"The hero is the champion of things becoming, not of things become."

The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation delivers information, software, and services that help customers make better, faster, more profitable decisions. Customers look to D&B to improve their performance in a wide range of business activities, including marketing, advertising, promotion, sales management, risk management, information systems management, and health-care information management.

Over the next several months, D&B plans to offer selected information and services via the Internet. In addition to expanded W3 (World Wide Web) services we will explore providing analysts reports and business credit information, information brokering services and a business transaction infrastructure. We will work with the other members of MecklerWeb to prototype the business models of the future. The only constant is change. Agents of change inspire their contemporaries to break through barriers of conventional thinking and practice. We look forward to working with the members of MecklerWeb, champions of "things becoming".

If you are interested in using Dun & Bradstreet services via the Internet, write tdubois@corp.dnb.com. Mention the industry and type of information & services that interests you. We'll put you on our mailing list.

And watch this space.

Who are we?

• Reuben H. Donnelley, is the largest independent (non-utility) provider of directory information as it compiles, publishes or serves as sales and marketing representative for more than 400 yellow pages directories in 17 states and the District of Columbia. yellow pages advertising directories.

• Dataquest, provides global market research, analysis and consulting services for information technology, hardware, software, communications and service companies, and for the heavy-machinery industry.

• Gartner Group, New Science Associates, is a leading provider of research, analysis and advisory services to users and suppliers of information technology systems and software.

• Dun & Bradstreet Information Services, is leading the revolution as customer demand for immediate access to global business information explodes. The need for business-to-business risk management, credit and marketing information, and receivables-management services have leapfrogged beyond the traditional isolated report. Increasingly, today's business leaders are relying on D&B portfolio-analysis and decision-support services that let them integrate their own information with DBIS' data.

• Moody's Investors Service, is riding the tide that is taking place in global finance as new debt instruments are created and national barriers to trading disappear. Moody's associates are meeting the increasingly sophisticated needs of the business and investment community worldwide by issuing ratings on corporate and government obligations and issuers of commercial paper in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia/Pacific. Moody's also publishes business and financial information in a variety of electronic and print formats on every sector of American business, international corporations, municipalities and government agencies.

• IMS International, is working closely with virtually every major organization in the health-care industry to help them succeed in a politically and socially dynamic environment. Health-care providers look to IMS to monitor and evaluate marketing and sales management performance, forecast industry developments, reduce operating costs, help make strategic business decisions and respond to the demand for health-care cost management. Its core products measure the consumption of prescription pharmaceuticals and evaluate prescribing patterns of physicians.

• A.C. Nielsen, is taking bold steps to anticipate and meet customer needs for retail, promotion, media, household and consumer information and decision-support systems. Nielsen Media Research is the unquestioned leader in delivering television-audience research information and services for national and local broadcasters, cable networks and systems, syndicators, advertisers and advertising agencies.

• Dun & Bradstreet Software, is delivering the tools that are shaping the way business customers handle workflow and information distribution as they make the transition from mainframe to client/server-based computer architectures. D&B Software's SmartStream financial, human-resources, distribution and manufacturing applications and decision-support services support their drive to success by delivering seamless access to information.

• Dun & Bradstreet HealthCare Information, was formed in 1993 to address new market opportunities in health-care information and decision-support services. Its Health Research Network unit gathers clinically valuable data on HIV/AIDS-related illnesses, while its Lexecon Health Service is the largest-non-government supplier of patient-outcome studies to United States health-care providers.

• Dun & Bradstreet Plan Services, meets the needs of a critical segment of the group insurance market by providing group health-insurance marketing, administrative and claims-processing services to insurance companies, agents and small and medium-sized businesses. Its Dun & Bradstreet Pension Services unit supplies pension and profit-sharing services.

• Erisco, provides software and services for health-care administration that help insurance companies, corporations and third-party administrators, HMOs, PPOs and municipalities manage their benefit programs.

• Interactive Data, is a leading provider of securities-related information services to the investment community in North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. Customers rely on its pricing and securities information for mutual funds, trust-accounting, brokerage-accounting and other securities-accounting operations. Interactive also provides online securities and financial databases and investment-research and portfolio-management software.

• NCH Promotional Services, serves manufacturers and retailers in the consumer marketplace through its coupon redemption, promotion, processing and management services.

• Sales Technologies, is the largest supplier in the United States of sales automation solutions.