By Felicity Ussher, 1 July 1998 08:24
NEWS Yellow Pages and Equifax have announced a direct marketing alliance that offers business information to small firms. Yellow Pages will combine its directory of business locations with Equifax's database of directors and financial performance. John Mitchell, group director of Equifax, said: "Customers such as banks, utilities and retailers, can overlay their own client database with Yellow Pages and Equifax data. They can then use data mining software to identify other potential customers - and already have their contact details at hand." Each company is licensed to sell the data in new products, provided its partner has agreed. Pricing for the joint Equifax/Yellow Pages database, which will probably take the form of a CD ROM, will be set after product trials next month. Equifax said it is not planning to tell its customers that their information, stored at Companies House, is being distributed as business-to-business information is already in the public domain. According to the two companies, the direct marketing alliance is likely to gather additional members over the next few months. Dr Eddie Cheng, director of new media services at Yellow Pages, said: "We are already in discussion with other partners, including a digital mapping service. "None of the partners in the alliance will overlap," he continued. "Equifax has different customers to us - it pipes data to the mainframes of big corporations, whereas Yellow Pages sells to smaller companies. Our Web presence will be a focus for these alliances."
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