Distributed data and ontologies: An integrated semantic web architecture enabling more efficient data management

Regulatory reporting across multiple jurisdictions is a significant cost for financial services organizations, due to a lack of systems integration (often with legacy systems) and no agreed industry data standards. This article describes the design and development of a novel ontology-based framework to illustrate how ontologies can interface with distributed data sources. The framework is then tested using a survey instrument and an integrated research model of user satisfaction and technology acceptance. A description is provided of extensions to an industry standard ontology, specifically the Financial Industry Business Ontology (FIBO), towards enabling greater data interchange. Our results reveal a significant reduction in manual processes, increase in data quality, and improved data aggregation by employing the framework. The research model reveals the range of factors that drive acceptance of the framework. Additional interview evidence reveals that the ontological framework also allows organizations to react to regulatory changes with much-improved timeframes and provides opportunities to test for data quality.