A number of languages exist that try to model the external visible behavior of services. However, they constitute incomplete solutions, either because, they do not include proper support for semantics, they have a lack of technological independence, they mix internal and external aspects and finally, they do not provide consistent approaches or present ad-hoc ones to solve behavioral and structural heterogeneities, or worse, they mix both aspects resulting in confusing specifications. This paper describes SOPHIE, a conceptual framework that attempts to overcome these limitations. It allows the production of the intermediate structures that allow overcoming the heterogeneities between services from the semantic descriptions of the Message Exchange Patterns (MEPs) they follow. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.