In the world of Corporate Linkage I often hear, “linkage is never finished”.  What do I mean by this statement?  Change is constant in today’s business environment.  Some businesses are starting up while others are closing their doors.  Businesses are acquired and businesses merge.  That is why at Experian we constantly monitor for changes in Corporate Hierarchies that may impact your business. 

Do you do business with Microsoft or Skype?  If you do, you may be interested to know Microsoft announced on October 13^th their acquisition of Skype was complete.  At Experian we started monitoring for this event back in May when Microsoft announced their intention to acquire Skype.  We didn’t make changes to our database upon an announcement.  We waited until the regulators and shareholders approved the acquisition and for the legal ownership change to occur.  This change in ownership is our trigger to update the database and make this information available to you – real time!

The ability to actively monitor for business changes and make real-time database updates is just one of the unique advantages of Experian’s Corporate Linkage offering.  How do we do this?  Well there’s definitely a bit of magic that comes from our technology, but there’s a human touch as well.  Sitting just a few desks over from where I sit is our team of talented Linkage Analysts; the human touch to Experian’s linkage offering. If you have not checked out Experian’s Corporate Linkage recently, you can learn more here.

Which comes first – BizSource or TrueSearch?  It’s a bit like the chicken and the egg – without one you can’t have the other.  BizSource is the repository where all the information coming into Experian’s commercial database is housed.  This repository holds the information that’s essential for creating the credit story – trade payment, public record, collection experiences and firmographic information.  The true magic happens when TrueSearch, our search match engine, sifts through millions of records and assigns a unique identification number to each unique business found.

Each time a new identification number is assigned, we look to identify if the business is linked to other businesses within our database.  What do I mean be linked?  In this case I’m referring to businesses legally connected.  This connection is often referred to as Corporate Linkage.  The linkage may be simple – as in the case of a small business with three operating locations.  The linkage may be complex – as in the case of Experian which is made up of multiple linkage entities.  Rather simple or complex visibility into corporate family is essential. 

BizSource and TrueSearch are the foundation for all products and services we offer.  So let’s just say that like the chicken and the egg, both BizSource and TrueSearch are critical to delivering superior business credit data, which always comes first in my opinion.