Definitions:

Term Definition
An organization that can respond properly and in a
Adaptive
timely manner to changes in the business
enterprise
environment
A method by which a company generates revenue
Business model
to sustain itself
Computer-based
Information system that includes a computer for
information
some or all of its operation
system (CBIS)
Critical response The major activities used by organizations to
activities counter business pressures
Another name for today’s Web based or Internet
Digital economy
economy
A new business model that uses IT in a fundamental
way to accomplish one or more of three basic
objectives: reach and engage customers more
Digital enterprise effectively, boost employee productivity and
improve operating efficiency. It uses converged
communication and computing technology in a way
that improves business processes
A branch of philosophy that deals with what is
Ethics
considered to be right or wrong
A physical process that supports an organization by
Information collecting, processing, storing and analyzing data
system (IS) and disseminating information to achieve
organizational goals
The technology component of an information
Information system ( a narrow definition); or the collection of the
technology (IT) computing systems in an organization( the broad
definition used in this book)
A corporate information infrastructure that provides
Networked the necessary networks for distributed computing.
computing Users can easily contact each other or databases
and communicate with external entities
An information system that provides real time
Real time system
access to information or data
Definitions:
Term Definition
A set of computer instructions written in a
programming language, the purpose of which is to
Application
support a specific task or business process or
program
another application program

Organizational plans, visions, objectives and

Business problems and the information required to support
architecture them.

A collection of activities performed to accomplish a

Business process clearly defined goal

The director of the IS department in a large

Chief Information organization, analogous to a CEO, COO or CFO also
Officer (CIO) known as chief technology organization

An elementary description of things, events,

activities and transactions that are recorded,
classified and stored but not organized to convey
Data item any specific meaning can be numeric,
alphanumeric, figures, sounds or images

Clerical workers who use, manipulate or

disseminate information, typically using document
Data workers management, workflow, e-mail and co-ordination
software to do so

A collection of stored data items organized for

Database retrieval

Web based public e-marketplaces, where many

Electronic business buyers and many sellers interact
exchanges dynamically

A network of interactions and relationships over

Electronic market which products, services, information and
(e-market) payments are exchanged

Enterprise Web The sum of a company’s systems, information, and

 services that are available on the Web, working
together as one entity.

Inter organizational systems that connect

Global information
companies located in two or more countries
systems (GIS)
The use of networks to harness the unused
processing cycles of all computers in a given
Grid computing
network to create powerful computing capabilities

Data that have been organized so they have

Information meaning and value to the recipient

The physical arrangement of hardware, software,

Information databases, networks and information management
Infrastructure personnel

A physical process that supports an organization

by collecting, processing, storing and analyzing
Information
data and disseminating information to achieve
system (IS)
organizational goals

High-level map or plan of the information assets in

Information
an organization; on the Web, it includes the
Technology
content and architecture of the site
architecture
Data and/or information that have been organized
and processed to convey understanding,
Knowledge: experience, accumulated learning m and
expertise.

Knowledge People who create and use knowledge as a

workers: significant part of their work responsibilities.
Systems designed to provide past , present and
Management future routine information appropriate for planning
information , organizing and controlling the operations of
systems (MISs): functional areas in an organization

Mobile commerce Any e-commerce done in a wireless environment ,

(m-commerce, m- especially via the Internet
business)
Information system applications in a wireless
Mobile computing
environment
A system that supports the activities performed by
Personal
individuals in their work or life through the
Information
acquisition, organization, maintenance, retrieval
management (PIM)
and sharing of information
Pervasive Invisible, everywhere computing that is embedded
computing in the objects around us
 An architectural concept that defines the use of
services to support a variety of business needs. In
Service-oriented
SOA, existing IT assets (called services) are reused
architecture (SOA)
and reconnected rather than the more time
consuming and costly reinvention of new systems
Also referred to as on-demand computing, utility
computing or hosted services. Instead of buying
Software-as-a and installing expensive packaged enterprise
Service (SaaS) applications users’ access applications over a
network, with an Internet browser being the only
absolute necessity
Transaction An information system that processes an
processing system organization’s basic business transactions such as
(TPS) purchasing, billing and payroll
Unlimited computing power and storage capacity
that, like electricity, water and telephone services,
Utility computing can be obtained on demand used and reallocated
for any application and billed on a pay-per-use
basis
The separation of business applications and data
from hardware resources allowing companies to
Virtualization: pool hardware resources-rather than to dedicate
servers to applications- and assign those
resources to applications as needed
An application delivered on the Internet or intranet
Web-based system
using Web tools, such as a search engine
Modular business and consumer applications,
delivered over the Internet, that users can select
Web Services
and combine through almost any device, enabling
disparate systems to share data and services

