Digital Transformation and emerging technology can be filled with buzzwords and jargon, cut through it all and find the real meaning here. Click here to see how training can help your organisation.

Advanced Technology

A technology that is still immature but promises to deliver significant value, or that has some technical maturity but still has relatively few users. Among current examples: artificial intelligence, agents, speech and handwriting recognition, virtual reality and 3D visualization, smart cards, real-time collaboration, enhanced user authentication, data mining, and knowledge management.

Agile

Agile is a development approach that delivers software in increments by following the principles of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.

Algorithmic Business

Algorithmic business is the industrialized use of complex mathematical algorithms pivotal to driving improved business decisions or process automation for competitive differentiation.

Application Programming Interface (API)

An application programming interface (API) is an interface that provides programmatic access to service functionality and data within an application or a database. It can be used as a building block for the development of new interactions with humans, other applications or smart devices. Companies use APIs to serve the needs of a digital transformation or an ecosystem, and start a platform business model.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) applies advanced analysis and logic-based techniques, including machine learning, to interpret events, support and automate decisions, and take actions.

Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented reality (AR) is the real-time use of information in the form of text, graphics, audio and other virtual enhancements integrated with real-world objects. It is this “real world” element that differentiates AR from virtual reality. AR integrates and adds value to the user’s interaction with the real world, versus a simulation.

Balanced Scorecard (bsc)

A balanced scorecard (BSC) is a performance measurement and management approach that recognizes that financial measures by themselves are not sufficient and that an enterprise needs a more holistic, balanced set of measures which reflects the different drivers that contribute to superior performance and the achievement of the enterprise’s strategic goals. The balanced scorecard is driven by the premise that there is a cause-and-effect link between learning, internal efficiencies and business processes, customers, and financial results.

Batch Processing

Batch processing is the processing of application programs and their data individually, with one being completed before the next is started. It is a planned processing procedure typically used for purposes such as preparing payrolls and maintaining inventory records.

Behavioral/gestural Analytics

Behavioral/gestural analytics reflects the automated analysis of real-world human activity captured by video systems to track human movement and gestures to assess intentions and to identify specific behaviors.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is defined as the comparison between vendor performance and designated benchmark organizations or indexes. An index is a publicly available indicator for a factor that is associated with a pricing element.

Best Practice

Best practice is a group of tasks that optimizes the efficiency (cost and risk) or effectiveness (service level) of the business discipline or process to which it contributes. It must be implementable, replicable, transferable and adaptable across industries.

Beta Testing

Beta testing is the stage at which a new product is tested under actual usage conditions.

Big Data

Big data is high-volume, high-velocity and/or high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing that enable enhanced insight, decision making, and process automation.

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.

Blog

A blog, which derives from the term “weblog,” is a website designed to make it easy for users to create entries in chronological order. The entries are then displayed in reverse chronological order (most recent entry first) and are generally archived on a periodic basis. Blogs are mostly used to express opinions on topical events such as sports, music, fashion or politics, but in the past three years, they have emerged as established communication channels for businesses as well as individuals. “Microblogging” has emerged via a platform such as Twitter, which not only allows users to write 140-character posts and share them with humanity, but also serves as an impressive news- and taste-sharing vehicle too, because a blog author or journalist can use it to drive awareness of new posts, articles and so on.

Brand Extension

Brand extension is the expansion an existing “house” (or “master”) brand to cover a new category of solution. The brand becomes an umbrella brand for all the company’s offerings. The alternative is to create sub-brands for each individual proposition.

Business Application Programming Interface (BAPI)

A Business Application Programming Interface (BAPI) is a set of documented, server-side interfaces to one or more R/3 processes, from SAP. BAPI packages multiple internal functions to enable programmatic access to such higher-order tasks as checking customer numbers, providing product descriptions, selecting products, creating quotations or creating orders.

Business Capability Modeling

Business capability modeling is a technique for the representation of an organization’s business anchor model, independent of the organization’s structure, processes, people or domains.

Business Intelligence (BI) Platforms

Business intelligence (BI) platforms enable enterprises to build BI applications by providing capabilities in three categories: analysis, such as online analytical processing (OLAP); information delivery, such as reports and dashboards; and platform integration, such as BI metadata management and a development environment.

Business Process

Gartner defines business process as an event-driven, end-to-end processing path that starts with a customer request and ends with a result for the customer. Business processes often cross departmental and even organizational boundaries.

Business Process Modeling (BPM)

Business process modeling (BPM) links business strategy to IT systems development to ensure business value. It combines process/workflow, functional, organizational and data/resource views with underlying metrics such as costs, cycle times and responsibilities to provide a foundation for analyzing value chains, activity-based costs, bottlenecks, critical paths and inefficiencies.

