Industry segmentation - SIC/NAICS/DUNS? | Community
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A
Anonymous
July 24, 2017
Question

Industry segmentation - SIC/NAICS/DUNS?

  • July 24, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 3206 views

Our industry picklist is not granular enough and we would like to add a sub-level to give greater definition.  Our intention was to take the incoming SIC code and have a program assign an industry and sub-industry category based on the code. Before we start doing the work for this program I wanted to check whether it is indeed best to use the SIC code.  I see there are also UK SIC codes based on NACE codes, NAICS which a more up to date version of the SIC codes but only cover Mexico, Canada and US and DUNS numbers which seem to be a D&B proprietary system.

As we are a global company we need to have numbers that cover all regions and want the freedom to move to different data vendors in future.  What do other companies do/use?

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1 reply

SanfordWhiteman
SanfordWhiteman
Level 10
July 24, 2017

As we are a global company we need to have numbers that cover all regions and want the freedom to move to different data vendors in future.

These are conflicting requirements, though.

Global DUNS would be the way to go IMO, but it inevitably represents vendor lock-in.

Anthony_Figgin1
Anthony_Figgin1
Level 2
July 24, 2017

I would agree with DUNS. it does lock you into a single vendor, however it gives you the global reach you want.

A
Anonymous
July 26, 2017

Thanks both for the reply.  We are possibly moving to predictive scoring in the future an though some have DUNS numbers (eg Lattice) I can't find info on whether others do as well.  Is there an accessible structure for DUNS numbers and industry like the SIC codes Industry Directory | Industry Research & Reports | Hoovers - D&B Hoovers  where we could say if SIC code starts with 02 then Industry = Agriculture & Forestry and Sub-Industry = Animal Production?

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