Interoperability supported by enterprise modelling

The application of enterprise modelling supports the common understanding of the enterprise business processes in the company and across companies. To assure a correct cooperation between two or more entities it is mandatory to build an appropriate model of them. This can lead to a stronger amplification of all the cross-interface activities between the entities. Enterprise models illustrate the organisational business aspects as a prerequisite for the successful technical integration of IT systems or their configurations. If an IT system is not accepted because its usefulness is not transparent to the staff members, then it quickly loses its value due to erroneous or incomplete input and insufficient maintenance. This at the end results in investment losses. The paper exemplifies the strengths, values, limitations and gaps of the application of enterprise modelling to support interoperability between companies. It illustrates a proposal for a common enterprisemodelling framework. This framework is presented in terms of problems to face and knowledge based methodological approach to help solving them. A specific application demonstrates enterprise modelling and the synchronisation between the models as prerequisite for the successful design of Virtual Enterprises.