NIGP Code Explained

Coding Structure for Standardizing Purchasing and Spend Classification

3-DIGIT CLASS CODE
227 Product Classes
55 Services Classes

5-DIGIT ITEM CODE
9,138 Descriptions

For over 60 years, the National Institute of Government Purchasing (NIGP) has specialized in developing, supporting, and promoting the public procurement profession.

The NIGP Commodity/Services Code was developed to better classify products and services in public procurement. The code is commonly used to classify suppliers and track data within strategic sourcing and spending analysis by state and local governments. The NIGP Code is the standard taxonomy for classifying commodities and services for 1,000 government users in 47 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, Australia and the Virgin Islands.

Periscope Holdings has the exclusive license from the NIGP to maintain, enhance, and market the NIGP Code. Together, we offer a product that enables our customers to align business practices, eradicate waste in their procurement practices, and achieve maximum value of every dollar spent.

Extensive Categorization

NIGP Code provides a robust classification structure, with the unparalleled depth and breadth for the identification of suppliers’ products and services.

  • Consistent sourcing with standardized descriptions
  • Supplier recruitment
  • Purchase history

Richer Reporting

The NIGP Code enables you to create a system of measures, perform comprehensive measurements and provide feedback on the execution of your strategic sourcing plan. It also enables you to track spending to measure against diversity goals, when used in conjunction with MBE/WBE certification.

  • Spend tracking by Commodity Code
  • Enables automated bidder selection

Increased Transparency

The NIGP Code can help organize and identify suppliers for various products and services, manage suppliers to ensure adequate competition, and assure MBE/WBE outreach to increase diversity across spend areas, thereby reducing overall procurement risk by identifying spend areas where competition is weak and supplier recruitment is needed.

  • Purchasing controls with commodity code organization
  • Standardized produce/service descriptions