A business object model, which reflects data that is used during a given business transaction, is utilized to generate consistent interfaces. This business object model facilitates commercial transactions by providing consistent interfaces that are suitable for use across industries, across businesses, and across different departments within a business during a business transaction. Messages are generated in a consistent format to take advantage of the consistent interfaces. Specifically, messages include a hierarchically organized message package that allow receiving interfaces to process the received message according to the message package's the hierarchical structure. The receiving application can then generate an appropriate response according to the hierarchical organization of the received message package.