Much of the "information'' referred to in Contents of Enterprise Models is held in stores such as databases, spreadsheets, mathematical modelling programs, graphics and knowledge bases. A key to enterprise modelling is the ability to make use of information stores without having to redesign and rebuild them: there are usually very good operational reasons for a store having a particular form and its redesign may upset its users and their way of working. (Once an enterprise model is in place, then newly created stores might be designed to match the model better.)
Implicit in our notion of total systems is the fact that interdependencies between aspects of the enterprise model should be noted and maintained. These include constraints between parts of the model and the intentions behind model components. These call for knowledge-rich representations to be used for enterprise models, such as the triangle model of activity [4] or those used in O-Plan [5] and PLANIT [6].