Software & Information

Technology à Glossary of Terms

Software & Information Technology
Glossary of Terms
Business software and information technology are changing rapidly, and so is the terminology
used by business professionals, software and IT professionals. For your reference, following is
an alphabetical listing of terms that will be updated frequently for accuracy. Have a suggestion
for a term? Please contact the Business Software Education Center via our website contact form.

Agile – Agile software development refers to a group of software development methodologies.

These are based on iterative development, where the requirements and solutions are created
through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams.

Analytics – Analytics has emerged as a catch-all term for a variety of different business intelligence
(BI) - and application-related initiatives. For some, it is the process of analyzing information from
a particular domain, such as website analytics. For others, it is applying the breadth of BI capabilities
to a specific content area (for example, sales, service, supply chain). In particular, BI vendors use
the “analytics” moniker to differentiate their products from the competition. Increasingly, “analytics”
is used to describe statistical and mathematical data analysis that clusters, segments, scores and
predicts what scenarios are most likely to happen. Whatever the use cases, “analytics” has moved
deeper into the business vernacular. Analytics has garnered a burgeoning interest from business and
IT professionals looking to exploit huge mounds of internally generated and externally available data.

A
Application Programming Interface (API) – An API is what helps different components of
software work together so that they all seem to operate as a single software. Such interfaces
are very common and help coordinate numerous “moving parts” to make a program or app
easy to use.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Software that is capable of intelligent behavior. In creating intelligent
software, this involves simulating a number of capabilities, including reasoning, learning, problem
solving, perception, knowledge representation.

Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (AIML) – Artificial Intelligence Markup Language,

is an XML dialect for creating natural language software agents.

Augmented Reality (AR) – AR is the integration of digital information with the user’s environment
in real time.

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Back End – What you see when you click on a Web page is the front end. The back end is
everything else behind the scenes of that page, like the content management system (CMS),
web servers, databases or applications that make the page work. When developing your
website, what is in the back end can have an effect on what search engines see.

Back Up – Computer programs used to perform a backup; they create supplementary exact
copies of files, databases or entire computers.

Best-in-Class – The superior product or solution within a category of hardware or software.

Big Data – A phrase used to mean a massive volume of both structured and unstructured
data that is so large it is difficult to process using traditional database and software techniques.

Blockchain – A blockchain is an expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable

transactional records shared by all participants in a network. Each record contains a time stamp
and reference links to previous transactions. With this information, anyone with access rights
can trace back a transactional event, at any point in its history, belonging to any participant.
A blockchain is one architectural design of the broader concept of distributed ledgers.

Business Analytics – The combination of skills, technologies, applications and processes

used by organizations to gain insight in to their business based on data and statistics to drive

B
business planning.

Business Continuity/Business Continuity Planning (BCP) – An application or suite designed

to make business continuity planning/business continuity management (BCP/BCM) processes,
metrics and compliance more efficient and accurate.

Business Intelligence (BI) software – BI is the information a business collects about itself. This
can include a very broad swath of data, which is why businesses often need business intelligence
software. These programs let companies keep all their BI data in one place so that it is easier to
access and analyze.

Business Process Automation (BPA) – A process of managing information, data and processes
to reduce costs, resources and investment.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) – A generic term that involves hiring another company to
take responsibility for a set of business activities or a single function.

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Change Management – A systematic approach to dealing with the transition or transformation
of an organization’s goals, processes or technologies.

Chief Information Officer (CIO) – A job title commonly given to the most senior executive in
an enterprise who works with information technology and computer systems, in order to support
enterprise goals.

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – The individual within an organization who oversees the current
technology and creates relevant policy.

Cloud backup – Data backed up in the cloud is transferred from a business to the data-storage
provider’s servers over the Internet. Cloud backup, also called online backup, can be set up to
occur automatically, making it a convenient data-storage option. It’s also an affordable service
because it does not require the use of any additional hardware on the part of the business.

Cloud Computing – On-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage
and computing power, without direct active management by the user.

