Skip to main content
For Non-Technical Users: This guide provides a high-level overview of ontology concepts and how to use an ontology that’s already been set up by your team. If you’re a technical user looking to build and configure ontology, check out our How It Works > Ontology section for detailed technical documentation.

​
What is Ontology

Think of ontology as a business dictionary for your data. Ontologies tell Ana exactly what things mean in your business, so everyone gets consistent answers.
Example Ontology

An example ontology showing how business concepts connect together

​
The Problem It Solves

Imagine three people calculating “total revenue” and getting three different numbers:
  • Person A includes refunds
  • Person B only counts completed orders
  • Person C uses gross revenue before discounts
With ontology, you define “Total Revenue” once. Everyone uses the same calculation and gets the same answer.

​
A Simple Analogy

  • Without Ontology: Like asking someone to cook dinner without a recipe. They’ll figure it out, using their best intuition.
  • With Ontology: Like giving someone a cookbook. The recipe for “Total Revenue” is written down, tested, and ready to use. Anyone can follow it and get the same result.
Note: The majority of organizations do not need an ontology setup. Ana will tell you what assumptions she made.