Business Semantic Network Construction via Automated Terminology Extraction

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing methods struggle to efficiently detect and consolidate business terminology across different knowledge domains in a company, leading to inefficiencies and high costs in creating and maintaining a domain-oriented semantic network.

Innovation Solution

Utilizing business objects and search engines like SAP Enterprise Search or TREX to build a semantic network by extracting and organizing business terminology, with a terminology extractor and crawler that automatically identifies and updates related terms, reducing manual effort and errors.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If manual methods are used to detect and consolidate business terminology, then accuracy can be maintained, but implementation time and costs increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveterminology detection accuracyVSAvoidimplementation time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables self-service by allowing the semantic network to automatically detect, extract, and consolidate business terminology from business objects without manual intervention. The terminology extractor automatically crawls business objects, identifies relevant terms, and builds the semantic network structure, eliminating the need for manual terminology detection while maintaining scalability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

Manual mechanical processes of terminology detection and consolidation are replaced with an automated computational system. The patent substitutes human analysts with a computer-implemented methodology that uses search engines, crawlers, and automated extraction algorithms to detect and organize business terminology from business objects.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Productivity

If automated methods are used to build the semantic network, then implementation time is reduced, but complexity of the system increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenetwork building speedVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system achieves universality by designing a multi-functional platform that can handle multiple tasks: crawling business objects, extracting terminology, building semantic networks, and updating existing networks. This single automated system replaces multiple separate manual processes, reducing overall system complexity despite the advanced capabilities provided.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces intermediary components such as search engines and terminology extractors that mediate between business objects and the semantic network. These intermediaries simplify the overall system architecture by providing standardized interfaces and abstraction layers, making the automated process more manageable despite its complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Loss of information

If comprehensive business terminology is extracted from all business objects, then completeness of the semantic network improves, but processing resources and costs increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveterminology completenessVSAvoidprocessing resources
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies partial action by extracting terminology selectively from business objects based on relevance criteria rather than processing every single business object uniformly. The crawler and extractor focus on extracting only the necessary terminology related to the specific domain and context, avoiding unnecessary processing of irrelevant data while maintaining completeness of the semantic network.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent segments the terminology extraction process into manageable components: crawling individual business objects, extracting terms from each object, and consolidating them into the semantic network. This segmentation allows the system to process large volumes of business objects in smaller batches, reducing memory requirements and enabling parallel processing to optimize resource utilization.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS8527451B2Business semantic network build
Publication Date: 2013.09.03 SAP SE
  • US8527451B2 patent drawing
  • US8527451B2 patent drawing
  • US8527451B2 patent drawing

AI summary

Pre-existing business objects (e.g., component parts of large business applications) may already define a hierarchy of related terms and include a search index created by a pre-existing search function. A semantic network including a plurality of semantic knowledge domains may be constructed automatically, based on the objects' initial terms structure and search index, and further modified by search results and related terms returned by the search function. This way, a customer specific semantic network may be constructed automatically from pre-existing software components and terms.