iSchool Capstone

Bontology

Project tags:

database administration & development

information architecture

knowledge organization

Audience Choice Award
Project poster

Colliers International, a commercial real estate company, currently faces problems with sharing information across their organization. Their organization houses many data silos which contain important client, deal, and referral information. Some of this data is accessible to employees but much of it is held privately within regional office databases and is difficult to share due to data formatting issues. Their information silos prevent them from capitalizing on opportunities that could be made simply by connecting the dots across databases. Bontology (business onotology) is a unique software that is comprised of three parts: a realtor’s dashboard, custom ontology, and conversion software. Bontology’s conversion software works with our custom ontology to connect disparate relational databases in a triple store. The dashboard allows Realtors to view sophisticated data analytics and houses a powerful internal search. Bontology now provides Realtors actionable items that will help drive profit and identify gaps in current business practices.

Project participants:

Malavika Ravi

MSIM

Krista Davis

MSIM

Liang Huang

MSIM

Ziqiang Shen

MSIM