Definitions:
Term Definition
Analysis of accumulated data, frequently by end
Analytical users, through data mining, DSS,EIS and web
processing applications also referred to as business
intelligence
Each characteristic or quality describing a
Attribute particular entity (corresponds to a field on a
record)
Data that can be collected automatically using
Clickstream data
special software from the company’s website
Clickstream data Data warehouses capable of showing both e-
 business activities and the non-Web aspects of a
warehouses
business in an integrated fashion
A collection of stored data items organized for
Database
retrieval
The program (or group of programs) that provides
Database access to a database. The DBMS permits an
Management organization to centralize data, manage them
system (DBMS) efficiently and provide access to the stored data
by application programs
The language used by programmers to specify the
Data definition types of information and structure of the
language (DDL) database. It is essentially the link between the
logical and physical views of the database
Stores definitions of a data elements and data
characteristics such as usage, physical
Data dictionary representation, ownership (who in the organization
is responsible for maintaining the data),
authorization and security
The actual values across various copies of the data
Data inconsistency
no longer agree or are not synchronized
Data integrity The accuracy, correctness and validity of data
A problem caused by faulty file organization
Data isolation leading to difficulty in accessing data from
different applications
The language used with a third or fourth-
generation language to manipulate the data in the
database. This language contains commands that
Data manipulation permit end users and programming specialists to
language (DML) extract data from the database to satisfy
information requests and develop applications.
The DML provides users with the ability to retrieve,
sort, display and delete the contents of a database
A subset of the data warehouse, usually originated
Data mart
for a specific purpose or major data subject
Defines the way data are conceptually structured.
Examples of model forms include the hierarchical,
Data model network, relational, object-oriented, object
relational, hypermedia and multidimensional
model
A measure of the accuracy, accessibility,
Data quality (DQ) relevance, timeliness, completeness and other
characteristics that describe useful data
The same data duplicated in several files as
Data redundancy applications and their data files are created by
different programmers over a period of time
Tables that represented the physical view of the
Data tables
data
Data warehouse A repository of historical data, subject-oriented
and organized so as to be easily accessed and
 manipulated for decision support
Direct file access Method of keeping records that uses the key field
method to locate the physical address of a record
The automated control of electronic documents,
page images, spreadsheets, voice word processing
Document
documents and other complex documents through
management
their entire life cycle within an organization from
initial creation to final archiving
Systems that provided decision makers with
Document
information in an electronic format and usually
management
include computerized imaging systems that can
systems (DMSs)
result in substantial savings
Diagrams that represent the logical view of how
Entity-relationship
the data
diagrams (ERDs)
are organized
Keys that provide relationships between two
Foreign keys
tables
Indexed
A method that uses an index key fields to locate
sequential access
individual records
method (ISAM)
The user’s view of a database program represents
Logical view data in a format that is meaningful to a user and
to the software programs that process those data
Marketing
An interactive database oriented toward targeting
transaction
marketing messages in real time
database (MTD)
Metadata Data about data, such as indices or summaries
Specialized data stores that organize facts by
Multidimensional
dimensions such as geographical region, time
database
,product line or sales person
A database that provides a clean data to the
Operational data
operational , mission critical , short term oriented
store
applications
A view of a database that deals with the actual,
physical arrangement and location of data in the
Physical view direct access storage devices (DASDs). Database
specialists use the physical view to make efficient
use of storage and processing resources
The identifier of a field of a record so that the
Primary key
record can be retrieved, updated and sorted
The logical description of the entire database and
Schema the listing of all the data items and the
relationships among them
Fields in a database that have some identifying
Secondary keys information, but typically do not identify the file
with complete accuracy
Sequential file File organization method in which data records
organization must be retrieved in the same physical sequence
in which they are stored. In direct or random file
 organization, users can retrieve records in any
sequence, without regard to actual physical order
on the storage medium
A data definition and management language of
Structured query
relational databases. It front-ends most relational
language (SQL)
DBMS

Definitions:
Term Definition
3GSM (Third
generation Global 3GSM enables mobile multimedia services such as
system for mobile music, TV and video, rich entertainment content
communication and Internet access
services)
A protocol designed for transferring or sharing
BitTorrent files. The most distinctive feature of BitTorrents is
that they were designed to handle huge files
A server used in the communication between
BitTorrent tracker
peers using the BitTorrent protocol
A personal Web site, open to the public, in which
Blog
the owner expresses his or her feelings or opinions
Chip technology that enables voice and data
communications between many wireless devices
Bluetooth through low power, short-range, digital two-way
radio frequency

High-speed networks can be wireline, wireless or

Broadband both. Broadband comes from the word broad
bandwidth
Wireless communication protocol used with most
CDMA(Code 2.5G and 3G systems that separates different
Division Multiple users by assigning different codes to the segments
Access) of each user’s communications

Gateways to the Internet that offer content for

broad and diverse audiences; these are the most
Commercial
popular portals on the Internet such as yahoo.com
portals
and msn.com

Corporate The gateway for entering a corporate website. It is

(enterprise) portal usually a home page, which allows for
communication, collaboration and access to
diversified information
 A portal that provides team members with models
Decision portal they can use to evaluate decision criteria,
objectives and alternatives from their desktops
A qualitative forecasting methodology using
Delphi method
anonymous questionnaires
EDGE A technology that significantly increased the
network( Enhance capacity of GSM networks to enable data speeds
d Data rates for of up to 384 kilobits per second(Kbps)
GSM Evolution)
A technology that offers the potential of cutting
much of the complexity accumulated in
Enterprise search
applications and internet sites throughout an
organization
A fast wireless broadband access(3G) that does
EV-DO (Evolution
not need a Wi-Fi hotspot
Data Optimized)
A secured network that allows business partners to
Extranet access portions of each others’ intranets. It is
usually Internet based
Any work being performed by more than one
Group work
person
In a meeting, continual reinforcement of an idea
Groupthink
by group members
GSM (Global
system for mobile GSM is a digital mobile telephone system that is
communications widely used in Europe and other parts of the world
services)
Software agents that exhibit intelligent behavior
Intelligent agents
and learning
Protocol used to prepare data and documents for
Internet Protocol transmission, they are converted into digital
(IP) packets based on the and sent via computer
networks or LANs
Internet telephony Technology that makes it possible to talk long
(voice over distance on the Internet without paying normal
Internet Protocol) long-distance telephone charges
Connectivity between devices.
Interoperability
A corporate network that functions with Internet
Intranet technologies, such as browsers and search
engines, using Internet protocols
Mesh network A type of wireless sensor network composed of
motes, where each mote “wakes up” or activates
for a fraction of a second when it has data to
transmit and then relays that data to its nearest
neighbor. So instead of every mote transmitting its
information to a remote computer at a base
station, an “electronic bucket brigade” moves the
 data mote by mote until it reaches a central
computer where it can be stored and analyzed
Information that influences the description of a
Meta-tags
web page in crawlers
A gateway to the Internet accessible from mobile
Mobile portal devices; aggregates content and services for
mobile users
A social network that started as a site for fans of
MySpace
independent rock music
Nominal group A simple brainstorming process for non electronic
technique (NGT) meetings
A technology that converts voice, video and data
into packets that can be transmitted together over
Packet technology
a single , high-speed network – eliminating the
need for separate network
Podcast (pod) Audio or video files sent over the Internet
Podcaster An author of a podcast
A way to distribute or receive audio and more
Podcasting recently video files (pods or podcasts) over the
Internet
A mode of SMS in which a message is sent to
Point-to-point SMS
another subscriber
Web-based personalized gateways to information
Portals
and knowledge in network computing
A function that allows users of e-mail or instant
Presence
messaging to communicate their current
functionality
availability to associates
Gateways to the Internet that are intended for
communities with specific interests; involve little
Publishing portals
content customization but provide extensive
online search in a specific area
Various standards of Web feed formats that
automate the delivery of Internet content. They
RSS (Really Simple
are an easy way to receive newly released
Syndication)
information customized to a person’s interests and
needs
Web sites designed to help people find information
stored o other sites. They index billions of pages,
Search engine
and respond to tens of millions of queries per day

