The purpose of the service metadata schema

The service metadata schema provides a structured notation for describing services.

It aims to

• facilitate harmonisation in describing services and
• facilitate easier processing by systems. For example, the European SWIM Registry has developed functions to import and export service descriptions that use the schema. 

The schema 

• benefits service providers in facilitating the production of service descriptions, including importing in registry and conformance to the SW specifications
• benefits service consumers with enhanced harmonisation of service descriptions 
• allows service descriptions to be processed by systems - this includes upload into a system, exchange between systems and transformation (e.g. to service overview).