Cloud Hosting – Companies that don’t lease servers may instead pay for data to be stored on
virtual servers. These servers are said to be based in the cloud if they can be accessed only with

C
an Internet connection. Businesses typically access cloud-based servers through software
interfaces specific to their cloud-hosting service providers.

Cloud Management Platform (CMP) – A cloud management platform is a suite of integrated

software tools that an enterprise can use to monitor and control cloud computing resources.

Cloud Security – A broad set of policies, technologies, applications, and controls utilized to protect
virtualized IP, data, applications, services, and the associated infrastructure of cloud computing.

Collaboration Tools – Broadly, collaboration includes file-sharing tools like Dropbox, to

web-conferencing tools like Webex and GoToMeeting, to software and systems like Slack
and Basecamp.

Content Management System (CMS) – Used to manage the content of a website. They usually
include a Web-based publishing feature, which allows for editing and formatting of content without
the use of a Web coding language, like HTML. Many CMS also feature one-to-one marketing tools
that enable targeted advertising.

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Corporate Performance Management (CPM) – Used to described the methodologies and
processes that help you manage the success of an organization.

Crypto/Crypto Currency – A digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses
strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and
verify the transfer of assets.

Customer Experience (CX) – A customer management strategy that helps you decide what you
have to do in order to deliver a remarkable customer experience across interactions, and measure
the results to further improve your CX strategy.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software – Customer relationship management

is the term used for the way a business collects and manages data about its clients. Companies
use CRM software to keep track of all the information they collect on clients, such as service
calls made, or previous products purchased. This helps businesses close future deals and grow
relationships with customers.

Custom Software Development – Some businesses require tailor-made software for their daily
operations. Instead of using mass-produced software packages, such businesses use programs
created by software development companies or in-house software development groups.

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Dashboards – An information management tool that visually tracks, analyzes and displays key
performance indicators (KPI), metrics and key data points to monitor the health of a business,
department or specific process. They are customizable to meet the specific needs of a department
and company.

Data Center – A facility that houses computer and data-storage systems, including servers.
Many data centers are owned by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or large companies, like
Google or Amazon.

Data Governance – The overall management of the availability, usability, integrity and security of
data used in an enterprise.

Data Integration – Refers to the act of collecting and combining information from multiple sources
for the purposes of analysis and reporting.

Data Scientist – A multi-disciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and
systems to extract knowledge and insights from structured and unstructured data.

Data Warehouse – A database designed for data analysis instead of standard transactional
processing. A data warehouse acts as a conduit between operational data stores and supports
analytics on the composite data.

D
DevOps – An enterprise software development phrase used to mean a type of agile relationship
between development and IT operations. The goal of DevOps is to change and improve the
relationship by advocating better communication and collaboration between these two
business units.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) – DAM is a business process for organizing, storing and
retrieving rich media and managing digital rights and permissions. Rich media assets include
photos, music, videos, animations, podcasts and other multimedia content.

Digital Transformation (DT/DX) – The full-scale improvement and automation of business

processes and activities.

Disaster Recovery – A type of program used to facilitate the preventative planning and execution
of catastrophic events that have the ability to severely damage a computer, network or server.

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 D
Disruption - The act or process of disrupting something: a break or interruption in the normal
course or continuation of some activity, process, etc. In business theory, a disruptive innovation
is an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing
market and value network, displacing established market-leading firms, products, and alliances.
Not all innovations are disruptive, even if they are revolutionary.

Document Management – The system of creating, sharing, organizing and storing documents
within an organization. Whether it’s self-hosted or cloud-based, document management software
can be used to help facilitate the document-management process.

Domain Name Service (DNS) – Every domain name is translated into numbers as an IP address
when it is entered into a browser’s address bar. The DNS is a directory of those numbers.

Distributed Systems – The bigger the business, the more it needs a distributed system to handle
the data and server requests that may come in and flow out. This system uses several computers
connected on a network to provide a service, compute data or accomplish tasks.

E-commerce – Commercial transactions conducted electronically on the Internet.

Edge Computing – A distributed computing paradigm which brings computation and data storage
closer to the location where it is needed, to improve response times and save bandwidth.

