Infogroup and Name Dynamics ink data deal

Infogroup and Name Dynamics will announce a partnership on November 30, Direct Marketing News has learned. The deal calls for UniversalBusinessListing.org, Name Dynamics' business data and reputation monitoring service, to provide expanded business listing data for the Infogroup Express Update product, part of the Infogroup Licensing division. Express Update provides data for most major search platforms and navigation systems.

The data it will provide includes more than 85 data fields with industry-specific information and social network data related to businesses. Information is available for categories such as airports, casinos, shopping centers, hotels, restaurants, bars, amusement parks, golf courses, car dealerships and convenience stores.

UBL aggregates a lot of the SMBs [small- and medium-sized businesses] and chains who want to help control their listings, said Jim DeRouchey, president of Infogroup Licensing. “If SMBs want to make sure their online data is accurate, it can be very hard to manage across search engines and OnStar and Tom Tom [GPS devices] and all those platforms. UBL has some nice tools, including an audit tool, that make it fairly easy for companies to take control of their listings.”

DeRouchey added, “We can't reach all of them ourselves, so we rely on other companies to help us reach out to these businesses across the country. There are probably 4 million or 5 million businesses who need or want to control what their listings look like on the web, as well as mobile devices.”

DeRouchey said the companies have a revenue share agreement and that hundreds of thousands of businesses have submitted their data to Infogroup in the last 12 to 18 months. “That can grow to more than 1 million records in the next 12 months,” he said.

“The industry is calling for standardization of online data,” said Doyal Bryant, CEO of Name Dynamics. He added that with the Google Places announcement, it is more important than ever to have enhanced data content in your listing. He said local search engines, IYP directories, mobile devices, GPS and even social media sites are all looking for enhanced content and value.