There are hundreds of thousands of solicitations being published each year by every level of government. In the past year alone, Bidnet Direct gathered over 480,000 public solicitations across the country, including over 24,000 solicitations from our exclusive buyers.
Imagine the time and resources you’d need to spend by searching through thousands of bids and RFPs for one that matches your business. That’s where NIGP codes come in. These structured living codes help you find the best solicitations for your business. Plus, by selecting the right NIGP codes for your profile, Bidnet Direct participating buyers can find you to get invited to bid.
Selecting the correct NIGP codes that match your business offering is critical to help you find matching bid opportunities. But let us get into the details as to why this is important.
What is the NIGP Code?
In 1984, the NIGP established a universal taxonomy to easily identify commodities and services. These consist of a structured 3-digit class code, a 5-digit class-item code, a 7-digit class-item-group code, and a detailed 11-digit code. It is currently maintained by our sister company, Periscope powered by mdf commerce. 33 states and thousands of local governments use these codes.
How Does Bidnet Direct Use the NIGP Code?
To comply with standards, Bidnet Direct uses the NIGP codes to let our suppliers and participating buyers connect. There are different functions on our platform that are tied into the NIGP Code library.
Bid Notification
Our notification system is connected to the NIGP Code library embedded in our platform. Whatever codes you selected on your profile, you will receive notifications for new solicitations that have those codes.
Vendor Search & Bid Invitation
Participating buyers rely on filtering by NIGP codes to quickly go through the vendors they want to invite for their upcoming solicitations. They can also review your profile for other NIGP codes you selected to see if your business fits their criteria.
How Do I Select the Correct NIGP codes?
Selecting the correct NIGP codes in your Bidnet Direct account is simple. Our platform uses a keyword search capability to quickly look through the codes.
For this example, if you are a business offering software-related products, you can search the main keyword “software” to filter the list to related keywords. You can then scroll through the 3-digit class and select from the 5-digit class-item codes. When selecting the codes, make sure to read through the description to check if it relates to what you offer.
It is very important to select the exact codes that your business offers to get qualified for bid invitations and be on top of the buyer’s vendor list.
What Will Happen If I Select the Wrong Codes?
Selecting codes that don’t completely match your business offerings can cause missed opportunities. You will be delivered with mismatched open bids or get invited with wrong bid invitations. This will also cause missed opportunities from participating buyers that are looking for businesses like yours but weren’t able to because you are not part of the list with the NIGP codes they are looking for.
Update Your Profile Often
Even if you think you already have the correct NIGP codes in your profile, we suggest checking the NIGP Code library at least twice a year for any new or updated codes. Also, there are plenty of times that vendors have missed or picked the wrong codes and are not receiving matching bid opportunities. It takes just a couple of minutes to double-check with our easy-navigating NIGP Code lookup screen.
If you ever need help selecting NIGP codes for your profile, you can always contact our Vendor Support Team at 800-835-4603 from Mondays – Fridays, 8 AM ET to 8 PM ET. Our team can guide you in selecting the most relevant NIGP codes for your business.
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