Autonomy: Understanding What Matters

Founded in 1996 and utilizing a unique combination of technologies borne out of research at Cambridge University, Autonomy has experienced a meteoric rise. The company currently has a market cap of $4 billion with offices worldwide. Autonomy's position as industry leader is widely recognized by analysts including Gartner, Forrester Research and Delphi. Delphi calls Autonomy the fastest growing public company in the space.

What is Meaning Based Computing?

The last few years have seen explosive growth in the use of unstructured information, which includes documents, emails, telephone conversations and multimedia. More than 80% of all information inside an enterprise is now unstructured and this 'human-friendly' information has traditionally been difficult for computers to understand and use. Meaning Based Computing solves this problem. Autonomy is the acknowledged leader in the rapidly growing area of Meaning Based Computing (MBC).

Meaning Based Computing enables computers to understand the relationships that exist between disparate pieces of information and perform sophisticated analysis operations with real business value, automatically and in real-time.

How is Meaning Based Computing Different from Traditional Methods Like Keyword Search?

Meaning Based Computing extends far beyond traditional methods such as keyword search which simply allow users to find and retrieve data. Keyword search engines, for example, cannot comprehend the meaning of information, so they only find documents in which a specific word occurs. Unfortunately, this inability to understand information means that other documents that discuss the same idea (i.e. are relevant) but use different words, are often overlooked. Equally, documents with a meaning entirely different to that which the user searches for are frequently returned, forcing the user to alter their query to accommodate the search engine.

While Autonomy implements fully and acknowledges the importance of keyword technologies, it is its advanced capabilities that have allowed it to excel. In addition, some of the key functionality of Meaning Based Computing such as automatic hyperlinking and clustering are simply not available in keyword search engines. For example, automatic hyperlinking which connects users to a range of pertinent documents, services or products that are contextually linked to the original text, requires that the meaning of the original document is fully understood. Similarly for computers to automatically collect, analyze and organize information, computers have to be able to extract meaning. Only Meaning Based Computing Systems can do this.

Who is Using Meaning Based Computing?

More than 17,000 blue-chip corporations and government agencies rely on the powerful pattern matching algorithms in Autonomy's products to extract meaning from unstructured information. For example, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security uses Meaning Based Computing across 21 agencies to monitor suspected terrorist groups, create a consolidated terrorist watch list, and alert authorities in real-time to potential terrorist activity. The Ford Motor Company uses Meaning Based Computing to transform the text, audio and video files in its research libraries to meaningful reference material so more than 150 thousand employees can get up to speed on new projects even faster. Zurich Financial Services, which has offices in more than 60 countries, uses Meaning Based Computing to prioritize research from more than 500 sources so risk managers can uncover potential threats and opportunities.

Other companies already benefiting from Meaning Based Computing include: BAE Systems, Boeing, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Shell, AOL, BBC, Reuters, 3, Ericsson, T-Mobile, Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Nestle, Lloyds TSB, GlaxoSmithKline, KPMG, Citigroup, ABN AMRO, Deutsche Bank and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

By providing the software infrastructure that automates advanced operations on this unstructured information, Autonomy provides customers with a compelling value proposition. Autonomy's IDOL automatically analyzes and organizes enterprise content including both structured and unstructured information, bringing a level of understanding and adding a layer of intelligence to that information. In essence, by forming a conceptual and contextual understanding of any piece of data, including text, voice and video, irrespective of data type or storage location, and performing advanced operations on that information in real-time, Autonomy enables organizations to penetrate their information silos and make the most of their assets. By automating the process of managing information, Autonomy enables customers to realize their full potential.