E
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) - Is the electronic interchange of business information using
a standardized format; a process which allows one company to send information to another company
electronically rather than with paper. Business entities conducting business electronically are called
trading partners.

Encryption – The process of converting data to an unrecognizable or “encrypted” form.

Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) – A field of business performance management

which considers the visibility of operations in a closed-loop model across all facets of the enterprise.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software – Allows a company to manage various aspects
of a business — such as accounting, inventory and human relations — in one place. Companies
purchase the enterprise software modules that are relevant to their business and use the ERP
software to view all the data collected by these modules in a uniform manner.

E-procurement – The business-to-business (B2B) requisitioning, ordering and purchasing of goods

and services over the internet.

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Fintech – Computer programs and other technology used to support or enable banking and
financial services.

F
Firewall – A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) – A standard network protocol used for the transfer of computer
files between a client and server on a computer network.

G
Gamification – Is the use of game mechanics to drive engagement in non-game business scenarios
and to change behaviors in a target audience to achieve business outcomes. Many types of games
include game mechanics such as points, challenges, leaderboards, rules and incentives that make
game-play enjoyable. Gamification applies these to motivate the audience to higher and more
meaningful levels of engagement. Humans are “hard-wired” to enjoy games and have a natural
tendency to interact more deeply in activities that are framed in a game construct.

Grid Computing – A collection of computers working together to perform various tasks.

It distributes the workload across multiple systems, allowing computers to contribute their
individual resources to a common goal.

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Hadoop – An open source distributed processing framework that manages data processing and
storage for big data applications in scalable clusters of computer servers.

Healthcare/Hospital Information System (HIS) – A system designed to manage healthcare data.

This includes systems that collect, store, manage and transmit a patient’s electronic medical record
(EMR), a hospital’s operational management or a system supporting healthcare policy decisions.

Human Resource Management System (HRMS) – A form of human resources (HR) software
that combines a number of systems and processes to ensure the easy management of human
resources, business processes and data.

Human Capital Management (HCM) – Is the comprehensive set of an organization’s practices for
recruiting, managing, developing, and optimizing employees in order to maximize their business value.

Hybrid Cloud Computing – A cloud computing environment that uses a mix of on-premises,
private cloud and third-party, public cloud services with orchestration between the two platforms.

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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – Online services that provide high-level APIs used to dereference
various low-level details of underlying network infrastructure like physical computing resources, location,
data partitioning, scaling, security, backup etc.

Integration – Combining software parts into one system.

Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) - Refers to the application of Artificial Intelligence and related
new technologies, including Computer Vision, Cognitive automation and Machine Learning to Robotic
Process Automation.

Internet of Things (IoT) – The network of interconnected things/devices which are embedded with
sensors, software, network connectivity and necessary electronics that enables them to collect and
exchange data making them responsive.

Interoperability – A characteristic of a product or system, whose interfaces are completely understood,

to work with other products or systems, at present or in the future, in either implementation or access,
without any restrictions.

Intranet – A private network that can only be accessed by authorized users.

I
IT Outsourcing – A phrase used to describe the practice of seeking resources, or subcontracting,
outside of an organizational structure for all or part of an IT (Information Technology) function.

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Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – A quantifiable measure used to evaluate the success of an
organization, employee, etc. in meeting objectives for performance.

K
L
Lean – Creating greater value for the consumer while using fewer resources. Lean Enterprise is the
extended supply chain responsible for effectively satisfying consumer requirements using a minimum
of resources.

Learning Management System (LMS) – Learning management systems or LMS are used by
businesses for training employees. Such systems help human resource departments plan, implement
and assess the training process. Video conferencing, discussion forums and other interactive features
are usually included within a learning management system’s software.

Legacy Application – A software program that is outdated or obsolete.

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Machine Learning – An example of machine learning is Siri, Apple’s AI (artificial intelligence) personal
assistant. By inferring a general set of rules, refined by use, the algorithm finds an approximate solution
in place of having a specific algorithm for each individual function.

