Yes, it was over 20 years ago that the Ag industry started using Dunn and Bradstreet (D&B) for unique numbering and verification process of its retail locations. Keep in mind the Internet didn’t exist, there was no Google, and there was no public e-mail. At the time D&B was a great partner to work with to get a unique ID number and to get information standardized and verified about retail locations so we would all be using the same information.

Now fast forward 20 years …. We as an industry are still using D&B in almost the same role we did way back then…. But our needs as an industry and industry group have changed. That’s what has spawned the D&B Transition Task Force (DBTF) to be formed. Over the next few months this task force will evaluate the industry’s ability to move away from using D&B as our source of unique identifiers and some verification services. AGIIS currently calls the number an EBID (which stands for Electronic Business Identifier) and that is the number we will looking at to determine how we can move to a structure and process which can better meet our needs and control costs where possible.

The purpose of the task force is as follows:
Develop a plan and process recommendation for an orderly transition away from the use of Dun & Bradstreet numbers and for a verification process to meet current and future needs.

Currently the Crop Protection and seed subscribers are the heaviest users of this number and verification services. These numbers are deeply integrated into both the AGIIS system and many subscribers IT systems so a lot of thought and planning will need to be completed to allow for an orderly transition to whatever the task force deems appropriate to meet both current and future needs for entity numbering and verification.

We completed the formation meeting at the 2011 CCP meeting in June with lots of good discussion. We have good representation from the Crop Protection council on the task force. The task force will be doing weekly teleconference calls to first develop a strategic recommendation for councils to review and approve, then we will move into the detail work of designing the actual transition timeline and steps. The Crop Protection Council approved the strategic recommenations of the task force in October and the task force is moving forward on developing the detail pans for the migration here during the rest of the 4th quarter. We know the actual transition may take companies a long time to complete so we want to get this future direction set as soon as we can so they can start the journey of making the transition as an industry.

If you are interested in participating in the Input Feedback group or have any questions about this task force, please contact David Surber at dasurber@comcast.net or Wendy Smith at wendy.smith@aggateway.org.