The protocol and industry standard that provide

SIP (Session easy and intuitive access to the network from any
Initiation Protocol) device, anywhere, any time, seamlessly

Short messaging Technology that allows for sending of short text

service (SMS) messages on some cell phones
Internet-enabled cell phones that can support
Smart phone
mobile applications
 A place where people create their own space, or
homepage on which they write blogs (Web logs),
Social network
post pictures, videos or music share ideas and link
to other Web locations they find interesting
Spider-based search engines that use automated
Spiders (crawlers) software agents that scour the Web every few
minutes searching for information on Web pages
A popular device for professionals. They have a
Tablet PCs (pen- stylus to write handwritten notes on the screen,
based computing) usually about 12 inches. Tablet PCs typically work
with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and EDGE
TDMA (Time A technology for delivering digital wireless service
Division Multiple using time-division multiplexing such as the GSM
Access) digital cellular system
Transmission A protocol that provides a reliable, connection-
Control Protocol oriented method of packet delivery over the
(TCP) Internet
User Datagram Internet protocol that allow video streams to be
Protocol (UDP) compressed and sent as IP packets
B2B portals that focus on a single industry or
Vertical Portals
industry segment
(vortals)
A Web site with audio interface, accessed by a
Voice portal standard or cell phone call

A piece of server software available in a Web site

Wiki that allows users to freely create and edit Web
page content using any Web browser
A blog that allows everyone to participate as a
Wikilog
peer; any one may add, delete or change content
An immensely content-rich, multilingual wiki that
Wikipedia
collects knowledge by consensus
A programming language and an international
XBRL standard for electronic transmission of business
and financial information
A simplified version of the general data
description language, SGML; used to improve
XML (eXtensible
compatibility between the disparate systems of
Markup Language)
business partners by defining the meaning of data
in business documents
Definitions:
Term Definition
A competitive process in which either a seller
solicits consecutive bids from buyers or a buyer
Auction
solicits bids from sellers, and prices are
determined dynamically by competitive bidding
Business-to- A special type of intra business e-commerce in
employees (B2E) which an organization delivers products or
EC services to its employees
Brick and mortar Organizations in which the product, the process
organizations and the delivery agent are all physical
Business-to-
business E- commerce in which both the sellers and the
E-commerce (B2B buyers are business organizations
EC)
Business-to-
E-commerce in which a business sells to a
business-to-
business but delivers the product or service to an
consumers
individual consumer
(B2B2C) EC
E-commerce which the sellers are organizations
Business-to-
and the buyers are individuals also known as e-
consumer (B2C) EC
tailing
B2B model in which organizations buy needed
Buy-side
products or services from other organizations
marketplace
electronically often through a reverse auction
The alienation of existing distributions when a
Channel conflict company decides to sell to customers directly
online
Click-and-mortar Organizations that do business in both physical
organizations and digital dimensions
Collaborative
E-commerce in which business partners
commerce (c-
collaborate electronically
commerce)
Consumer-to- E-commerce in which an individual sells products
consumer (C2C) EC or services to other individuals (not businesses)
E-commerce in which consumers make known a
Consumer-to- particular need for a product or service and
business (C2B) EC suppliers compete to provide the product or
service to consumers an example is Priceline.com
Various banking activities conducted electronically
Cyber banking from home, a business or on the road instead of at
a physical bank location
 E-procurement method in which supplier’ s
Desktop catalogs are aggregated into an internal master
purchasing catalog on the buyer’s server for use by the
company’s purchasing agents
The elimination of intermediaries in EC: removing
the layers of intermediaries between sellers and
Disintermediation
buyers. Effective for technological forecasting and
for forecasting involving sensitive issues
A company that performs most of its business
functions electronically, the broadest definition of
E-business e-commerce, including intra business, inter
organizational business and e-commerce; many
use the term interchangeably with e-commerce
The use of e-commerce to deliver information and
public services to citizens, business partners and
E-government
suppliers of government entities and those
working in the public sector
A network of interactions and relationships over
Electronic market
which products, services, information and
(e-market)
payments are exchanged
E-procurement Purchasing by using electronic support
A software component in which a user stores
E-wallets (digital
secured personal and credit card information for
wallets)
one-click reuse
Electronic The electronically supported exchange of goods or
bartering services without a monetary transaction
The process of buying, selling, transferring or
Electronic
exchanging products, services or information via
commerce
computer networks, including the Internet;
(e-commerce, EC)
business conducted online
A collection of individual shops under one Internet
Electronic mall
address
The direct sale of products and services through
Electronic retailing electronic storefronts or electronic malls, usually
(e-tailing) designed around an electronic catalogue format
and/or auctions
Electronic The Website of a single company, with its own
storefront Internet address, at which orders can be placed
An auction that sellers use as a selling channel to
Forward auction many potential buyers; the highest bidder wins the
items
Government-to- Ecommerce in which a government does business
business (G2B) EC with other governments as well as with businesses
Government-to- Ecommerce in which a government provides
citizens (G2C) EC services to its citizens via EC technologies
Government-to-
Ecommerce in which government units do
government (G2G)
business with other government units
EC
Group purchasing The aggregation of purchasing orders from many
 buyers so that a volume discount can be obtained
Intra business
(intra E-commerce in which an organization uses EC
organizational) internally to improve its operations
commerce
Method of marketing that asks consumers to give
Permission
their permission to voluntarily accept online
marketing
advertising and e-mail
E-marketplace in which there are many sellers and
Public exchange
many buyers and entry is open to all; frequently
(exchange)
owned and operated by a third party
Occurs where intermediaries such as brokers
Re intermediation provide value-added services and expertise that
cannot be eliminated when EC is used
B2B model in which organizations sell to other
Sell-side
organizations from their own private e-
marketplace
marketplace and/or from a third-party site
A payment mechanism that allows a buyer to shop
with an ID number and a password instead of with
Virtual credit card
a credit card number, yet the charges are made
to the credit card
Organizations in which the product, the process
Virtual
and the delivery agent are all digital; also called
organizations
pure-play organizations

