Organizations like the BBC and Financial Times have huge archives, and while a journalist is writing his or her material, the app recommends other related materials and topics and offers additional information, an aid that facilitates the faster writing of articles and allows for adding depth which would take more time and effort without such a tool. Part of the business of publishers is to offer thematic channels, as the technology of Bulgarian software engineers allows for the automatic classification of news and the creation of such channels without the need for expensive editorial work. For example, the sports section of the website of the BBC which uses this technology supports thematic pages for about 1,000 different items - teams, players in these teams, coaches and any events associated with them. Maintaining 1,000 pages or more manually by an editor would be a tremendous effort, while thanks to the development of the Bulgarian software experts, this is already fully automatic.

“Semantic technologies are trying to escape from the realm of large, expensive projects that require expert understanding and very high level of expertise from the client, says Atanas Kiryakov, executive director of the Bulgarian company that developed the platform. “At the moment these technologies are used mainly in projects of the Fortune 500 organizations, the largest companies on the planet, because they require a large investment. The most important thing we are trying to change is to make this technology available to small and medium companies as well as individuals. Part of the efforts in this direction are directed to the development of technologies for personalized delivery of information. If so far the focus has been on text and data analysis independent of the particular person, now we are increasingly trying to do analysis that starts from the interests, knowledge and profile of the individual reader.”

The initial public listing of the company on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) is to take place in September. Atanas Kiryakov explains why this decision was taken:

“We are probably the largest software business that is owned and managed by Bulgaria, and is not a branch of an international company. We are unique compared to other Bulgarian companies for doing business in many industries and regions. We have serious business and large customers on all continents. We do not compete with Indians or Ukrainians for cheap outsourcing services. We make highly specialized products and believe that the Bulgarian Stock Exchange in Sofia will evaluate the potential of this business. Moreover, we think it is better this way for us to assist in the development of the Bulgarian economy. In choosing whether to go out on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange or another one, we thought it would be best to start from here, as we have plans later to make become listed also on other stock exchanges.”

Among the clients of the Bulgarian company are the BBC, Press Association, AstraZeneca, the British Museum, the Financial Times, Europeana... According to Atanas Kiryakov, the top expertise and thehigh quality of the technology are what attracts these customers and allows for drawing powerful organizations.

The future projects of the Bulgarian company will aim at spreading this technology to more and more customers in more and more industries, as they currently entering the financial sphere. A step forward in this field is their new partnership signed a month ago with the US company Keen Analytics , which is expected to help the Bulgarian company with the marketing at the local market in order to reach a greater number of customers, mainly in the financial sector in the US.

English Rossitsa Petcova