Dun & Bradstreet buys Avention so its data can become real-time triggers

Dun & Bradstreet is making its business data more readily available, with its announcement this week that it is acquiring sales and marketing data provider Avention for $150 million.

Based in Concord, Massachusetts, Avention is best known for its OneSource line of data products that offer info on businesses, contacts and markets for sales people and marketers.

Of course, Dun & Bradstreet is also known for its massive supply of business data, providing what CMO Rishi Dave told me is the “world’s largest commercial database.”

So why would Dun & Bradstreet want to buy Avention?

Because, Dave said, his company wanted to figure out how to best “surface [its] data in realtime so it’s usable.”

This is a “pretty significant shift” in D & B’s sales and marketing efforts beyond sales prospecting and more toward sales acceleration, he said, since the data is now being made available, in real time, for specific actions that meet predefined needs. D & B’s earlier acquisitions have netted it Hoover’s for business data in 2003 and NetProspex for contacts in 2015.

Previously, he added, D & B was focused on point solutions, data about leads, company business info, contacts and such. D & B could present opportunities like a business that has just relocated and might need the office furniture you’re selling, Dave said, but it didn’t offer signals, triggers and alerts that brought the opportunity to your attention.

Avention offers that in an intuitive, “sophisticated” interface, he said, allowing users to customize how and when the most useful data is presented. And the technology platform can be integrated with customer relationship management systems and marketing automation so the alerts and other data can be acted upon. Here’s a sample screen from Avention:

He indicated that details about Avention’s integration into D & B are still being determined, such as whether it retains some form of its brand or whether its current staff relocates. But D & B has decided that most, if not all, of Avention’s current interface will be utilized going forward.

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About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.