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)

Business process re-engineering (BPR) is defined as an integrated set of management policies, project management procedures, and modeling, analysis, design and testing techniques for analyzing existing business processes and systems; designing new processes and systems; testing, simulating and prototyping new designs prior to implementation; and managing the implementation process.

C (Programming Language)

The C programming language was created by Dennis Ritchie at the former Bell Laboratories in 1972. C provides very precise control of the computer’s operation.

C++

C++ is an extension to the C language defined by Bjarne Stroustrop at Bell Laboratories in 1986. As a superset of C, it provides additional features for data abstraction and object-oriented programming. C++ can be used to develop programs for almost all computers. Together, C and C++ are the among the most common programming languages in use today.

Cache

A cache is defined as a temporary storage area for instructions and data near a computer’s central processing unit (CPU), usually implemented in high-speed memory. It replicates information from main memory or storage in a way that facilitates quicker access, using fewer resources than the original source. Because data is closer to the CPU, it can be retrieved more quickly.

 

The entire category management process facilitates fact-based selling by providing analytics from a retailer’s as well as a manufacturer’s perspective so that the mutual value of the business proposition can be known. Considerations include product assortment, pricing, promotion, placement, timing and, to some degree, packaging. The IT component is the automation of data loads and data manipulation, as well as the presentation of results in a compelling way, following an agreed-on business process. The IT enablement is typically a demand signal management repository.

 

Change Management

 

Change management is the automated support for development, rollout and maintenance of system components (i.e., intelligent regeneration, package versioning, state control, library control, configuration management, turnover management and distributed impact sensitivity reporting).

 

Chatbot

 

A chatbot is a domain-specific conversational interface that uses an app, messaging platform, social network or chat solution for its conversations. Chatbots vary in sophistication, from simple, decision-tree-based marketing stunts, to implementations built on feature-rich platforms. They are always narrow in scope. A chatbot can be text- or voice-based, or a combination of both.

 

Chief Information Officer (CIO)

 

The chief information officer (CIO) oversees the people, processes and technologies within a company's IT organization to ensure they deliver outcomes that support the goals of the business. As digital becomes a core competency, the CIO plays a key leadership role in the critical strategic, technical and management initiatives — from information security and algorithms to customer experience and leveraging data — that mitigate threats and drive business growth.

 

CIM (Customer Information Management)

 

The systematic support of business strategy through customer knowledge.

 

Circuit Board

 

A flat card with connections for electronic components; part of an electronic system.

 

Click-through

 

Term applied to the act of clicking with a mouse button on a Web page advertisement, which brings the user to the advertiser’s site.

 

Clickstream Analysis

 

A form of Web analytics (see separate entry), clickstream analysis is the tracking and analysis of visits to websites. Although there are other ways to collect this data, clickstream analysis typically uses the Web server log files to monitor and measure website activity. This analysis can be used to report user behavior on a specific website, such as routing, stickiness (a user’s tendency to remain at the website), where users come from and where they go from the site. It can also be used for more aggregate measurements, such as the number of hits (visits), page views, and unique and repeat visitors, which are of value in understanding how the website operates from a technical, user experience and business perspective.

 

Clicks And Bricks

 

The combining of e-business channels and network-based processes with selective investment in physical locations to control local markets, distribution channels, and critical labor accessibility.

 

Client/server

 

The splitting of an application into tasks performed on separate computers connected over a network. In most cases, the “client” is a desktop computing device (e.g., a PC) or a program “served” by another networked computing device (i.e., the “server”). Gartner has defined five styles of client/server computing, based on how presentation, application logic and data management functions are partitioned between the client and server device — see separate definitions for “distributed presentation,” “remote presentation,” “distributed function,” “remote data management” and “distributed data management.”

 

Cloud Application Development (AD) Services

 

Cloud application development (AD) services are tool offerings delivered as a service and used to create custom software applications deployed on an application platform as a service (aPaaS), a cloud-enabled application platform (CEAP) or infrastructure as a service.

 

Cloud Computing

 

Cloud computing is a style of computing in which scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service using internet technologies.

 

Cloud Management Platforms

 

Cloud management platforms are integrated products that provide for the management of public, private and hybrid cloud environments. The minimum requirements to be included in this category are products that incorporate self-service interfaces, provision system images, enable metering and billing, and provide for some degree of workload optimization through established policies. More-advanced offerings may also integrate with external enterprise management systems, include service catalogs, support the configuration of storage and network resources, allow for enhanced resource management via service governors and provide advanced monitoring for improved “guest” performance and availability.

