New work items within the fields of profiles and products descriptions are being worked out. The key issue for GIS in the close future is interoperability in the sense of interoperability across technologies, systems and application fields. As a horizontal application area the importance of integration with other enterprise information systems will continue to grow raising high requirements for standards development. The long maturing of the field of geomatics and the great multi-disciplinary growth demand for a broad approach to standards. The challenge is to keep a manageable programme of work, and to be able to utilize and harmonize with existing and more general work of standardization.
Harmonization is achieved through the liaison mechanism and close cooperation.