Definitions:
Term Definition
Still-experimental device that would automatically
Automatic crash notify police of the location of an ACN equipped car
notification (ACN) involved in an accident

Chip technology that enables voice and data

communications between many wireless devices
Bluetooth through low power, short-range, digital two-way
radio frequency

Capturing a broad range of contextual attributes to

better understand what the consumer needs and
Context
what products or services he or she might possibly
awareness
be interested in
 Enhanced An extension of SMS capable of simple animation,
Messaging Service tiny pictures and short tunes
(EMS)
Geographical Computer-based system that integrates GSP data
information onto digitized map displays
system (GIS)
Wireless devices that use satellites to enable users
to detect the position on earth of items (e.g. cars or
Global positioning
people) the devices are attached to with reasonable
systems (GPS)
precision

Location-based
M-commerce transactions targeted to individuals in
commerce (l-
specific locations, at specific times
commerce)
Technology that enables cardholders to make
M-wallet (mobile purchases with a single click from their mobile
wallet) devices; also known as wireless wallet

A type of wireless sensor network composed of

motes, where each mote “wakes up” or activates
for a fraction of a second when it has data to
transmit and then relays that data to its nearest
Mesh network
neighbour. So instead of every mote transmitting its
information to a remote computer at a base station,
an “electronic bucket brigade” moves the data mote
by mote until it reaches a central computer where it
can be stored and analyzed
A gateway to the Internet accessible from mobile
Mobile portal devices; aggregates content and services for mobile
users
Multimedia
The next generation of wireless messaging, which
messaging service
will be able to deliver rich media
(MMS)
Personal digital
A small, handheld wireless computer
assistant (PDA)
Invisible, everywhere computing that is embedded
Pervasive
in the objects around us
computing
Radio frequency
identification Generic term for technologies that use radio waves
(RFID) to automatically identify individual items

Short messaging Technology that allows for sending of short text

service (SMS) messages on some cell phones
Internet-enabled cell phones that can support
Smart phone
mobile applications
Telematics The integration of computers and wireless
communications to improve information flow using
the principles of telemetry
 Voice portal A Web site with audio interface, accessed by a
standard or cell phone call
Mobile wireless computing devices for employees
Wearable devices who work on buildings and other difficult-to-climb
places
A wireless standard (IEEE 802.16) for making broad-
WiMax band network connections over a large area

A set of communications protocols designed to

Wireless enable different kinds of wireless devices to talk to a
Application server installed on a mobile network, so users can
Protocol (WAP) access the Internet

Built-in security system in wireless devices, which

Wireless
encrypts communications between the device and a
Encryption
wireless access point
Protocol (WEP)
The standard on which most of today’s WLAN fun,
Wireless fidelity
developed by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and
(Wi-Fi)
Electronic Engineers). Also known as 802.11b
LAN without the cables; used to transmit and
Wireless LAN
receive data over the airwaves, but only from short
(WLAN)
distances
Wireless 911 (e- Calls from cellular phones to providers of
911) emergency services

Wireless mobile
Computing that connects a mobile device to a
computing (mobile
network or another computing device, anytime,
computing)
anywhere
Networks of interconnected, battery-powered,
wireless sensors called motes (analogous to nodes)
that are placed into specific physical environments.
Each mote collects data and contains processing,
storage, and radio frequency sensors and antennas.
Wireless sensor The motes provide information that enables a
networks (WSNs) central computer to integrate reports of the same
activity from different angles within the network.
Therefore, the network can determine information
such as the direction a person is moving, the weight
of a vehicle, or the amount of rainfall over a field of
crops with great accuracy
Definitions:
Term Definition
Processing system that processes inputs at fixed
intervals as a file and operates on it all at once;
Batch processing
contracts with online(or interactive) processing

A network of the materials and product distribution

Channel systems
systems involved in the process of getting a product
(in marketing)
or service to customers
Computer-
Integrates several computerized systems, such as
integrated
CAD, CAM, MRP and JIT into a whole, in a factory
manufacturing
(CIM)
Employee
The use of Web-based applications to streamline the
relationship
human resources process and to better manage
management
employees
(ERM)
Expense
management Systems that automate data entry and processing of
automation (EMA) travel and entertainment expenses

