NIGP Code

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The NIGP Commodity/Services Code is an acronym for the National Institute of Governmental Purchasings' Commodity/Services Code. The NIGP Code is a coding taxonomy used primarily to classify products and services procured by state and local governments in North America. The classification system was developed in the mid 1980s as a result of efforts... by public procurement officials in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Illinois and other states, cities and counties to provide a mechanism to classify the products and services that used in public procurement. Led by Homer Forrestor, the Director of General Services in Texas, the group produced the initial codeset in 1983. The copyright for the data file was transferred to the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP), an organization founded in 1944, and the NIGP Code was born. The NIGP Code is now the standard taxonomy for classifying commodities and services for 33 states and thousands of local entities within North America (utilized by entities in 47 states, plus the District of Columbia, Canada, and Puerto Rico). NIGP appointed Periscope Holdings, Inc., as the custodian of the NIGP Code in 2001. The firm is responsible for licensing, overseeing code change requests, publication of version releases, communication with end users, phone support, training, integrity of the codeset, and commodity coding services for the conversion of contract and inventory files. The NIGP Code is most commonly used to classify vendors and to track spending data for use in strategic sourcing and spending analysis. The database is often incorporated into the procurement software utilized by the entity for use in e-procurement. Categorization, reporting, and transparency are all key goals and benefits of this coding structure. The NIGP Code currently exists in English and Spanish versions. Cross references have been created for the NAICS, UNSPSC and MCC codesets. Version 24 is the current release for printed materials.Read More