Understand crosswalk behavior and matching logic
Learn how Reltio generates and uses D&B crosswalks to support enrichment, matching, and duplicate handling.
Crosswalk formats
When migrating from the legacy D&B Direct+ connector to the new D&B Data Blocks connector, you can choose how enrichment crosswalks are generated:
- Merge records by DUNS = Yes: Crosswalks are created using the
DUNSnumber. Records with the same DUNS are merged, following legacy behavior. - Merge records by DUNS = No: Crosswalks are created in
URI:DUNSformat. Duplicate records with the same DUNS are not merged, reducing dependency on unique DUNS values.
Note: Do not change the Merge records by DUNS property arbitrarily. Doing so can cause incorrect merges.
Crosswalk table
The following table summarizes the crosswalk types and their meaning:
| Object Type | Crosswalk Values | Record Type | Description | Verification Status/Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entity |
URI:DUNS DUNS | Auto Merged Record | If Merge records by DUNS crosswalks property is “No”, URI:DUNS - is used for populating Company info details. URI in the crosswalk ensures all records can be enriched to avoid unique DUNS dependency. Also solves the infamous/painful "URI miss match" issue of past connector.Standalone DUNS crosswalk- is used for creating Hierarchy and Contacts relationships. Standalone DUNS crosswalk will be populated only for one Auto merge record. If Merge records by DUNS crosswalks property is “Yes”, DUNS crosswalk is used for populating Company info details and creating Hierarchy and Contacts relationships. | Enriched by D&B |
| DnB/URI | Source Record | In case of No Match Found, Potential Match and any error from D&B, we will create this crosswalk in original record. Later, if the record is enriched successfully then this crosswalk will be soft deleted. | No Match Found by Dun & Bradstreet, Potential Match Found by Dun & Bradstreet, Error occurred in Dun & Bradstreet job | |
|
URI:DUNS DUNS | Potential Match Record | For Source records, this record will be created as a Potential Match record, if confidence code is between Auto Merge – Confidence Code and Potential Match – Confidence Code. | Enriched - Potential Match by D&B | |
| URI:DUNS | Duplicate Record | For duplicate records when we try to enrich, only Company info details will be populated from this crosswalk. Standalone DUNS crosswalks will not be created, and we will get the Verification Details message. | Data Provider Verification Details - Hierarchy and Principal Contact is unavailable for this duplicate entity. Resolve merge with Entity ID | |
| DUNS+MSP+GIVEN NAME | Principal Contacts | If a contact is created while enrichment, then we’ll create crosswalk in this pattern for that contact record.DUNS - Associated to Organization, MSP – Most Senior Principals abbreviation is used in crosswalk.GIVEN NAME – Associated to Principal Contacts | NA | |
| DUNS | Standalone DUNS Crosswalk/Parent | This crosswalk is used to create Hierarchy and Principal Contact Relationships. In case of Hierarchy enrichment, if the Parent DUNS is not already present in Reltio, then we will create shell records with that Parent DUNS as a crosswalk. This shell record contains Name, Address, DUNS Number in attribute level. |
Shell Organization - Created as Part of the Dun & Bradstreet Hierarchy Note: Only for Shell Records
| |
| Relation | DUNS:DUNS | Organization – Organization | Parent DUNS:Child DUNS | NA |
| DUNS:DUNS+MSP+GIVEN NAME | Organization – Individual | DUNS:Contact Crosswalk | NA | |
| AddressType:URI|DUNS | Organization – Location | Example - Shipping:URI|DUNS | NA |
Handling duplicate records
When duplicates exist, enrichment applies special rules to avoid incorrect merges:
- If one record is already enriched with
URI:DUNSand Standalone DUNS, duplicate records receive onlyURI:DUNScrosswalk. - If Hierarchy and Principal Contact details are present, only for the first enriched record will contain these details. They are skipped for the duplicated records.