Who Is NIGP?

The National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, Inc. (NIGP) is a national, membership-based non-profit corporation providing support to professionals in the public sector purchasing profession. NIGP provides its members with many services, including education, professional networking, research, and technical assistance. To learn more about the NIGP organization and its member services please visit www.nigp.org.

In 1983, NIGP conducted a purchasing automation survey of cities, counties, provinces, school districts, colleges, and universities. 83% of respondents expressed a strong interest in a standard commodity/service code. NIGP responded by developing the NIGP Commodity/Service Code.

What Is The NIGP Commodity/Services Code

The NIGP Commodity/Services Code (NIGP Code) is a proprietary product comprised of an extensive library of descriptive codes assembled and organized into a coding structure to identify and describe a wide variety of products and services. The Code is very useful to public sector purchasing professionals for tracking purchasing activity, for budgeting and management reporting, for tracking and controlling inventory, and for classifying suppliers by the types of products they provide. The Code, which is a copyrighted product owned by NIGP, was developed by NIGP in partnership with Periscope Holdings, Inc. (Periscope), who holds the exclusive license to maintain, enhance, and market the Code.

The NIGP Code has become the national standard for product/service codes used in the public sector. It is used at some level by thirty-three (33) states and literally hundreds of local jurisdictions and political subdivisions.

The NIGP Code is constantly changing. Periscope actively solicits suggestions from users of the NIGP Code to insure that the Code is kept current and effective. And, Periscope provides a personalized coding service, which allows users of the NIGP Code to have their own inventory item files (or other lists of products or services) coded to the NIGP Code. Click here to learn more about having your items coded to the NIGP Code.

What Is NIGP.com

NIGP.com is one of the primary research and technical assistance tools for purchasing professionals. This Internet Website is maintained by Periscope for NIGP to provide licensed users of the NIGP Code with a NEW version of the Code called the Living Code. The Living Code is an electronic version of the NIGP Code, which is updated dynamically as codes are added or changed. For the first time, licensed users of the NIGP Code have immediate access to a completely current version of the NIGP Code.