| Company | Ontology |
| Address | Phoenix Yard, 65-69 Kings Cross Road, London, WC1X 9LW, United Kingdom |
| Founders | Leo Zancani & Benedict Enweani |
| Founded | January 2007 |
| Funding | Unknown |
| Employees | 37 |
| Website | www.Ontology.com |
| Rating | 7 bits |
Ontology claims to be to applications what Google was to the web. Instead of integrating the many different enterprise applications within an organisation to obtain, for example, a 360 degrees view of customers, Ontology enables users to search a schematic model of all data within the applications. They extract relevant data from a source application, such as a CRM system, big data applications, files, warranty documents etc. These extracted semantics are linked into a search graph instead of a schema to give users the results needed.
Ontology gives users a different approach in using enterprise applications, removing the need to integrate the different applications. It allows users to search and link applications, databases, files, spreadsheets, etc. anywhere. The product of Ontology is very interesting because in the past years a vast amount of enterprise applications for various needs and with various requirements have been developed and used by organisations. Integrating these applications to obtain a company-wide integrated view is difficult, expensive and often not without risks.
On their website, Ontology refers to a research by Bloor that found that 84% of data migration projects ran over time, over budget, or both. While an integrated view of the entire company is extremely valuable, a lot of organisations dont want to take these risks. Obtaining an integrated view through search is something new and could help a lot of organisations.
The name of the company, Ontology, is carefully chosen as it means the study of the categories of things that exist or may exist in some domain. Leo Zancani and Benedict Enweani, both previously worked at Orchestream (now Oracle), founded the company in 2007. Just recently the Ontology semantic search platform was updated to Version 4.0, giving users even more possibilities. Today, their Software-as-a-Service solution helps companies in a more affordable way. And although the idea of semantic technology and ontologies is new to many organisations, the Telecom or Banking industry are slowly getting used to it.
The Black Swan Telecom Journal actually makes an analogy to Sherlock Holmes style thinking regarding the Ontology technology. The Ontology technology maps all connected nodes within a network and shows the relationship among those nodes. It investigates the data via deductive reasoning, looking for consistencies and inconsistencies, resulting in valuable insights.
Ontology has created a new and interesting patented semantic search technology for companies that want to obtain insights without the massive costs or extensive risks. It has won several awards, among others the Pipeline Innovation Award 2012. We therefore give Ontology a 7 bits rating.