Managed Services/Managed Service Provider (MSP) – Many day-to-day business activities can
be outsourced as a means of cutting costs and increasing overall efficiency within a company. Such
a practice is known as using managed services. Human relations activities and information technology
activities are two common areas of expertise often subjected to this practice.

Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) – A method for the effective planning of all resources of
a manufacturing company.

Marketing Automation (MA) – There are software or online services that measure marketing
efforts through tools such as emails, social media, reporting, analytics and customer relationship
management. Social media posts can be input and scheduled for release, and then data collected
to measure effectiveness.

Merchant Account – Merchant accounts are generally credit card processing systems, based
on agreements with banking institutions necessary for businesses accepting credit and debit card
transactions. In exchange for converting credit card payments into cash, banks charge merchants
an interchange fee, as well as other fees.

M
Metadata – Tthe data providing information about one or more aspects of the data; it is used to
summarize basic information.

Middleware – Is software that lies between an operating system and the applications running on it.

Multi-cloud – Several different public clouds are used, instead of just one.

Multi-tenancy – A software architecture in which a single instance of software runs on a server and
serves multiple tenants. Systems designed in such manner are often called shared.

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 N
Network Security – Consists of the policies and practices adopted to prevent and monitor
unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and
network-accessible resources.

O
Onboarding - The action or process of integrating a new employee into an organization or familiarizing
a new customer or client with one’s products or services.

On-Premise - The software and technology that is located within the physical confines of an enterprise
often in the company’s data center – as opposed to running remotely on hosted servers or in the cloud.

Open Architecture - A type of computer architecture or software architecture intended to make adding,
upgrading, and swapping components easy.

Open Source - Open source describes code that is available publicly and that anyone can use. People
can take it and modify it for their purposes.

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Password Management Tools – Password management (PM) tools are products that provide
users with the means to reset their own passwords after an account lockout or when they forget
their passwords. PM tools can also synchronize passwords for users across multiple systems,
allowing users to access multiple applications with the same password.

Penetration Testing – The practice of testing a computer system, network or web application to
find security vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit.

Performance Management Software – Human resources professionals often rely on performance

management software to keep track of employee performance. Large amounts of data can be organized
and analyzed more efficiently with the use of this software.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) – A category of cloud computing services that provides a platform
allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and
maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app.

Portal – A website or web page providing access or links to other sites.

Predictive Analytics – Encompasses a variety of statistical techniques from data mining to machine
learning, that analyze current and historical facts to make predictions about future or otherwise

P
unknown events.

Private Cloud Computing – A model of cloud computing where IT services are provisioned over
private IT infrastructure for the dedicated use of a single organization.

Procure-to-Pay Solution – A term used in the software industry to designate a specific subdivision of
the procurement process.

Project Management – The practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work
of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time.

Public Cloud Computing – Computing services offered by third-party providers over the public
Internet, making them available to anyone who wants to use or purchase them. They may be free or
sold on-demand, allowing customers to pay only per usage for the CPU cycles, storage, or band
width they consume.

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Quantum Computing – The area of study focused on developing computer technology based on
the principles of quantum theory, which explains the nature and behavior of energy and matter on the

Q
quantum (atomic and subatomic) level.

R
Regulatory Compliance – Conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or laws that
a business must obey, or risk legal sanctions, up to and including prison for its officers.

Remote Diagnostics – Act of diagnosing a given symptom, issue or problem from a distance. Instead
of the subject being co-located with the person or system done diagnostics, with remote diagnostics the
subjects can be separated by physical distance.

Risk Management – The forecasting and evaluation of financial risks together with the identification of
procedures to avoid or minimize their impact.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – The use of software with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine
learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that previously required humans to perform.

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Salesforce Automation (SFA) – A technique of using software to automate the business tasks of sales,
including order processing, contact management, information sharing, inventory monitoring and control,
order tracking, customer management, sales forecast analysis and employee performance evaluation.

Scalability – Scalability is a characteristic of a system, model, or function that describes its capability to
cope and perform well under an increased or expanding workload or scope.