 

Cloud Strategy

 

A cloud strategy is a concise point of view on the role of cloud within the organization. It is a living document, designed to bridge between a high-level corporate strategy and a cloud implementation/adoption/migration plan. A cloud strategy is different from a cloud adoption or migration plan.

 

Collaborative Commerce (C-commerce)

 

Collaborative commerce (C-commerce) describes electronically enabled business interactions among an enterprise’s internal personnel, business partners and customers throughout a trading community. The trading community could be an industry, industry segment, supply chain or supply chain segment.

 

Commerce Experiences

 

Commerce experiences represent the programmed interactions between a marketer and the customer, beginning with awareness and continuing through purchase and postpurchase feedback. A commerce experience adaptively frames the buying journey, highlighted by layers of social interaction.

 

Competitive Intelligence (CI)

 

Competitive intelligence (CI) is the analysis of an enterprise’s marketplace to understand what is happening, what will happen and what it means to the enterprise. CI business goals may be offensive — positioning the company in the marketplace, plotting a course for future positioning, and allocating short- and long-term resources. Goals may also be defensive — knowing what is happening, what may happen and how to react.

 

Consumer-generated Media (CGM)

 

Consumer-generated media (CGM) refers to any written, audio or video content created by end users, using basic or semiprofessional tools. CGM can include one-consumer-to-many applications such as photo sharing, publishing via blogs, podcasting, social network videoblogging and the like, as well as “auteurs” looking to get their content to an audience.

 

Consumerization

 

Consumerization is the specific impact that consumer-originated technologies can have on enterprises. It reflects how enterprises will be affected by, and can take advantage of, new technologies and models that originate and develop in the consumer space, rather than in the enterprise IT sector. Consumerization is not a strategy or something to be “adopted.” Consumerization can be embraced and it must be dealt with, but it cannot be stopped.

 

Content Management (CM)

 

Content Management (CM) is a broad term referring to applications and processes to manage Web content, document content and e-commerce-focused content.

 

Content Marketing

 

Content marketing is the process and practice of creating, curating and cultivating text, video, images, graphics, e-books, white papers and other content assets that are distributed through paid, owned and earned media. These assets are used to tell stories that help brands build and nurture relationships with customers, prospects and other audiences to drive awareness, generate demand, influence preference and build loyalty.

 

Content Optimization

 

Content optimization is a process by which a content provider is able to use a variety of techniques to improve search results and ranking, as well as extend the value of core content by automating the content management process to develop new Web pages on the fly.

 

Cookie

 

A permanent code placed in a file on a computer’s hard disk by a website that the computer user has visited. The code uniquely identifies, or “registers,” that user and can be accessed for number of marketing and site-tracking purposes.

 

Crowdsourcing

 

Crowdsourcing describes the processes for sourcing a task or challenge to a broad, distributed set of contributors using the Web and social collaboration techniques. Crowdsourcing applications typically include mechanisms to attract the desired participants, stimulate relevant contributions and select winning ideas or solutions.

 

 

CSF (Critical Success Factor)

 

A methodology, management tool or design technique that enables the effective development and deployment of a project or process.

 

 

CTO (Chief Technology Officer)

 

The CTO has overall responsibility for managing the physical and personnel technology infrastructure including technology deployment, network and system management, integration testing, and developing technical operations personnel. CTOs also manage client relations to ensure that service objective expectations are developed and managed in the operations areas.

 

Customer Experience Management (CXM)

 

Customer experience management (CXM) is the discipline of understanding customers and deploying strategic plans that enable crossfunctional efforts and customer-centric culture to improve satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.

 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

 

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a business strategy that optimizes revenue and profitability while promoting customer satisfaction and loyalty. CRM technologies enable strategy, and identify and manage customer relationships, in person or virtually. CRM software provides functionality to companies in four segments: sales, marketing, customer service and digital commerce.

 

Cyber Library

 

An electronic version of a physical library that is implemented on behalf of workers for information self-service.

 

Cybersecurity

 

Cybersecurity is the combination of people, policies, processes and technologies employed by an enterprise to protect its cyber assets. Cybersecurity is optimized to levels that business leaders define, balancing the resources required with usability/manageability and the amount of risk offset. Subsets of cybersecurity include IT security, IoT security, information security and OT security.

 

Cycle Time

 

The time it takes to complete a process or service operation, including all value-adding and non-value-adding time.

 

DAP (Distributed Application Platform)

 

An application framework introduced in 1997 by Visigenic (later acquired by Borland International).

