Commercial data provider Dun & Bradstreet, which employs hundreds in the Lehigh Valley, has overhauled its management structure, aggressively trimmed costs and scaled its technology since an investor consortium acquired the company more than two years ago with the idea of kickstarting sales growth and profitability.
In its latest shakeup, Dun & Bradstreet plans to move some of its finance functions to India, according to an internal company email reviewed by The Morning Call. The shift is expected to affect an undisclosed number of workers in the Lehigh Valley, an area that has long handled some of Dun & Bradstreet’s finance operations.
“We will be moving a portion of our Collections, Disputes, Inbounds, Cash Application, Purchasing, Accounts Payable and Travel & Expenses function to our Dun & Bradstreet Technology and Corporate Services Center in Hyderabad, India,” Chief Financial Officer Bryan Hipsher wrote in the email May 3. “We anticipate transitioning this work to new team members in India by June 30. A small team has been identified to remain in the U.S. to support our strategic accounts.”
The change, he wrote, reflects an operating model that allows Dun & Bradstreet to have talent across its three main business geographies: Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
Responding to an inquiry from The Morning Call, Dun & Bradstreet on Wednesday declined to comment on the shift and how many employees it could affect in the Lehigh Valley. The company also said it does not disclose employment counts by location and declined to say how many workers it has in the Lehigh Valley.
The company leases a three-story, 178,330-square-foot building at 3501 Corporate Parkway in Upper Saucon Township, an office that has long handled various sales, emerging businesses, finance, fulfillment and data operations groups for Dun & Bradstreet. As of 2019, the company had 807 employees in the Lehigh Valley, a significant chunk of its then-worldwide payroll of 4,800 people.
As of Dec. 31, that number had dropped to 4,039 employees worldwide, including more than 2,600 in North America, according to the company’s annual report. Dun & Bradstreet says it now has 6,000 employees across the globe following its acquisition this year of European data and analytics firm Bisnode.
Locally, it remains unclear if, when and to what level Dun & Bradstreet will return to its Upper Saucon office. The Morning Call reported in February that the company put the third floor of its building up for sublease as it adapted amid the pandemic to create a flexible workplace strategy that allows employees to work from home or the office.
Major changes
An investor group that included Black Knight Inc., CC Capital Partners and Cannae Holdings took Dun & Bradstreet private in February 2019 in a deal valued at $6.9 billion, including debt. Changes at Dun & Bradstreet, which traces its history to 1841, started immediately afterward.
New senior leadership included Black Knight CEO Anthony Jabbour stepping in as CEO of Dun & Bradstreet, while Stephen Daffron, co-founder of investment firm Motive Partners, took over as president. Hipsher, who sent the email May 3, was previously senior vice president of finance for Black Knight, a Jacksonville, Florida-based provider of software, data and analytics to the mortgage industry. The new management team also identified new leaders for each business unit and corporate support function, according to the company’s annual report.
All told, 18 of the 19 company executives and 30 of the 46 leadership team members were new or put in a new role, with nearly half of Dun & Bradstreet’s employees reporting to a new leader, the report notes. Total employee turnover was about 1,500 people and company leaders were “able to identify and eliminate ineffective headcount resulting in a net employee reduction of approximately 850, or 17% of total employees,” according to the report.
The information became publicly available after the Short Hills, New Jersey, company went public last year. Its stock closed at $21.65 on Wednesday, a price that has dropped steadily since going above $28 in October.
As of Dec. 31, the company’s strategy of boosting shareholder value through the reorganization had resulted in an annual savings of about $241 million. By the end of the first quarter, that figure had hit $246 million, which exceeded the company’s original two-year target of $200 million by 23%, Jabbour said on the first-quarter earnings call May 5.
“While this marks the completion of our formal cost savings program, we will continue to drive ongoing improvement in terms of operational efficiency through optimizing our geographic footprint, modernizing back-office technologies, and further integrating our solutions to reduce cost and complexity,” Jabbour said. “It’s important to note that the cost savings figure we just discussed is a net number, meaning that while we took a significant amount of costs out of the business, we also continue to invest a significant amount in the business, primarily by enhancing and expanding our data and technology assets.”
Later in the call, when asked by an analyst where Dun & Bradstreet sees room for additional cost savings, Hipsher specifically mentioned “geographic dispersion from where we’re doing different functions from.” Related to that, he mentioned Dun & Bradstreet has presences in Ireland, southern Europe and India.
“There’s still some, I think, right shoring from that perspective,” Hipsher said. “And then certainly, as we continue to automate functions in the back office, whether that’s some of the things we’re doing on the finance side, some of the things that we’re doing on our operations side from a delivery perspective, those will continue to generate, I would say, ongoing efficiencies.”
Office return, or not?
Just after 3 p.m. Tuesday, the parking lot at Dun & Bradstreet’s Upper Saucon office was almost completely empty, aside from a lawn crew and eight cars around the back of the building near the south lobby, security and delivery areas.
Nearby Olympus Corp. of the Americas, which started allowing vaccinated employees to return to the office May 3, had many more cars in its lot Tuesday, though still plenty of space for more.
Dun & Bradstreet had no updates Wednesday on its office plans. In February, the company issued a statement to The Morning Call from Chief People Officer Roslynn Williams, who said the company “created a workforce strategy that includes a mix of working environments — both in-home and in-office — providing flexibility to our employees to work where they are most productive.”
Local officials didn’t have any updates on the company, either. It’s been several years since Upper Saucon has had contact with Dun & Bradstreet, township Manager Tom Beil estimated. In addition, Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. said it last corresponded with the company last April.
In November, its annual report notes, the company changed its workforce model in the United States and in certain international markets.
“As a result, only a small portion of our employees will return full time in the office when conditions allow,” the report reads. “Most of our employees will be on either a hybrid work from home schedule or complete work from home schedule. We intend to sublease most of the vacated office spaces.”
The Upper Saucon building’s ownership traces to California real estate advisory firm Property Income Advisors Inc., which acquired the structure in June 2016 for almost $45 million on behalf of a “Gulf-based institutional client,” according to the landlords’ website.
The website indicates Dun & Bradstreet is in the midst of an 11-year lease for the building, though it doesn’t provide an expiration date. In the lease, the website notes, Dun & Bradstreet is responsible for all operating costs associated with the property.
As of Wednesday night, Dun & Bradstreet had 26 jobs listed with the location of “Work At Home, PA,” while many other roles were listed as hybrids, those able to be done from Center Valley, New Jersey or by working from home in other states.
The location with the most openings: Hyderabad, India, which had 145 jobs listed — including 45 in finance.
Morning Call reporter Jon Harris can be reached at 484-280-2866 or at jon.harris@mcall.com.
