UNSPSC is the acronym for the Universal Standard Products and Services Classification. UNSPSC is a coding system to classify both products and services for use throughout the global marketplace. The management and development of the UNSPSC Code is coordinated by ECCMA, the Electronic Commerce Code Management Association. The current version consists of more than 16.000 terms. The primary use of the UNSPSC coding is to support spend analytics. In this regard it is very widely adopted namely there are in excess of 24,000 downloads of the code set per year. The UNSPSC has embarked on a strategy of aligning and collaborating in several directions to solidify its place and create linkage to complimentary and supplementary standards. The UNSPSC has 4 levels in the hierarchy Segment, Family, Class and Commodity. The UNSPSC is unique in that the level of the hierarchy is capture in the code assigned. 6 trailing zeros in an 8 digit code indicated the code in question is at the segment level. 4 trailing zeros in an 8 digit code indicated the code in question is at the family level. 2 trailing zeros in an 8 digit code indicated the code in question is at the class level. A code with 1 or no trailing zeroes indicated a commodity. These data dictionary classes and properties are used in engineering; cataloging and other applications whose transaction also ultimately feed spend analysis. UNSPSC Coding is responsible for overseeing code change requests, revising the codes and issuing regularly scheduled updates to the code, as well as managing special projects and initiatives.
