To see the coronavirus’ effects on your business or suppliers, Dun & Bradstreet offers COVID-19 Impact Index

Dun & Bradstreet, which measures risk and business credit scores, recently introduced its COVID-19 Impact Index, a resource to help business leaders see and understand the current impacts and potential business disruptions on companies, their customers and supply chains due to the pandemic.

By looking at an integrated assessment of locations and industries, companies can see a deeper picture of how the coronavirus has disrupted operations in certain areas.

The index uses D&B’s proprietary data, as well as customer feedback to make rankings for businesses in relation to each other, similar to the rankings D&B has used when working with government agencies to assess disaster mitigation.

Part of the reason for the creation of the COVID-19 Impact Index is because D&B concluded that the virus has impacted 90% of businesses in the U.S. to some degree.

“Companies of all sizes are being bombarded by crisis management tactics on a daily basis, but what our clients are challenged to see is how this pandemic is taxing their own operations, including their network of partners, customers and suppliers,” Brian Alster, D&B’s Third-Party Risk & Compliance General Manager, said in a press release for the index.

The COVID-19 Impact Index uses four factors in determining its rankings (scaled 1 to 100) of disruptions from the virus:

1. Location Impact assesses a business’ headquarters and satellite offices, and whether they are subjected to any of the various government-enforced restrictions. It also measures the number of confirmed cases near the business, as well as the virus’s growth rate.
2. Industry impact is a measure of the industry classification for a business, such as whether it is essential or non-essential. It also ranks whether the business can operate with employees working from home or if it requires them to be at the facility.
3. Company health impact gauges a business’ ability to survive post-disaster using D&B’s predictive scoring.
4. Network impact looks at the connection between businesses, their customers, suppliers and any other third-party vendors.

The index may be able to provide insight into areas of the supply chain that require immediate attention and planning that otherwise may not have been noticed until it was too late to prevent an issue. This would provide companies with critical extra time to create contingency plans, if needed.

The index uses a percentile ranking and factors in all the information available for a specific area. This information can change rapidly, given the potential for additional outbreaks or new containment measures. D&B recommends weekly or monthly refreshes in order to see the best information.

A study conducted by D&B earlier this year as the coronavirus began to spread throughout China noticed the profound impact on supply chains around the world that stood just around the corner. D&B expects the index to compliment decision-making resources already available to businesses to help identify risky suppliers and protect revenue as much as possible.