What this property controls

The Merge records by DUNS crosswalks property defines how Reltio determines whether enriched records from D&B should be merged based on their DUNS numbers. It also affects which type of crosswalks are created during enrichment and how relationships are resolved.

This property must be configured in the D&B Recipe Properties lookup table and applies across all enrichment modes (on-demand, real-time, batch, monitoring).

Behavior when set to Yes

If Merge records by DUNS crosswalks is set to Yes:

• D&B records are merged based on the DUNS crosswalk value.
• The enrichment process creates a crosswalk with the format: DUNS.
• Hierarchy and Principal Contact relationships are created using this DUNS value.
• If multiple records share the same DUNS, they will be merged into a single consolidated profile.

This behavior matches the legacy D&B Direct+ connector and supports traditional DUNS-based merges.

Behavior when set to No

If Merge records by DUNS crosswalks is set to No:

• D&B records are treated as distinct, even if they share the same DUNS.
• The enrichment process creates a crosswalk with the format: URI:DUNS.
• This prevents automatic merges across records with matching DUNS numbers.
• Only one record per DUNS will receive Hierarchy and Principal Contact enrichment; duplicates will be skipped.

This option avoids unwanted merges and supports finer control over relationship creation.

Impact on hierarchy and contact enrichment

This setting also determines whether Hierarchy and Principal Contact data is loaded during enrichment:

• When set to Yes, all hierarchy and contact data is assigned to the merged record.
• When set to No, the system creates only a standalone enrichment for one profile. All other profiles with the same DUNS will be skipped and marked in the Data Provider Verification Details attribute.

To ensure expected outcomes, align this setting with your match rules and survivorship configuration.

Best practices

• Only enable Merge records by DUNS crosswalks if your data model supports DUNS-based matching.
• Do not change this setting mid-project or between enrichment runs — it will affect crosswalk formatting and merge behavior.
• Review your match rules and hierarchy relationship rules to ensure consistency with this setting.
• Test in lower environments before switching between Yes and No.