Yeah, sorry, I have little tolerance for government created monopolies that are overly bureaucratic. We actually did have an SBIR for which we needed it.

D&B seems to be a good company, but the DUNS system seems broken and requires payment just to signup for no value being provided.

What makes you think D&B is a good company? As far as I can tell all their revenue streams sit right on the border of extortion. If they couldn't convince major players like apple or the US Gov to require the usage of a DUNs number, they wouldn't even have those revenue streams.

Additionally they are at this point the number 1 source of voicemail spam for me. And asking them to not call is non-functional.

D&B are definitely part of the axis of evil.

Along with the rest of the companies in that segment of the market.

DUNS aren't government created and they aren't a monopoly. The US government uses them, but companies like Apple certainly don't have to.

Better idea: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4980216

What if you then went out and found a random government contract to apply for?

When you are dealing with a monopoly backed by government power the only dishonest thing to do is to not cheat them.

Is this your first exposure to the seamy underbelly of government contracting?

I almost consider that a positive in this case.