Exchanging terminology facilitates the flow of terminological information throughout the information cycle - e.g. within an organisation and between an organisation and external service providers.
It also makes terminology available to the general public, which in turn facilitates its integration into existing terminological resources.
To ensure a smooth interchange of terminological information it is necessary to have a compatible selection and consistent application of data categories, as well as the possibility to restructure entry formats.
Since not all terminology management systems are compatible, they offer as minimum requirement the capability to convert the format of the terminology files into an international standard exchange format - such as the Termbase Exchange format (TBX), the MAchine-Readable Terminology Interchange Format (MARTIF or ISO 12200), the Default Transaction List Table format (DXLT), etc.