PEOPLE WHO USE SIMILAR EQUIPMENT HAVE ORGANIZED FORMAL USER GROUPS WHICH HAVE FOCUSED ATTENTION ON THE KEY ISSUES REQUIRED TO OBTAIN THE POTENTIAL OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY. FORMAL REPRESENTATIVES OF THESE GROUPS WERE INVITED ALONG WITH A REPRESENTATIVE OF ACADEMIA AND CONSULTANTS DURING AUTOFACT'89 TO DISCUSS SEVEN TOPICS CENTRAL TO THE USE OF CAD/CAM IN CIM ENTERPRISES. THIS SMALL GROUP OF PEOPLE FORMALLY REPRESENTED OVER 150,000 END USERS OF CAD/CAM SYSTEMS. SEVEN MAJOR TOPICS WERE ESTABLISHED FROM QUESTIONNAIRES AND FEEDBACK FROM CASA/SME'S TECHNICAL COUNCIL AS WELL AS IMPUT RECEIVED FROM NIST (FORMERLY NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS) AND THE USERS GROUPS THEMSELVES. THE VALUE OF THE DISCUSSIONS IS PRIMARILY THAT THESE ISSUES WERE DISCUSSED IN A GENERIC SENSE FROM WHAT IS NORMALLY A WIDELY DIVERGENT PERSPECTIVE. THE OUTCOME WAS A LOGICAL ORDERING OF THE DIRECTIONS WHICH MUST BE PURSUED T