STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE Department of Administrative Services

Division of Procurement and Support Services Bureau of Purchase and Property

State House Annex Concord, New Hampshire 03301

September 21, 2015 NIGP Commodity Codes Lookup

for State of NH Staff Involved in Procurement

Since 1983, the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, Inc. (NIGP) has licensed a set of standardized Commodity/Services Codes to assist users in supplier management. The NIGP code organizes registered suppliers into a searchable format, which helps state procurement staff locate available suppliers by the types of products or services they offer in order to request quotes or bids.

In the case of the State of NH, each vendor who signs up to be a supplier and/or that has a historic record with having done business with the state has had the opportunity to select Major and Minor NIGP Class codes when they register. The NIGP codes are 7 digits long, broken up by a Major Class (3 digits) followed by a Minor Class (4 digits). The Major Class is the main category of commodity or service. The Minor Class is the generic-to-specific types of commodities and services within that Major Class.

Within the report, all of the categories in Bold are the different Major Classes.

For example: 005-0000 is the Major Class code for Abrasives. Then underneath that Major Class is 005-0050 which is Abrasive Equipment and Tools, the first generic commodity available.

Another example: A vendor may select a Major Class code for 071-000 Automobiles, School Buses, SUVs and Vans and also may sell Ambulances so would select that Minor Class code 071-0300 too. If an NIGP Code of 071-0300 is selected by a user, any vendor who selected to be notified of bids involving ambulances would be notified.

The following instructions may be used by procurement staff in other state agencies and departments, to locate specific types of suppliers in order to solicit quotations and bids. Vendors may be notified/contacted by email (our preferred method) or by fax (if no email exists). A phone number is also usually available so users may contact a supplier to obtain its email or fax number.

Helpful Hints

• Please do not print the NIGP Code Listing with Buyer Codes as this will be well over 600 pages long!

• We are not able to “adjust” commodities to fit in new ones or delete old ones. We are under license from NIGP for these codes.

• Commodities can sometimes be found in more than one type of Major Code depending on the

type. “Household Appliances” versus “Industrial Appliances” are separated categories for example, yet both may have a Minor Code of “Refrigerators”.

• It is suggested that when you do searches for commodities or services, that you make the search

word as unique as possible. Don’t just search for “Equipment” – search for “Ladder”, “Metal Ladder”, or “Step Ladder”, etc.

• Should you require assistance, please call 271-2201 or email prchweb@nh.gov.

1. Go to Sunspot. 2. Click on Procurement on the left column. 3. Scroll down to the third section – this details Agency Resources and Documents.

4. Download the NIGP Code Listing with Buyer Codes. (This is an excel spreadsheet.) 5. Save to Desktop or to a folder that you will have easy access to.

6. Open the NIGP Codes with Buyer Code spreadsheet.

7. Do Control F and the Find and Replace box will pop up. 8. Type the name of the commodity/service that you wish to search for. 9. Click Find All.

10. Scroll through until you find the description you are looking for (or the closest appropriate version of it).

HINT: Commodities will always be listed first and services at the bottom.

11. Click on the description that best applies. 12. The highlighted text will show up on the spreadsheet. (I have highlighted the whole row to demonstrate which one

I chose). 13. You may need to try different words or only utilize partial words to find the commodity/service you wish as it may be

set up differently in the spreadsheet. 14. Make note of all of the appropriate NIGP Codes. (Column C is the Major Code and Columns D & E are the Minor

Code).

15. If you are not currently logged in to NH First, go back to Sunspot and do your normal login. Once you are logged

in, on the Left HOME Tab – click the LBI Desktop and then Click on the LBI Dashboard.

16. On the Right Most Column – is the State of New Hampshire Sites and under this is the PO – Purchasing and then

under that is Purchasing Reports List. Click this link.

17. You will find an alphabetical list of Purchasing Reports that you are able to access. 18. Click on the NIGP And E-Mail Addresses Report.

19. Enter the first NIGP Code that you had saved from your search of the NIGP Codes with Buyer Listing.

20. Make sure to enter the full 3 digit major code and then a “-“ (dash) and then up to 4 digits after or a “*” (Star).

(You can also just enter the first 3 digits and a dash and then a star 005-* for example to see all of the Abrasive NIGP codes for example).

21. Click Run.

22. Click Open

23. An excel sheet of unsorted vendors will appear. (The NIGP Codes are listed under Column F as Certif Code).

Depending on the code and how generic it is, that you searched for, a vendor may be listed more than once and you may need to remove duplicates.

24. Depending on the code and how generic it is, that you searched for, a vendor may be listed more than once and

you may need to remove duplicates. On the main menu – Click on the File Tab at the top left on the menu bar. Then midway across on the menu is Data and then click on the Icon that says Remove Duplicates which should be located to the middle/right side.

25. On this pop up table – click Unselect All so that no columns are selected.

26. Select VENDOR and then click OK.

27. A message will then pop up showing how many duplicates have been removed.

28. Then while still on the Data Tab of the Menu – click the Filter Button (the funnel shaped icon) about midway across

but to the left of the Remove Duplicates button you have already used. This will enable the columns to be filtered.

29. To filter the list so that you only see those vendors that have an email address, click on Filter. You will see down

arrows appear next to each column header/description. Click on the arrow in Column D, EMAIL ADDRESS, to open up a sub-menu. Scroll down to the end of this list and unselect the box for (Blanks).

30. Highlight and copy the email addresses. 31. Paste these email addresses into the BCC of the email you will be sending out as notification to the companies of

the impending bid. 32. You can then email out the notification that there is a bid available for download at the website (insert web

address here).

33. To now select Vendors that do not have an email address, but do have a Fax Number, go back to the Email

Address Filter selection and remove the Check from the (Select All) so that there is nothing selected.

34. Scroll down and select the (Blanks) button. This will bring up all of the vendors that do not have an Email.

35. To filter the list so that you only see those vendors that have a Fax Number, click on Filter. You will see down arrows

appear next to each column header/description. Click on the arrow in Column E, FAX NUMBER, to open up a sub-menu. Scroll down to the end of this list and unselect the box for (Blanks).

36. You will then need to manually fax the bid notification to the remaining vendors that have a Fax Number. 37. If there is no fax number and no email available, you will not be able to forward a bid notification to that

company.