 

Dark Data

 

Gartner defines dark data as the information assets organizations collect, process and store during regular business activities, but generally fail to use for other purposes (for example, analytics, business relationships and direct monetizing). Similar to dark matter in physics, dark data often comprises most organizations’ universe of information assets. Thus, organizations often retain dark data for compliance purposes only. Storing and securing data typically incurs more expense (and sometimes greater risk) than value.

 

Dashboards

 

Dashboards are a reporting mechanism that aggregate and display metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), enabling them to be examined at a glance by all manner of users before further exploration via additional business analytics (BA) tools. Dashboards help improve decision making by revealing and communicating in-context insight into business performance, displaying KPIs or business metrics using intuitive visualization, including charts, dials, gauges and “traffic lights” that indicate the progress of KPIs toward defined targets.

 

Data And Analytics

 

Data and analytics is the management of data for all uses (operational and analytical) and the analysis of data to drive business processes and improve business outcomes through more effective decision making and enhanced customer experiences. Data and analytics (D&A) also refers to the ways data is managed to support all uses of data, and the analysis of data to drive improved decisions, business processes and outcomes, such as discovering new business risks, challenges and opportunities.

 

Data Broker

 

A Data Broker is a  business that aggregates information from a variety of sources; processes it to enrich, cleanse or analyze it; and licenses it to other organizations. Data brokers can also license another company’s data directly, or process another organization’s data to provide them with enhanced results. Data is typically accessed via an application programming interface (API), and frequently involves subscription type contracts. Data typically is not “sold” (i.e., its ownership transferred), but rather it is licensed for particular or limited uses. (A data broker is also sometimes known as an information broker, syndicated data broker, or information product company.)

 

Data Center

 

A data center is the department in an enterprise that houses and maintains back-end IT systems and data stores — its mainframes, servers and databases. In the days of large, centralized IT operations, this department and all the systems resided in one physical place, hence the name data center.

With today’s more distributed computing methods, single data center sites are still common, but are becoming less so. The term continues to be used to refer to the department that has responsibility for these systems, no matter how dispersed they are.

Market and industry trends are changing the way enterprises approach their data center strategies. Several factors are driving enterprises to look beyond traditional technology infrastructure silos and transform the way they view their data center environment and business processes. These include aging data center infrastructures that are at risk for not meeting future business requirements, an ongoing cost-consciousness, and the need to be more energy-efficient.

 

Data Center Bridging (DCB)

 

The term “data center bridging” (DCB) refers to a collection of proposed standards designed to transform Ethernet into a lossless network with efficient Layer 2 multipath forwarding. DCB (formerly called converged enhanced Ethernet [CEE]) depends on a handful of standards that are being developed by three different standards bodies: the American National Standards Institute, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It is also known as Data Center Ethernet (DCE).

 

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)

 

Data center infrastructure management (DCIM) tools monitor, measure, manage and/or control data center utilization and energy consumption of all IT-related equipment (such as servers, storage and network switches) and facility infrastructure components (such as power distribution units [PDUs] and computer room air conditioners [CRACs]).

 

Data Governance

 

Data governance is the specification of decision rights and an accountability framework to ensure the appropriate behavior in the valuation, creation, consumption and control of data and analytics.

 

Data Integration

 

The discipline of data integration comprises the practices, architectural techniques and tools for achieving the consistent access and delivery of data across the spectrum of data subject areas and data structure types in the enterprise to meet the data consumption requirements of all applications and business processes.

 

Data Lake

 

A data lake is a concept consisting of a collection of storage instances of various data assets. These assets are stored in a near-exact, or even exact, copy of the source format and are in addition to the originating data stores.

 

Data Literacy

 

Data literacy is the ability to read, write and communicate data in context, with an understanding of the data sources and constructs, analytical methods and techniques applied, and the ability to describe the use case application and resulting business value or outcome.

 

Data Management (DM)

 

Data management (DM) consists of the practices, architectural techniques, and tools for achieving consistent access to and delivery of data across the spectrum of data subject areas and data structure types in the enterprise, to meet the data consumption requirements of all applications and business processes.

 

Data Mining

 

Data mining is the process of discovering meaningful correlations, patterns and trends by sifting through large amounts of data stored in repositories. Data mining employs pattern recognition technologies, as well as statistical and mathematical techniques.

 

Data Monetization

 

Data Monetization refers to the process of using data to obtain quantifiable economic benefit. Internal or indirect methods include using data to make measurable business performance improvements and inform decisions. External or direct methods include data sharing to gain beneficial terms or conditions from business partners, information bartering, selling data outright (via a data broker or independently), or offering information products and services (for example, including information as a value-added component of an existing offering).

