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merx has hundreds of participating buying organizations who are actively looking for matching vendors to their solicitations. Buying organizations that are looking for vendors in a specific category will be able to quickly find you and potentially invite you to bid on their opportunities. To properly categorize tenders and ensure that they’re picked up by interested and relevant vendors, government agencies and other entities use industry coding systems to facilitate their solicitation processes. Consisting of a specific set of numbers, these codes are used to identify commodities and/or services during the procurement process.
With the goal of creating the most efficient and user-friendly system for identifying relevant tenders for our clients, merx devised a simple classification system consisting of 52 goods and services codes or “MERX Categories.” When government agencies as well as private and Crown corporations categorize tenders to identify the goods or services that they are looking to purchase, merx simplifies the agency-chosen codes into MERX Categories. Classifying products by code is of course not unique to local government; various classification systems are used in the private sector and for Crown corporations as well. In fact, different coding systems are used throughout the procurement world and at all levels of government. For this reason, merx also gives clients the option to use GSIN (Goods and Services Identification Number) and UNSPSC (United Nations Standard Products and Services Code) categories.
The federal government uses GSIN codes to identify generic product descriptions for its procurement activities while the UNSPSC is an open and international classification of products and services. It is composed of a three-level hierarchical classification code set and is owned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and managed by a third-party GS1 US.
To ensure that no relevant tenders are missed, regardless of how they’re coded, we recommend choosing relevant codes using all three coding types. Whichever classification codes a tender is coded with, merx makes it easy for our clients to find opportunities that are relevant. The key to finding the right tenders for your business is to select the codes that make the most sense considering the industry you’re operating within.
Finding the right codes
The most important reason to select the most relevant Working Categories is to ensure that you are seeing all appropriate tenders for your goods and services. Upon registering with merx, you should begin by selecting applicable MERX Categories, GSIN, and/or UNSPSC for the goods and services that you provide.
MERX Categories consist of 52 separate, concise codes that are organized within four broad categories: Construction, Goods, Services, and Other. You can use a keyword search to find the matching categories to your business offerings. After choosing your relevant MERX Categories your next step should be to pick GSIN and UNSPSC numbers using the same process.
When choosing the matching categories, it’s always a good idea to read through the entire list of potential codes as to not miss anything that may be relevant to your business. And keep in mind that the merx team is always available to help you find the most relevant codes as well as avoid any that don’t fit your business.
When an agency or other buyer issues a tender with codes matching your Working Categories, your notification alerts will be processed and populated with only the most relevant tenders available.
Tender Categorization, Simplified
Choosing the correct Working Categories helps to ensure accurate tenders appear in your notifications and account. Working Categories, when used properly, ensure you only see the most-relevant, winnable tenders, so you can spend less time searching and more time winning. If you are a registered merx user, you can update your categories here.
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