In one embodiment, a system is provided for managing a centrally managed master repository for core enterprise reference data associated with an enterprise. A centralized master repository contains the reference data, the reference data being associated with multiple schemas, each schema including one or more data models for reference data, each data model including one or more fields. A data management services framework coupled to the repository provides services for managing the reference data in the repository. The services framework supports a master schema including a union of multiple models and associated fields in the multiple schemas. The services framework also supports a thesaurus including, for each field in the master schema, a set of synonyms each representing a mapping between the field in the master schema and a corresponding field in a particular one of the multiple schemas. The master schema and thesaurus facilitate centralized management of the reference data in the repository across multiple heterogeneous external operational systems that have different associated data models and are provided indirect access to the reference data in the repository for operational use of the reference data according to associated business workflows.