Financial Value
The combination of financial analysis with
Chain
operations analysis, which analyzes all financial
Management(FVC
functions in order to provide better financial control
M)
An inventory scheduling system in which material
Just-in-time (JIT) and parts arrive at a work place when needed,
minimizing inventory , waste, and interruptions
Processing system that operates on a transaction as
Online Processing
soon as it occurs, possibly even in real time
A transaction processing system , created on a
Online transaction client/server architecture, that plans needed to
processing (OLTP) execute the master development plan ; stage 3 of
the four stage planning model
Integration solutions designed, developed and
Process –centric managed from a business-process, perspective
integration instead of from a technical or middleware
perspective
Sales automation Productivity software used to automate the work of
software salespeople
 The way in which companies control and optimize
the money they spend. It involves cutting operating
Spend and other costs associated with doing business.
management These costs typically show up as operating costs,
but also be found in other areas and in other
members of the supply chain

Strategy used by retailers of allowing suppliers to

Vendor-managed monitor the inventory levels and replenish inventory
inventory (VMI) when needed, eliminating the need for purchasing
orders
A programming language and an international
XBRL standard for electronic transmission of business and
financial information

Definitions:
Term Definition
Erratic shifts in orders up and down the supply
Bull whip effect chain

Method for business restructuring that combines

workflow systems and redesign methods, covers
Business process three process categories-people-to-people,
management systems-to-systems and systems-to-people
interactions

CASE tools
The use of software tools to assist in the
(Computer-aided
development and maintenance of software
Software
Engineering)
A company that performs most of its business functions
electronically, the broadest definition of e-commerce,
including intra business, inter organizational business
E-business
and e-commerce; many use the term interchangeably
with e-commerce

The use of Web browsers and other electronic touch

e-CRM (electronic points to manage customer relationships. E-CRM
CRM) covers a broad range of topic tools, and methods,
ranging from the proper design of digital products and
services to pricing and loyalty programs
E-procurement
Purchasing by using electronic support
A supply chain that is managed electronically usually
E-supply chain with Web-based software
 Software that integrates the planning, management,
Enterprise resource and use of all resources in the enterprise also called
planning (ERP) enterprise systems

Enterprise
Information system that encompasses the entire
(enterprise wide)
enterprise, implemented on a company wide
system
network
A method of managing data with the purpose of
Master Data
integrating all data in an organization at the
management
highest level, both internally and externally
(MDM)
Acquiring IS services from an external (outside)
Outsourcing
organization rather than through internal IS units
A Modelling method that includes techniques and
activities used as part of the larger business
process management discipline. It is an activity
Process modelling similar to drafting a blueprint for a house. The
purpose of modelling business processes is to
create a blueprint of how the company works.

Product lifecycle Business strategy that enables manufacturers to

management control and share product-related data as part of
(PLM) product design and development efforts
The radical redesign of an organization’s business.
Reengineering

A flow of material or finished goods back to the

Reverse logistics source; for example, the return of defective
products by customers

The leading ERP software (from SAP AG Corp.); a

SAP R/3 highly integrated package containing more than
70 business activities modules

Applications programs specifically designed to

SCM software improve decision making in segments of the
supply chain

The management of all the activities along the

Supply chain
supply chain, from suppliers, to internal logistics
management
within a company, to distribution, to customers.
(SCM)
This includes ordering, monitoring and billing
A group of tightly coordinated employees who
work together to serve the customer; each task is
Supply chain team done by the member of the team who is best
capable of doing the task

Trust The psychological status of involved parties who

 are willing to pursue further interaction to achieve
a planned goal
Strategy used by retailers of allowing suppliers to
Vendor-managed monitor the inventory levels and replenish
inventory (VMI) inventory when needed, eliminating the need for
purchasing orders
Collaborative enterprise application that provides
Virtual factory
a computerized model of a factory

Definitions:

Term Definition
The ability to adjust the design of the supply chain
Adaptability to meet structural shifts in markets and modify
supply network strategies, products and
technologies
An EC firm’s ability to capture, report and quickly
Agility respond to changes happening in the marketplace

The ability to create shared incentives that align

Alignment the interests of businesses across the supply chain

Back-office
The activities that support fulfilment of sales, such
operations
as accounting and logistics
Erratic shifts in orders up and down the supply
Bull whip effect chain

Cross-border data The flow of corporate data across nation’s borders

transfer
Networks driven from the front by customer
Demand-driven
demand. Instead of products being pushed to
supply networks
market, they are pulled to market by customers
(DDSNs)
The business processes, such as sales and
Front-office
advertising that are visible to customers
operations
Inter organizational systems that connect
Global information
companies located in two or more countries
systems (GIS)
Inter Communications system that allows routine
organizational transaction processing and information flow
information between two or more organizations
 systems (IOSs)
The operations involved in the efficient and
effective flow and storage of goods, services, and
Logistics related information from point of origin to point of
consumption

All of the activities needed to provide customers

with ordered goods and services , including related
Order fulfilment
customer services

Partner
Business strategy that focuses on providing
relationship
comprehensive quality service to business
management
partners
(PRM)
A flow of material or finished goods back to the
Reverse logistics source; for example, the return of defective
products by customers
Supplier
A comprehensive approach to managing an
relationship
enterprise’s interactions with the organizations
management
that supply the goods and services it uses
(SRM)
An organization composed of two or more business
Virtual partners, in different locations, sharing costs and
Corporation (VC) resources for the purpose of producing a product
or service; can be temporary or permanent

Definitions:

Term Definition
In an organization, the best methods for solving
Best practice problems. These are often stored in the knowledge
repository of a knowledge-management system
Chief knowledge The director assigned to manage an organization’s
officer (CKO) knowledge management (KM) program
Communities of Groups of people in an organization with a
practice (COPs) common professional interest
An electronic document management system that
Content
produces dynamic versions of documents and
Management
systems (CMSs) automatically maintains the current set for use at
the enterprise level
Expert location Interactive computerized systems that help
systems employees find and connect with colleagues who
have expertise required for specific problems –
whether they are across the country or across the
 room –in order to solve specific, critical business
problems in seconds
The knowledge that deals with objective, rational
Explicit knowledge and technical knowledge (data, policies,
procedures, software, documents, etc.)
Intellectual capital
The valuable knowledge of employees
(intellectual assets)
Data and/or information that have been organized
Knowledge and processed to convey understanding ,
experience, accumulated learning m and expertise
Knowledge The process of extracting knowledge from volumes
discovery in of data in databases(e.g., in data
databases (KDD) warehouses);including data mining
The process that helps organizations identify ,
select, organize , disseminate, and transfer
Knowledge
important information and expertise that are part
management (KM)
of the organization’s memory and that may reside
in unstructured form within the organization
Knowledge The software system that is a collection of both
repository internal and external knowledge in a KMS
Knowware A name for knowledge management (KM) software
Another name for explicit knowledge due to the
Leaky knowledge ease with which it can leave its source after it has
been documented
An organization capable of learning from its past
Learning experience, implying the existence of an
organization organizational memory and a means to save,
represent and share it through its personnel
The process of capturing knowledge and making it
Organizational
available enterprise-wide
learning
Organizational
That which an organization “knows”
memory
The practice approach toward knowledge management
focuses on building the social environments or
Practice approach communities of practice necessary to facilitate the
sharing of tacit understanding. See personalization
strategy
Knowledge management approach that attempts to
Process approach codify organizational knowledge through formalized
controls, processes and technologies
Another name for tacit knowledge because it may be
Sticky knowledge
relatively difficult to pull away from its source
The knowledge that is usually in the domain of
Tacit knowledge subjective, cognitive and experiential learning; it is
highly personal and hard to formalize
Definitions:

Term Definition
Any query that cannot be determined prior to the
Ad-hoc query moment the query is issued

Analytics The science of analysis

Method that evaluates the overall health of
organizations and projects by looking at metrics in
Balanced finance, customer’s view of the organization,
Scorecard (BSC) internal business processes and ability to change
and expand

A BPM tool that alerts managers in real time to

Business activity
opportunities, threats, or problems and provides
monitoring (BAM)
collaboration tools to address these issues
system
The application of models directly to business
data. Using MSS tools, especially models, in
Business analytics
assisting decision-makers. Essentially it is an OLAP
(BA)
decision support

Category of applications for gathering, storing,

Business analyzing it through comparison to standards, and
intelligence (BI) planning how to improve it

Business A methodology for measuring organizational

performance performance, analyzing it through comparison to
management standards and planning how to improve it
(BPM)
Tracking what competitors are doing by gathering
Competitive sources of materials on their recent and in-process
intelligence (CI) activities

The process of searching for unknown information

or relationships i n large databases using tools
Data mining (DM)
such as neural computing or case-based reasoning

Visual presentation of data and information by

Data visualization graphics, animation or any other multimedia

Geographical Computer-based system that integrates GSP data

information onto digitized map displays
system (GIS)
Geographical See global positioning system
positioning system

Organizing, presenting and analyzing data by

Multidimensionalit several dimensions, such as by region ,by product,
y by sales person and by time(four dimensions).

An information system that enables user, while at

Online analytical a PC, to query the system, conduct an analysis
processing (OLAP) and so on .The result is generated in seconds

Performance Visual displays used to monitor operational

dashboards performance
Performance Visual displays used to chart progress against
scorecards strategic and tactical goals and targets
Tools that help determine the probable future
outcome for an event or the likelihood of a
Predictive
situation occurring. They also identify
analytics
relationships and patterns

Methodology that delineates the relationships

among the key organizational objectives for all
Strategy map four BSC perspectives.

The application of data mining analysis to non

Text mining structured or less-structured text files and
documents
A pseudo-3-D interactive technology that provides
a user with a feeling that he or she is physically
Virtual reality
present I a computer generated world

The application of data mining techniques to

Web mining discover meaningful and actionable patterns from
Web resources

Definitions:

Term Definition
A subfield of computer science concerned with
Artificial
symbolic reasoning and problem solving
Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Neural A computer technology attempting to build
 computers that will operate like a human brain;
ANN program can work with ambiguous
Network (ANN)
information

Systems that are rule based systems that

Automated
automatically provide solutions to repetitive
decision support
managerial problems
(ADS)
A computer based information system that
Decision support
combines models and data in an attempt to solve
system (DSS)
semi structured problems with extensive user
involvement
Enterprise
Decision
See automated decision support (ADS)
Management
(EDM)
Enterprise
Information system that encompasses the entire
(enterprise wide)
enterprise, implemented on a company wide
system
network
Executive System specifically designed to support
information information needs of executives
system (EIS)
A comprehensive executive support system that
Executive support includes some analytical and communication
system (ESS) capabilities

A computer system that applies reasoning

methodologies or knowledge in a specific domain
Expert system (ES) to render advice or recommendations – much like
a human expert

The process by which companies automate

Frontline decision decision processes and push them down to
making frontline employees

An interactive, computer based system that

Group decision facilitates finding solutions to semi-structured
support system problems by using a set of decision makers
(GDSS) working together as a group

The component of an expert system that performs

Inference engine a reasoning function

Software agents that exhibit intelligent behaviour

Intelligent agents
and learning

Knowledge base A collection of facts, rules, and procedures, related

to a specific problem, organized in one place
 Management The application of any type of decision-support
support system technology to decision-making
(MSS)
A simplified representation or abstraction of
Model reality; can be used to perform virtual experiment
(in decision and analysis
making)

Model-based A software program to establish, update and use a

management model base
system (MBMS)
Using a natural language processor to interface
Natural language
with the computer base system
processing (NLP)
The technology that attempts to achieve
knowledge representations and processing based
on massive parallel processing, fast retrieval of
Neural computing
large amounts of information and the ability to
recognize patterns based on experiences

An approach used by management science to find

Optimization
the best possible solution
Organizational
(Institutional) A network system that provide decision support for
decision support organizational, group and individual tasks or
system (ODSS) activities.