 

Data Ops

 

Data ops is the hub for collecting and distributing data, with a mandate to provide controlled access to systems of record for customer and marketing performance data, while protecting privacy, usage restrictions and data integrity.

 

 

Data Quality Software as a Service (SaaS)

 

Data quality software as a service (SaaS) refers to data quality functionality (such as profiling, matching, standardization and validation) delivered using a model in which an external provider owns the infrastructure and provides the capabilities in a shared, multitenant environment used by its customers. Various offerings for data quality SaaS can be used as alternatives to in-house deployments of data quality software tools or the development of custom-coded solutions.

 

Data Scientist

 

The data scientist role is critical for organizations looking to extract insight from information assets for “big data” initiatives and requires a broad combination of skills that may be fulfilled better as a team. For example, collaboration and teamwork are required for working with business stakeholders to understand business issues. Analytical and decision modeling skills are required for discovering relationships within data and detecting patterns. Data management skills are required to build the relevant dataset used for the analysis.

 

Data Strategy

 

A data strategy is a highly dynamic process employed to support the acquisition, organization, analysis, and delivery of data in support of business objectives.

 

Data Synchronization

 

A form of embedded middleware that allows applications to update data on two systems so that the data sets are identical. These services can run via a variety of different transports but typically require some application-specific knowledge of the context and notion of the data being synchronized.

 

Data Warehouse

 

A data warehouse is a storage architecture designed to hold data extracted from transaction systems, operational data stores and external sources. The warehouse then combines that data in an aggregate, summary form suitable for enterprisewide data analysis and reporting for predefined business needs.

The five components of a data warehouse are:

1. Production data sources
2. Data extraction and conversion
3. Data warehouse database management system
4. Data warehouse administration
5. Business intelligence (BI) tools

A data warehouse contains data arranged into abstracted subject areas with time-variant versions of the same records, with an appropriate level of data grain or detail to make it useful across two or more different types of analyses most often deployed with tendencies to third normal form. A data mart contains similarly time-variant and subject-oriented data, but with relationships implying dimensional use of data wherein facts are distinctly separate from dimension data, thus making them more appropriate for single categories of analysis.

 

Database Appliances

 

A database appliance is a prepackaged or pre-configured, balanced set of hardware (servers, memory, storage and input/output channels), software (operating system, database management system [DBMS] and management software), service and support. It is sold as a unit with built-in redundancy for high availability and positioned as a platform for DBMS use in online transaction processing (OLTP) and/or data warehousing (DW).

 

Database Encryption

 

Database encryption tools are used to protect data within relational database management systems (RDBMSs). Encryption can be implemented using native DBMS tools, third-party software tools and network-based appliances, or implemented within storage networks via fabric-based encryption. Database encryption is increasingly being implemented as a regulatory check box by clients that enable built-in encryption. There are two operational scenarios: encrypting the entire database or encrypting specific columns or fields within the RDBMS.

 

DataOps

 

DataOps is a collaborative data management practice focused on improving the communication, integration and automation of data flows between data managers and data consumers across an organization. The goal of DataOps is to deliver value faster by creating predictable delivery and change management of data, data models and related artifacts. DataOps uses technology to automate the design, deployment and management of data delivery with appropriate levels of governance, and it uses metadata to improve the usability and value of data in a dynamic environment.

 

Decision Intelligence

 

Decision intelligence is a practical domain framing a wide range of decision-making techniques bringing multiple traditional and advanced disciplines together to design, model, align, execute, monitor and tune decision models and processes. Those disciplines include decision management (including advanced nondeterministic techniques such as agent-based systems) and decision support as well as techniques such as descriptive, diagnostics and predictive analytics.

 

Demand Pattern Analysis

 

Demand pattern analysis is an emerging area in supply chain management (SCM) that analyzes customer and demand data to better predict demand across multiple time horizons in a demand-driven value network (DDVN). For example, in the strategic time horizon (12 months to three years), companies can analyze macro changes in customer demand, macroeconomic indicators and corporate strategic business goals, such as reaching a target market share for an established product. Tactically (12 weeks to 12 months), companies can better analyze demand with increased collaboration with customers on marketing plans, including more alignment for new product introduction (NPI), seasonality or a promotional event. Operationally (one week to 12 weeks), companies can leverage frameworks like collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) and causal forecasting, as opposed to relying on lagging historical demand data to determine downstream needs and opportunities.

 

Deployment

 

Deployment services support the implementation and rollout of new applications or infrastructure. Activities may include hardware or software procurement, configuration, tuning, staging, installation and interoperability testing.

 

Descriptive Analytics

 

Descriptive Analytics is the examination of data or content, usually manually performed, to answer the question “What happened?” (or What is happening?), characterized by traditional business intelligence (BI) and visualizations such as pie charts, bar charts, line graphs, tables, or generated narratives.

