificates and other identity instruments for both corporate clients and e-commerce sites. eccelerate.com Information Broker The eccelerate.com Information Broker is a powerful software plug-in that is integrated with a company's e-commerce application to deliver real-time information about buyers and sellers at the point of transaction. ?With eccelerate.com's Information Broker, buyers and sellers in e-marketplaces will be able to gain interactive access to business information relying on customised rules to manage the integrity of a transaction. This technology solution facilitates the information exchange between buyer and seller at the time of transaction through access to D&B's global database,? said Andre Dahan, President of D&B - North America, and President of eccelerate.com. ?With eccelerate.com?s end-to-end solutions, e-marketplaces can make Smart Decisions at the speed of e-business.? About eccelerate.com eccelerate.com, a company of the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation (NYSE: DNB), delivers business credentials on buyers and sellers, allowing online trading communities the ability to process e-commerce transactions utilising objective information. eccelerate.com is dedicated to providing the tools and information required to help power secure, reliable business-to-business e-commerce transactions by leveraging the D&B global database of 57 million companies and the D&B D-U-N-S Number. For additional information, please visit our web site at http://www.eccelerate.com. About Dun & Bradstreet Dun & Bradstreet, a company of The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, is the world's leading provider of business-to-business credit, marketing and purchasing information and receivables management services. Companies of all sizes in all industries around the world use D&B information in their supply and demand chains. By integrating D&B information into business systems and processes, companies can better manage their customers and suppliers and achieve a direct and seamless link between back-office and front-office operations. The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, which also includes Moody's Investors Service, is headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., and employs approximately 12,500 people in 41 countries with reported 1998 revenue from continuing operations of $1.93 billion. Contact: Liz Houghton or Alyson Coulter Gehan Talwatte Miller/Shandwick Technologies eccelerate.com +44 171 240 8666 +44 1494 422 012 lhoughton@miller.shandwick.com gehan@eccelerate.com