The ability of a computer to classify an item to a

Pattern predetermined category by matching the item’s
recognition characteristics with that of a stored category

A system that supports the activities performed by

Personal
individuals in their work or life through the
Information
acquisition, organization, maintenance, retrieval
management (PIM)
and sharing of information
Sensitivity Study of the effect of a change in one or more
analysis input variable on a proposed solution
Speech
The ability of a computer to recognize spoken
recognition
words
The ability of a computer to understand the
Speech
meaning of sentences, in contrast with merely
understanding
recognizing individual words
The use of symbols, rather than numbers,
Symbolic
combined with rules of thumb (or heuristics) to
processing
process information and solves problems
Turing test Named after the English mathematician Alan
Turing, a test designed to measure if a computer is
 intelligent.
The technology that transforms computer output
Voice synthesis
to voice or audio output

Definitions:

Term Definition
The competitive strategy of working with business
partners in partnerships, alliances, joint ventures
Alliance strategy
or virtual companies

The collection of major, approved IS projects that

Application are consistent with an organization’s long range
portfolio plan

An IBM top-down planning model that starts with

business strategies and uses business processes
Business systems
and data classes to define organizational
planning (BSP)
databases and identify applications that support
model
business strategies

A business framework devised by Michael Porter,

depicting five forces in a market (e.g. bargaining
Competitive forces
power of customers) used for analyzing
model
competitiveness

The competitive strategy of producing products

Cost leadership and/or services at the lowest cost in its industry
strategy group

Those few things that must go right in order to

Critical success
ensure the organization’s survival and success
factors (CSFs)
The competitive strategy of offering different
Differentiation products, services or product features than those
strategy offered by competitors

Electronically supported IT planning that touches

on EC infrastructure and mostly deals with
uncovering business opportunities and deciding on
E-planning
an applications portfolio that will exploit those
opportunities

The competitive strategy of creating barriers to

Entry-barriers
entry of new market entrants
strategy
 The competitive strategy of increasing market
share, acquiring more customers or selling more
Growth strategy
products

The competitive strategy of introducing new

Innovation products and services, putting new features in
strategy existing

The organized planning of IT infrastructure and

applications portfolios done at various levels of the
IT planning
organization

The competitive strategy of selecting a narrow-

Niche strategy scope segment (niche market) and being best in
quality, speed or cost in that market
Developing the hardware, software, data
communications, facilities, personnel and financial
Resource
plans needed to execute the master development
allocation
plan; stage three of the four-stage planning model

A planning methodology for dealing with an

Scenario planning
uncertain environment by examining different
scenarios; a what-if analysis
Six commonly accepted stages, suggested by
Nolan, that all organizations seem to experience in
Stages of IT
implementing and managing an information
growth
system from conception to maturity over time

Model developed by Michael Porter that shows the

primary activities that sequentially add value to
Value chain model
the profit margin; also shows the support activities

Definitions:

Term Definition
Behaviour oriented Accounting system that sets IT service costs in a
 way that encourages usage consistent with
organizational objectives, even though the charges
chargeback
may not respond to actual costs

Objective measures of performance, often

Benchmarks available from industry trade associations

A written document that is used by managers to

justify funding for a specific investment and also to
Business case provide the bridge between the initial plan and its
execution

System that treats the IT function as a service

bureau or utility, charging organizational subunits
Chargeback
for IT services with the objective of recovering IT
expenditures

Study that helps in decisions on IT investments by

Cost-benefit determining if the benefits (possibly including
analysis intangible ones) exceed the costs

A weighted average, computed by multiplying the

Expected value size of a possible future benefit by the probability
(EV) of its occurrence

Benefits those are hard to place a monetary value

Intangible benefits on (e.g. greater design flexibility)

A specific, measurable standard against which

Metric actual performance is measured

Use of vendors in other countries, usually where

Offshore labour is inexpensive, to do programming or other
outsourcing system development tasks

Acquiring IS services from an external (outside)

Outsourcing organization rather than through internal IS units

The relative cost, usually on a per- mips(millions of

Price-to instructions per second) basis, of the processing
performance ratio power of a computer

The seeming discrepancy between extremely large

Productivity IT investments in the economy and relatively low
paradox measures of productivity output

Reach and An economic impact of EC: the trade-off between

richness the number of customers a company can reach
(called reach) and the amount of interactions and
 information services it can provide to them
(richness)
An approach for calculating the payoff of an IT
investment by calculating both the tangible and
Total benefits of
intangible benefits and subtracting the costs of
ownership (TBO)
ownership: TBO_TCO_Payoff

Costs that are associated with the distribution

(sales)and/or exchange of products and services
including the cost of searching for buyers and
Transaction costs
sellers, gathering information, negotiating,
decision making, monitoring the exchange of
goods and legal fees

Definitions:

Term Definition
Company that provides business
Application service applications(standardized or customized) over the
provider (ASP) Internet for a per-use or fixed monthly fee

A collection of activities performed to accomplish a

Business process clearly defined goal

Method for business restructuring that combines

workflow systems and redesign methods, covers
Business process three process categories-people-to-people,
management systems-to-systems and systems-to-people
interactions

A methodology for introducing a fundamental and

Business process
radical change in specific business processes,
reengineering(BPR
usually supported by an information system
)
The use or development of information systems by
End user the principal users of the system’s outputs or by
computing their staffs

