Simplify terms with a business glossary

A business glossary is a centralized repository that defines business terms and concepts, creating a common vocabulary across your organization. Actian empowers data teams through automated business glossary capabilities that eliminate manual documentation overhead.

Key automation features include:

• Smart recommendations that suggest business term classifications based on content analysis.
• Template-driven documentation with drag-and-drop interfaces for quick glossary creation.
• Automated mapping between business concepts and technical data assets.

Actian transforms business glossary management into a dynamic, context-rich intelligence system powered by a federated knowledge graph.

A business glossary supports data intelligence by providing a shared semantic layer that defines how data is understood, interpreted, and governed across the organization.

Data intelligence depends on more than knowing where data lives—it requires clarity about what data means, how it should be used, and which definitions are authoritative. A business glossary establishes standardized business terms, metrics, and concepts, and links them directly to data assets, lineage, and governance policies.

Within a data intelligence platform, the glossary connects human understanding to technical metadata. Business users can discover data using familiar language, while data teams ensure that reports, analytics, and AI models are built on consistent definitions. This alignment reduces ambiguity, prevents conflicting interpretations, and improves trust in analytics and automated decisions.

By grounding metadata, governance, and lineage in a shared vocabulary, a business glossary ensures data intelligence is usable at scale—supporting self-service analytics, regulatory compliance, and reliable AI outcomes.

Traditional business glossaries operate as flat lists or rigid hierarchical structures. Actian revolutionizes this approach through a knowledge graph architecture that creates intelligent, multilateral relationships between business concepts.

Traditional Limitations:

• Static lexicons with limited browsing capabilities.
• Rigid thesaurus structures requiring extensive upfront modeling.
• Limited relationship representation between concepts.
• Manual maintenance overhead.

Actian’s Knowledge Graph Advantage:

• Dynamic, context-aware business term relationships.
• Flexible metamodel that evolves with your organization.
• Automated discovery and classification of business concepts.
• Interactive 360-degree view of relationships and dependencies.

Our graph-based approach empowers organizations to represent complex business vocabularies without the constraints of traditional hierarchical models.

Actian integrates a business glossary and a data catalog through a knowledge graph foundation. This integration empowers users to understand not just what data exists, but what it means in a business context.

Integration capabilities include:

• Semantic Search Enhancement: Business terms improve search relevance and ranking algorithms.
• Automated Asset Tagging: Business concepts are automatically linked to relevant technical assets.
• Lineage Enrichment: Data lineage visualization includes business context alongside technical transformations.
• Quality Indicators: Business glossary terms inherit data quality metrics from connected technical assets.

Our unified approach eliminates the need for separate tools while providing rich context that enhances metadata management and governance workflows.

Actian provides two dedicated applications optimized for different personas and business glossary workflows:

• Actian Studio: For data stewards and governance teams.
  • Comprehensive Glossary Administration: Create, modify, and manage business term hierarchies.
  • Metamodel Configuration: Define custom business concept types and their relationships.
  • Governance Workflow Management: Establish approval processes and stewardship responsibilities.
  • Advanced Relationship Mapping: Configure how business terms connect to technical assets.

• Actian Explorer: For business users and data consumers.
  • Intuitive Glossary Browsing: Search and explore business terms through marketplace-style interfaces.
  • One-Click Access: Instantly access predefined business definitions relevant to specific use cases.
  • Context-Rich Discovery: View business terms alongside relevant data assets and quality indicators.
  • Interactive Exploration: Navigate business concept relationships through visual graph interfaces.

Our dual-approach democratizes business glossary access while maintaining governance control.

A business glossary provides the semantic foundation that transforms AI from experimental models into production-ready, trustworthy systems by adding business context to technical data.

AI Empowerment Capabilities:

• Context Enrichment: Business definitions help AI systems understand not just what data is, but how it should be used.
• Trust Indicators: Business glossary terms include quality indicators essential for AI model training.
• Relationship Intelligence: Knowledge graph technology provides the rich context AI systems require for accurate interpretation.
• Production Readiness: Comprehensive business vocabulary enables AI initiatives to scale beyond isolated experiments.

AI-Ready Data Foundation:

• Automated business term discovery captures context needed for model training.
• Business glossary integration ensures AI systems access governed, trustworthy data.
• Semantic relationships support advanced AI applications requiring business understanding.

Learn more about creating an AI-ready data foundation with the Actian Data Intelligence Platform.