Systems are too rigid and too costly. A more feasible approach may be a bottom up permissive rather than a top-down proscriptive one. The goal is moving as fast as culture, technology, systems, etc. With current usage trends we are moving away from integration, not toward it e.g. PCs versus mainframes. We don't treat human resources at all or at least not properly.
Standards are the basis for consensus and allow to manage interaction semantics.
We need standards for languages and modelling con-structs. The conference was accompanied by a demonstration of advanced modelling and simulation tools , which sup-port enterprise integration. New socio-economic and working realities emerge for the workforce and new skill profiles are required. Investigate how ICT will impact the development of virtual organisations. Identify needs and issues, establish objectives for future European research in the 5th Framework, and facilitate networking among projects.