How important are DUNS numbers when bidding on government contracts?

Any organization that wants to bid on government proposals must have a Dun & Bradstreet number. DUNS number assignments are free, and a unique nine-digit number is assigned to each physical location of a business.

To register for a DUNS number, a business must provide its legal name, physical address, mailing address, telephone number, contact name and title, number of employees at the physical location, and whether the business is home-based. A DUNS number verifies the existence of a business globally. Once assigned, a DUNS number is not reissued or reassigned. As of February 2015, over 100 million businesses worldwide have been assigned DUNS numbers.