Texas City Improves Inventory Management

The City of Houston’s Strategic Purchasing Division (SPD) in partnership
with Periscope Holdings, Inc., implemented the National Institute of Governmental

Purchasing’s (NIGP) 11-digit Commodity Coding system to ensure proper

identification of materials. The implementation brings Houston closer to a citywide

standardization effort across all departments. quot;We recognized the need for material master descriptions and a unit of

measure standardization in order to address the problem of long text descriptions

and inconsistencies across city departments,quot; said Calvin Wells, City

Purchasing Agent. quot;The NIGP Coding system allows us to improve our inventory

process, and that it is a critical component to materials management.quot;

SPD incorporated the NIGP Coding system into the SAP R/3 (the citywide software

system) materials master implementation. SPD changed its business process so

that each SAP material master code includes an NIGP Code. This project also

included all materials purchased by the City of Houston, Department of Aviation.

quot;Periscope has provided SPD with 48-hour turn around resolution of naming

new products along with support issues on existing products found in the NIGP database,quot; Wells said. The implementation of the 11-digit NIGP Commodity Code in the SAP material master has resulted in the reduction of material master codes from 88,000 used in the legacy system to approximately 20,000 after the SAP quot;go-live.quot; With Houston’s dynamic inventory, Periscope continues to act in a support roll to help ensure accuracy.