This International Standard describes and specifies the Core Component solution as a methodology for developing a common set of semantic building blocks that represent general types of business data, and provides for the creation of new business vocabularies and restructuring of existing business vocabularies.

This International Standard can be employed wherever business information is being shared or exchanged amongst and between enterprises, governmental agencies, and/or other organizations in an open and worldwide environment. The Core Components user community consists of business and governmental users, business document modellers and business data modellers, Business Process modellers, and application developers of different organizations that require interoperability of business information. This interoperability covers both interactive and batch exchanges of business data between applications through the use of internet and web-based information exchanges, as well as traditional Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems.

This International Standard forms the basis for standards development work of business analysts, business users and information technology specialists supplying the content for applications that will use a Core Component Library.