 

Design Thinking

 

Design thinking is a multidisciplinary process that builds solutions for complex, intractable problems in a technically feasible, commercially sustainable and emotionally meaningful way. Design thinkers balance intuitive originality (the hallmarks of great designers) with analytic mastery (the hallmarks of business leaders and engineers) to create business-focused outcomes that generate transformative, innovative and strategic change.

 

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

 

Desktop as a service (DaaS) is an offering that provides users with an on-demand, virtualized desktop experience delivered from a remotely hosted location. It includes provisioning, patching and maintenance of the management plane and resources to host workloads.

 

Development And Integration Services

 

Development and integration services support the implementation and rollout of new network infrastructure, including consolidation of established network infrastructure. Activities may include hardware or software procurement, configuration, tuning, staging, installation and interoperability testing.

 

DevOps

 

DevOps represents a change in IT culture, focusing on rapid IT service delivery through the adoption of agile, lean practices in the context of a system-oriented approach. DevOps emphasizes people (and culture), and it seeks to improve collaboration between operations and development teams. DevOps implementations utilize technology — especially automation tools that can leverage an increasingly programmable and dynamic infrastructure from a life cycle perspective.

 

Digital

 

Digital is the representation of physical items or activities through binary code. When used as an adjective, it describes the dominant use of the latest digital technologies to improve organizational processes, improve interactions between people, organizations and things, or make new business models possible.

 

Digital Ad Operations Platforms

 

Digital ad operations platforms are advertising operations and management software for publishers and other sellers of digital advertising that support sales, pricing, optimization, yield management, analytics and delivery of advertising traffic and assets across multiple digital channels, including online, mobile, signage and new formats for digital TV.

 

Digital Assets

 

A digital asset is anything that is stored digitally and is uniquely identifiable that organizations can use to realize value. Examples of digital assets include documents, audio, videos, logos, slide presentations, spreadsheets and websites.

 

Digital Business

 

Digital business is the creation of new business designs by blurring the digital and physical worlds.

 

Digital Business Transformation

 

Digital business transformation is the process of exploiting digital technologies and supporting capabilities to create a robust new digital business model. COVID-19 forced organizations around the globe to speed up digital initiatives to drive their response to the crisis. Now, the c-suite is focused on prioritizing investments in the right initiatives that will fuel future growth. 

 

Digital Commerce

 

Digital commerce enables customers to purchase goods and services through an interactive and self-service experience. It includes the people, processes and technologies to execute the offering of development content, analytics, promotion, pricing, customer acquisition and retention, and customer experience at all touchpoints throughout the customer buying journey.

 

Digital Commerce Experience

 

Digital commerce experience is a  highly interconnected process of searching, evaluating and purchasing products and services across digital and physical sales channels with an agile path to purchase. The experience thrives on the necessity to access product/service information throughout the buying journey, the flexibility to make the ultimate purchase and take delivery from a variety of online and offline commerce routes, and the ability to share/receive experience across customer networks.

 

Digital Customer

 

Digital customers use digital channels — Web, mobile and social — to consume content, engage with brands and complete a transaction.

 

Digital Disruption

 

Digital disruption is an effect that changes the fundamental expectations and behaviors in a culture, market, industry or process that is caused by, or expressed through, digital capabilities, channels or assets.

 

Digital Disruptor

 

A digital disruptor is any entity that effects the shift of fundamental expectations and behaviors in a culture, market, industry, technology or process that is caused by, or expressed through, digital capabilities, channels or assets.

 

Digital Experience Platform (DXP)

 

A digital experience platform (DXP) is an integrated set of core technologies that support the composition, management, delivery and optimization of contextualized digital experiences

 

Digital Marketer

 

A digital marketer  uses marketing principles, technologies and techniques to drive awareness, retention and sales through digital channels.

 

Digital Marketing

 

Digital marketing is a set of integrated techniques, technologies and information that enables marketing to create new products and services; enter new markets; improve the processes needed to engage in a dynamic conversation with people who are influencers and buyers; and ultimately target, acquire and retain customers.

 

Digital Marketing Hub

 

A Digital Marketing Hub is software that spans multiple digital marketing domains (mobile, social and multichannel) to provide integrated access to applications and workflows, adding capabilities such as collaboration, data integration and common analytics.

 

Digital Marketing Strategy

 

A digital marketing strategy is the process of articulating the vision, goals and opportunities — as well as the processes, people, technology and initiatives to execute them — to create deeper interactions with customers, more customized and personalized offerings and interactions, data-driven decision making, and customer experience models that are more nimble and reactive to changes in customers’ needs, wants and interests.

