Cross-referencing

There can be many reasons for cross-referencing to other codes and classifications:

• To analyse spending
• To collaborate on procurement with similar organizations
• To compare spending of similar organizations or departments
• To compare expenditure with department budget
• To use in a computer system
• To reduce procurement spend
• To add an automatic translation for the EU
• Government/company policy

To analyse spending is only useful if it achieves something. For instance, knowing what has been spent overall on stationery per year is interesting but cannot be used for anything except comparison, even then, only if everyone agrees what is stationery (i.e. is toner stationery?) and the classification has been applied correctly by everyone. If saving money is an objective, classifying alone will not achieve anything. Adding a CPV Code to provide the automatic translation is very useful.