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Property of Dun & Bradstreet, Inc © Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., 2015 All rights reserved.

D&B’s Mini Investigation Web Portal

User Guide

July 2015

© Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., 2015. All rights reserved. Page ii

Table of Contents

Welcome! .................................................................................................... 1

Mini Investigation Web Portal Features ....................................................... 1

User IDs and Passwords ............................................................................ 2

Request Summary Screen .......................................................................... 3

Status Summary Screen ............................................................................. 4

Request Details Screen .............................................................................. 5

Search Requests ........................................................................................ 6

New Request Form ..................................................................................... 8 E-Mail Communications………………………………………………………… 9 Frequently Asked Questions: .................................................................... 11

Appendix 1 – Process Flow Diagram ........................................................ 13

© Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., 2015. All rights reserved. Page 1

Welcome! The D&B Mini Investigation Web Portal is an internet tool that allows customers to request, track and return the results of business investigations. Requests submitted through this portal are sent to D&B offices around the world, to verify the existence of the business you have inquired on and provide back a D-U-N-S Number. This document will describe how to use the Web Portal and answer any common questions.

Mini Investigation Web Portal Features Features available through the Mini Investigation Web Portal include:

Submitting a New Request o In addition to name and address information, comments can be included

on the web form to provide additional information to the analyst completing your request.

o Email confirmation is sent to the submitter confirming receipt of the request

Check the Status of Your Request o Multiple search functions allow you to research the status of request

Completed Requests o Email confirmation is sent to the submitter defining the outcome of the

investigation request o Comments sent with the Request and comments returned by the Mini

Investigation analyst can be viewed on the Request Details Screen. o Search results can also be downloaded in a tab delimited file that will open

in Excel.

More details on each feature are included in the appropriate section.


Mini Investigation Web Portal Link to Log In

https://miniinvestigations.dnb.com/

User IDs and Passwords User IDs and passwords can be obtained by sending a User ID e-mail request to http://support.dnb.com/?prod=MINIINVESTIGATIONS . In the subject line, please type User ID request. You will need to supply your name, your company name and email address in the request. You will receive your Userid and initial password within one business day. Upon receipt of your initial password, it is recommended that you change it to a password of your choice. To change your password, click on Welcome [User Name] on the upper right of the screen

If you have forgotten your password, you can reset it on the Log In page by entering your User Name and clicking on the “Forgot Password” link. You will receive an e-mail with further instructions.

https://miniinvestigations.dnb.com/

http://support.dnb.com/?prod=MINIINVESTIGATIONS


Request Summary Screen

The Request Summary Screen is the first screen you will see after logging into D&B’s Mini Investigations Web Portal. It can also be accessed from the REQUEST SUMMARY link at the top of the screen. This screen will show the number of pending requests from a company along with requests completed during the previous 6 months. Counts are provided by the status of each pending or completed request. Clicking on the VIEW hyperlink on the right of the screen will open the STATUS SUMMARY screen which lists the requests with that status.


Status Summary Screen This screen shows all the requests with a given status. This view can be reached from the REQUEST SUMMARY screen.

On the right side of the table is a hyperlink labeled “View”. This will open the Request Details view of the selected record. The Tracking Number associated with each request is used internally by D&B to track your requests. Any inquires regarding a request should include this number. The Account Number is provided by the client at the time a request is made. This number allows a client the means to link a request to a specific record in their internal systems.


Request Details Screen The Request Details screen shows the information provided by the client with the request, the record status and the D-U-N-S Number of the business if confirmed.

Comments provided when the request was made are next to the “Request” label. Comments made by the D&B Mini Investigation Analysts are next to the “Response” label. When there are no comments the lines will not appear.


Search Requests You can search for requests that have been submitted by click on the SEARCH REQUESTS at the top of the screen. Once you run your search a list of all requests matching your criteria will display at the bottom of the screen. You can search for records that have been completed within the previous six months or which are still pending.

When entering the search criteria please remember that all the criteria must be met for a response to be returned. You can search using any of the following criteria:

Tracking Number – The tracking ID is provided in the Mini Investigation Request Confirmation e-mail. “Your request id is: XXXXXX-10005” the digits just after the hyphen, 10005 in this example, would be the Tracking Number.

Email – This is the email address provided on the request that will be notified once the mini investigation is complete.

Name Contains – This searches all requests where the value provided exists somewhere in the name. For example, searching for “LTD” will return all records with LTD in the name.


Account Number – This is the number from the client’s system used to track the business.

