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I used to work as a credit and accounts receivable manager, first for Motorola and then for a spin off called Giant International. In both companies, we subscribed to Dun & Bradstreet. They provide many different services, including company profiles (I believe they even purchased Hoovers some time ago). We used their company profile reports as one source of information whenever we might consider doing business with a new partner. We would also use their services in part to make credit decisions in regards to new customers and sometimes with new partners. D&B in addition to collecting profile information, also works like a credit bureau analogous to Equifax or TransUnion. They provide credit scoring and risk assessments for the companies they profile in many cases. We would subscribe on a yearly basis, and for our package would receive 5 business reports per month and 5 credit reports per month. Some of their reports can be very in depth and some are very summary level. They utilize self submitted information, but also use third party information to verify financials, and credit ratings from banks, and vendors and even utilities. Just as a person should work to keep their personal credit in good repair, it is very important for a business to keep their business credit in good repair. I would not advocate spending a great deal of money to do this unless your company intends to buy and sell a large quantity of goods or services on credit to other businesses. I will leave off on the details from here, but let me state that this is just a summary of what they do and how their information can be used. Technorati Tags: d&B, dun and bradstreet, business credit