How ontologies benefit enterprise applications

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Oberle, Daniel

Affiliations: SAP Research Karlsruhe, Vincenz-Priessnitz-Str. 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany. E-mail: d.oberle@sap.com

Abstract: This paper contributes an argumentation line for how technological features of ontologies lead to benefits for enterprise applications. Although many features are also available in precursory or alternative technologies, we claim that combinations of specific features are uniquely provided by ontologies. A careful elicitation of the available features therefore is a prerequisite for the argumentation line. As a second contribution, this paper reports on several challenges that frequently occur when trying to adopt ontologies in existing enterprise settings. These challenges have to be contrasted with the often overstressed benefits in Semantic Web literature. Together with reports for several SAP Research case studies, this paper channels back experiences to the Semantic Web community. As a third contribution, we give several recommendations for future research directions based on the gathered experiences.

Keywords: Semantics, semantic technologies, ontologies, reasoning, enterprise, industry, commercial, application

DOI: 10.3233/SW-130114

Journal: Semantic Web, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 473-491, 2014