End-user See end-user computing

development
Information High-level map or plan of the information assets in
Technology an organization; on the Web, it includes the
architecture content and architecture of the site
 Use of vendors in other countries, usually where
Offshore labor is inexpensive, to do programming or other
outsourcing system development tasks

Acquiring IS services from an external (outside)

Outsourcing
organization rather than through internal IS units
Also referred to as on-demand computing, utility
computing or hosted services. Instead of buying
and installing expensive packaged enterprise
Software-as-a
applications users’ access applications over a
Service (SaaS)
network, with an Internet browser being the only
absolute necessity

Unlimited computing power and storage capacity

that, like electricity, water and telephone services,
can be obtained on demand used and reallocated
Utility computing
for any application and billed on a pay-per-use
basis

Modular business and consumer applications,

delivered over the Internet, that users can select
Web Services and combine through almost any device, enabling
disparate systems to share data and services

Definitions:

Term Definition
It is the policy that informs users of their
responsibilities. An AUP serves two main
Acceptable use purposes:1) Helps to prevent misuse of information
policy(AUP) policy and computer resources & 2)It reduces exposure
to legal liability

Security controls designed to protect specific

Application
applications
controls
Audit (of ISs) A regular examination or check of systems, their
inputs, outputs and processing
Rebery malicious software which is programmed to
come to life when computer owners visit one of a
Banking Trojan
number of online banking or e-commerce sites

Biometric control An automated method of verifying the identity of a

 person, based on physiological or behavioural
characteristics

Bot Computer stealthily infected and controlled by a

cyber criminal
A network of bots
Botnet
A comprehensive plan for how a business and IT
Business
systems will operate in case a disaster strikes
continuity plan
An exercise that determines the impact of losing
the support of any resource to an organization and
establishes the escalation of that loss over time,
Business Impact
identifies the minimum resources needed to
Analysis (BIA)
recover and prioritizes the recovery of processes
and supporting systems

Text that is unreadable because it has been

Ciphertext encrypted or disguised in some way

Framework that helps managers and other

professionals gain greater value from IT and
COBIT
mitigate IT-related risk exposure

Committee of
Sponsoring
An IT security body that defines internal control as
Organizations of
a process designed to provide reasonable
the Treadway
assurance of effective operations and reliable
Commission
financial reporting
(COSO)

Computer The search, discovery and recovery of e-evidence

forensics
A computer crime involving money
Computer fraud
A malicious hacker
Cracker
Occurs when a Trojan encrypts the data on a
user’s computer then, the attacker offers to
Cyber-blackmail
decrypt it for $300 or more

The first wide scale government-led IT security

exercise to examine response, coordination and
recovery mechanisms in simulated cyber attacks
Cyber storm
against critical infrastructures launched US DHS in
2006

Data tampering Deliberately entering false data, or changing and

deleting true data
 See Business community plan
Disaster recovery
plan
Electronic Cyber trails left by laptop computers, PDAs, iPods,
evidence DVDs, digital cameras and cell phones
(e-evidence)
Electronic fraud(e- See computer fraud
fraud)
A network code consisting of both hardware and
software that isolates a private network from a
Firewall
public network

Security controls aimed at defending a computer

system in general rather than protecting specific
General controls
applications

People who illegally or unethically penetrate a

Hackers computer system

Software agents that exhibit intelligent behaviour

Intelligent agents
and learning
The work atmosphere that a company sets for its
employees,Internal control(IC) is a process
designed to achieve:
(1) reliability of financial reporting,
Internal control
(2) operational efficiency,
environment
(3) compliance with laws,
(4) regulations and policies and
(5) safeguarding of assets

See two-factor authentication

Multifactor Two-factor authentication: Method of
authentication: authentication where other information is used to
verify the user’s identity such as biometrics.

Fraud that occurs when a person uses his or her

occupation for personal gain through deliberate
Occupational fraud
misuse of the organization’s resources or assets

Standard created by a coalition of self-regulating

industry group including Visa, MasterCard ,
Payment Card American Express, and Discover , PCI Data Security
Industry (PCI) Data Standard is required for all members, merchants or
Security Standard service providers that store , process or transmit
cardholder data.

Plaintext Text that is readable by humans

Programming Criminal use of programming techniques to modify
 a computer program, either directly or indirectly;
examples are computer worms, viruses and denial
attack
of service attacks.

Servers that provide direct communication to a

Remote access
company’s LAN
servers (RAS)
The degree of risk to which a digit asset is exposed
Risk exposure
Risk exposure
A model for assessing reasonable levels of
model
protection for digital assets
Unauthorized wireless Aps deployed by malicious
users to gain access to sensitive information stored
Rogue access
on client machines, including logins, passwords,
points (Aps)
customer information and intellectual property
from legitimate users
Getting around security systems by tricking
computer users into providing information or
Social engineering
carrying out actions that seem innocuous but are
not
Time-to- The elapsed time between when vulnerability is
exploitation discovered and the time it is exploited
The name given to a variant of a Trojan program
Trojan-Phisher- that was suspected to have been used to steal
Rebery tens of thousands of identities from people in 125
countries
Method of authentication where other information
Two-factor
is used to verify the user’s identity such as
authentication
biometrics
Two-tier
See two-factor authentication
authentication
Wired equivalent An encryption algorithm that uses a poor or weak
privacy (WEP) cryptographic technique
Wireless access
points Backdoor into a network
(APs or WAPs)
Wireless packet Tools that can capture and analyze the contents of
analyzers packets sent over a network
A software program that runs independently,
consuming the resource of its host in order to
Worm maintain itself, that is capable of propagating a
complete working version of itself onto another
machine
Attacks through previously unknown weaknesses
Zero-day incident in their computer networks