Country – This limits the search to requests made to a specific country.

Completed Between – Returns all requests completed between the dates provided.

Entered Between – Returns all the requests made between the dates provided. To view the details of any record returned from your search click on the VIEW hyperlink to the right of the record. This will take you to the Requests Details screen. The CLEAR button will clear your search criteria and the results table. Once a search is completed and the results table is populated the “Export” button will appear. This will allow you to download the entire results table to your computer. The download file is tab delimited with headers on each field. When the file is ready you will be prompted to OPEN or SAVE the file. By default the file will try to open in Excel. If you want to use the file in another product just save it to your computer first then open it in that product. Please note, the download file will contain the results from your last search. If you change your search criteria but don’t click on the “Submit” button the download file will not be updated to reflect the changed criteria.


New Request Form This form is used to submit requests for Mini Investigations based on the business information provided on the form. You get to this form by clicking on CREATE REQUEST at the top of the screen.

The Account Number is the number from your system used to track information on the business. This field is provided to help you match results back to your original requests. To submit a request you must provide at a minimum the Business Name along with the City and Country where the business is located. Additional information about the business, such as its physical or mailing address or telephone number will help improve the accuracy of D&B’s response to your request, but are not required.


When the request is completed, a email will be sent to the address provided in the Notification Email Address field. The comments field at the bottom of the screen can be used to provide additional data or comments to assist the D&B analyst with their investigation. Comments, while helpful, are not required. Comments are limited to 500 characters.


E-mail Communications When you submit a new Mini investigation request, the Mini Investigation Web Portal will send an automated e-mail to the Notification e-mail address provided in the Request Form. This e-mail will indicate D&B has received your investigation request and provide an estimated completion date and a unique request id.

Thank you for submitting your Mini Investigation Request to D&B. Your request should be completed xx/xx/xxxx1.

Your request id is: xxxxx-xx2. Please contact http://support.dnb.com/?prod=MINIINVESTIGATIONS if you have any questions.

When your investigation request has been completed the Mini Investigation Web Portal will send a second automated e-mail response to the Notification e-mail address.

The e-mail response is based on the outcome of the investigation.

When the investigation request is completed and the business information provided has been verified, the e-mail will be similar to the below example.

Your Mini Investigation request submitted on xx/xx/xxxx with ID Number xxxxxx-xx has been completed.

D-U-N-S Number: 12-345-6789

Resolution Description: Match Found via host investigation, no update occurred.

The following information was submitted as part of your request:

Account:

Name: ABC Company, Inc.

City: Houston

Country: UNITED STATES

Thank you for using D&B's Mini Investigation Service.

1 The completion date is assigned based on the date the investigation is submitted

2 The request id is generated at the time you submit the request



When the investigation request is completed and the business information provided could not be verified, the e-mail response will be similar to the below example.

Your Mini Investigation request submitted on xx/xx/xxxx with ID Number xxxxxx-xx has been completed.

We were not able to provide a D-U-N-S Number for this request.

Resolution Description: Unable to Verify

If you have new or additional information regarding the subject of your inquiry, please submit a new Mini Investigation request.

The following information was submitted as part of your request:

Account:

Name: ABC Company, Inc.

City: Atlanta

Country: UNITED STATES

Thank you for using D&B's Mini Investigation Service.


Frequently Asked Questions:

Where is my investigation request? Click on the SHOW REQUESTS button to view a

summary of all pending and completed requests. From there you can drill down to find

a specific request by its current status. You can also click on SEARCH REQUESTS and

look for your specific request by Tracking number, Date entered, Business name or

various other criteria.

How will I know when my investigation has been completed? You will receive an e-mail

response with the results of your investigation. At any time you can check the status of

your request as outlined in bullet 1

How soon will my investigation be completed? The anticipated completion date will be

in the e-mail you receive confirming we have received your request.

Why am I limited to the number of investigations I can request? In order to effectively

manage all new investigation requests you will be limited to the number of investigation

you can submit daily.

What if I don’t have all of the data elements requested on the entry form? To perform

an investigation we need at minimum, the business name, the city (state or providence)

and country. It is important that you submit as much information as possible to enhance

the investigation effort.

Who can I contact if I still need assistance? If you still need help you can send an e-mail to http://support.dnb.com/?prod=MINIINVESTIGATIONS. Please include the company you are with and as much information about the request as possible. The Tracking Number or Request Id are most helpful.



Appendix 1 – Process Flow Diagram

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