Stakeholder representations from each of the sectors have agreed that the better co-ordination of geographic information within the sectors will lead to the benefits described being realised. There are also identified benefits from better cross-sectoral co-ordination. For example, there are certain key datasets on which their business functions rely, for which there may be a mandatory requirement, or on which many organisations rely. Such data include not only base mapping, but also spatial data enablers - this is data that can release the organisations' information resources. A common address file is one such example.

Many organisations require address data but none had a common view of what an address was, how it should be stored or mananged, nor who was responsible for its care and maintainance. The result was more than 200 different address databases in Northern Ireland. The POINTER project has now co-ordinated this key dataset. Other key datasets may include inter alia, land and property parcels, streets and place-names.