 

Digital Transformation

 

Digital transformation can refer to anything from IT modernization (for example, cloud computing), to digital optimization, to the invention of new digital business models. The term is widely used in public-sector organizations to refer to modest initiatives such as putting services online or legacy modernization. Thus, the term is more like “digitization” than “digital business transformation.”

 

Digital Transformation Consulting (DTC)

 

Digital transformation consulting (DTC) services are strategy and transformation consulting services supporting senior business stakeholders, such as CEOs, COOs, chief marketing officers (CMOs) and other business leaders. DTC particularly helps these leaders in efforts to leverage digital technologies that enable the innovation of their entire business or elements of their business and operating models. Specific capabilities include consulting services for digital strategy and transformation, digital operations, and digital customer experience.

 

Digital Twin

 

A digital twin is a digital representation of a real-world entity or system. The implementation of a digital twin is an encapsulated software object or model that mirrors a unique physical object, process, organization, person or other abstraction. Data from multiple digital twins can be aggregated for a composite view across a number of real-world entities, such as a power plant or a city, and their related processes.

 

Digitalization

 

Digitalization is the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; it is the process of moving to a digital business.

 

Digitization

 

Digitization is the process of changing from analog to digital form, also known as digital enablement. Said another way, digitization takes an analog process and changes it to a digital form without any different-in-kind changes to the process itself.

 

Digitize

 

To convert or express an analog form in a digital format.

 

Distributed Cloud

 

Distributed cloud is the distribution of public cloud services to different physical locations, while the operation, governance, updates and evolution of the services are the responsibility of the originating public cloud provider.

 

DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting)

 

Technology that can transmit digital video to mobile devices. It developed out of the DAB standard, which established itself as the best terrestrial radio system for delivering CD-quality, digital stereo sound in fixed, portable and mobile reception conditions.

 

E-Business

 

 

E-Business (electronic business) is any process that a business organization conducts over a computer-mediated network. Business organizations include any for-profit, governmental, or nonprofit entity. Their processes include production-, customer-, and internal- or management-focused business processes.

 

E-Learning

 

E-learning is the use of Internet technology for learning outside of the classroom. E-learning suites are software solutions that enable automation, administration and training over the Internet. E-learning suites are integrated product collections that comprise learning management systems (LMSs), virtual classrooms, courseware and learning content management systems (LCMSs). An LMS is software that automates the training process and function and includes registration and administration tools, skills and records management, courseware access, and programming interfaces to packaged applications. An LCMS is an integrated set of technology that manages all aspects of learning content. This includes authoring or acquisition, content history, auditing, replacement, and deletion. An LCMS generally works in conjunction with an LMS.

 

E-Commerce

 

E-commerce enables customers to purchase goods and services through an interactive and self-service experience. It includes the people, processes and technologies to execute the offering of development content, analytics, promotion, pricing, customer acquisition and retention, and customer experience at all touchpoints throughout the customer buying journey.

 

E-Learning

 

E-learning is the use of Internet technology for learning outside of the classroom. E-learning suites are software solutions that enable automation, administration and training over the Internet. E-learning suites are integrated product collections that comprise learning management systems (LMSs), virtual classrooms, courseware and learning content management systems (LCMSs). An LMS is software that automates the training process and function and includes registration and administration tools, skills and records management, courseware access, and programming interfaces to packaged applications. An LCMS is an integrated set of technology that manages all aspects of learning content. This includes authoring or acquisition, content history, auditing, replacement, and deletion. An LCMS generally works in conjunction with an LMS.

 

E-Procurement

 

E-procurement applications support indirect spending by giving casual users (i.e., employees who are not procurement professionals) a self-service solution for requisitioning and ordering goods and services. Although e-procurement solutions are geared toward indirect spending management by enabling individuals to initiate the requisition process and select purchases, they are occasionally configured for direct materials procurement, when plan-driven inventory replenishment isn’t practical.

 

Edge Computing

 

Edge computing is part of a distributed computing topology where information processing is located close to the edge, where things and people produce or consume that information.

 

Electronic Customer Relationship Management (e-CRM)

 

Electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) involves the integration of Web channels into the overall enterprise CRM strategy with the goal of driving consistency within all channels relative to sales, customer service and support (CSS) and marketing initiatives. It can support a seamless customer experience and maximize customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and revenue.

 

Electronic Data Capture (EDC)

 

Electronic data capture (EDC) is the electronic acquisition of clinical study data using data collection systems, such as Web-based applications, interactive voice response systems and clinical laboratory interfaces. Information is stored in EDC applications and used for analysis, or it is transferred to a clinical trial database containing the data from many clinical studies.