Server Hosting – Servers are devices that support a company’s computer and Internet networks, and
“host” all its associated data. They are typically owned by Internet service providers (ISPs), which lease out
server space in addition to providing customers with Internet connectivity. Businesses without the in-house
technical support necessary to maintain a server typically rent space on a remote server or use a managed
hosting service. These services provide businesses with their own servers and also provide full-time
technical support.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) – A commitment between a service provider and a client.

Single Sign-on (SSO) – A property of access control of multiple related, yet independent,
software systems.

Small and Midsize Business (SMB) – Small businesses are usually defined as organizations with

S
fewer than 100 employees; midsize businesses are those organizations with 100 to 999 employees.

Software as a Service (SaaS) – Otherwise known as “software on demand,” this is a term associated
with cloud computing. SaaS is a way of delivering business software via the Internet. SaaS usually can be paid
for on a monthly basis, making it more affordable than other software options. Many business-management
software packages, such as project management software, are now also available in SaaS form.

SSL/HTTPS – SSL is an acronym for Secure Sockets Layer. HTTPS is an acronym for Hypertext Transport
Protocol Secure which provides security services for transaction confidentiality, authenticity and integrity
between HTTP servers and clients for web browsers, and can be seen in the domain line of a website.
HTTPS is now a search engine ranking factor.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) – The software tools or modules used in executing supply chain
transactions, managing supplier relationships and controlling associated business processes.

Systems Integration – Process of linking together various IT systems, services and/or software to enable
all of them to work functionally together.

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 T
Technology Stack – There are many different components to a network, from security to navigation.
A technology stack describes the layering of those components, like data management, logins
and retention.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) – The sum of all costs involved in the purchase, operation and
maintenance of a given asset during its lifetime.

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) – A set of networking protocols that

allows two or more computers to communicate.

U
User Experience (UX) – The overall experience of a person using a product such as a website or
computer application, especially in terms of how easy it is to use.

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 V
Value-Added Reseller (VAR) – A company that adds features or services to an existing product, then
resells it (usually to end-users) as an integrated product or complete “turn-key” solution.

Vendor Neutral – A business and design approach that seeks to ensure broad compatibility and
interchangeability of products and technologies.

Version Control – Version control keeps programmers and engineers, for example, from writing over the
work of their co-workers. This not only keeps historical data intact so you can backtrack and find how a
task was accomplished, but also allows for progress on multiple fronts when teams are working together
on systems. Having access to older versions allows for better troubleshooting as well.

Virtual Assistant (VA) – Usually cloud-based programs that require internet-connected devices and/or
applications to work.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) – A VPN allows users to connect to a private network from anywhere
for added security. Instead of using the public network, which comes with a heightened security risk,
employees can connect to your private network with the same security as if they were in the office.

Virtual Reality (VR) – An artificial environment that is created with software and presented to the user
in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment.

W
Warehouse Management System (WMS) – A software made to help users improve the efficiency
of tracking inventory and supplies as they move through a warehouse or distribution center. A WMS
also makes certain processes, such as receiving, picking, and putting away products, faster and
more accurate.

Web App – A web page that looks and acts like an app on a smartphone or tablet. Web apps provide
viewers with a familiar format, more intuitive navigation, and are immediately mobile friendly.

Workflow Management - A software application designed for setting up and monitoring a defined set
of tasks along with its sequence.

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About the Business Software Education Center
The mission of the Business Software Education Center is to provide information, resources,
training and programs on all aspects of business software and related technologies including digital
transformation, process automation, analytics, and data security. Additionally, the Business Software
Education Center will research technology solution best practices for Accounting/Finance, Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP), Business Intelligence, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and
more. For more information, visit www.BusinessSoftwareEducationCenter.org,
or call 800-642-2748.

About the Sponsor

MIBAR.net is a leading implementation partner and application consultant for NetSuite, Acumatica,
Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power BI, and Microsoft Dynamics GP platforms. Since 1991, MIBAR has
implemented ERP, CRM, BI, mobile, and eCommerce solutions for mid-market businesses across
the United States. For more information visit www.MIBAR.net, or call 800-MIBAR-4-U.

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