 

Electronic Forms (e-Forms)

 

Electronic forms (e-forms) provide a user interface to data and services, typically through a browser-based interface. E-forms enable users to interact with enterprise applications and the back-end systems linked to them. Web applications, e-government and e-commerce solutions have sparked the demand for better Web forms that support richer and more dynamic interactions than are possible with HTML forms. New e-form applications include XML content identification, multiple data callouts, field-level validation and embedded process logic contained within a secure format that’s often portable.

 

Embedded Analytics

 

Embedded analytics is a digital workplace capability where data analysis occurs within a user's natural workflow, without the need to toggle to another application. Moreover, embedded analytics tends to be narrowly deployed around specific processes such as marketing campaign optimization, sales lead conversions, inventory demand planning and financial budgeting.

 

Encryption

 

Encryption is the process of systematically encoding a bit stream before transmission so that an unauthorized party cannot decipher it.

 

Enterprise Application Software

 

Enterprise application software includes content, communication, and collaboration software; CRM software; digital and content creation software, ERP software; office suites; project and portfolio management; and SCM software.

 

Enterprise Architecture (EA)

 

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a discipline for proactively and holistically leading enterprise responses to disruptive forces by identifying and analyzing the execution of change toward desired business vision and outcomes. EA delivers value by presenting business and IT leaders with signature-ready recommendations for adjusting policies and projects to achieve targeted business outcomes that capitalize on relevant business disruptions.

 

Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

 

Enterprise content management (ECM) is used to create, store, distribute, discover, archive and manage unstructured content (such as scanned documents, email, reports, medical images and office documents) and ultimately analyze usage to enable organizations to deliver relevant content to users where and when they need it.

 

 

Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)

 

Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) is the process of monitoring performance across the enterprise with the goal of improving business performance. An EPM system integrates and analyzes data from many sources, including, but not limited to, e-commerce systems, front-office and back-office applications, data warehouses and external data sources. Advanced EPM systems can support many performance methodologies such as the balanced scorecard.

 

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

 

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is defined as the ability to deliver an integrated suite of business applications. ERP tools share a common process and data model, covering broad and deep operational end-to-end processes, such as those found in finance, HR, distribution, manufacturing, service and the supply chain.

ERP applications automate and support a range of administrative and operational business processes across multiple industries, including line of business, customer-facing, administrative and the asset management aspects of an enterprise. ERP deployments are complex and expensive endeavors, and some organizations struggle to define the business benefits.

Look for business benefits in four areas: a catalyst for business innovation, a platform for business process efficiency, a vehicle for process standardization, and IT cost savings. Most enterprises focus on the last two areas, because they are the easiest to quantify; however, the first two areas often have the most significant impact on the enterprise. 

 

Enterprise Solutions

 

Enterprise solutions are designed to integrate multiple facets of a company’s business through the interchange of information from various business process areas and related databases. These solutions enable companies to retrieve and disseminate mission-critical data throughout the organization, providing managers with real-time operating information.

 

Ethernet

 

A baseband local-area network (LAN) originally developed by Xerox and supported by Intel, Digital Equipment (now Compaq Computer) and Hewlett-Packard. It has a bus topology with carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) access control. Ethernet is not identical to Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3

 

Event-triggered Marketing

 

Event-triggered marketing includes identifying, categorizing, monitoring, optimizing and executing events (such as channel reconciliation). It can be applied in a multichannel relationship (such as social, mobile, direct mail, inbound call conversions, lead management and email marketing). It’s an approach to B2B and business-to-consumer marketing that addresses the appropriate timeliness of offers from the customer’s perspective, rather than the company’s perspective.

 

Expert System

 

A software system that can learn new procedures by analyzing the outcome of past events, or that contains a knowledge base of rules that can be applied to new data or circumstances not explicitly anticipated by the developer. Applications include network management, database management and data mining, computer vision and image processing, speech recognition, biometrics and software for complex evaluation in such fields as petroleum geology.

 

Extranet

 

A collaborative, Internet-based network that facilitates intercompany relationships by linking an enterprise with its suppliers, customers or other external business partners. Extranets use Internet-derived applications and technology to provide secured extensions of internal business processes to external business partners.

 

Fabric Computing

 

Fabric computing is a set of computing, storage, memory and I/O components joined through a fabric interconnect, and the software to configure and manage them.

 

Facebook Commerce (F-commerce)

 

Facebook commerce (F-commerce) is the retail transaction capability offered within the Facebook social network platform. These transactional capabilities are facilitated via the utilization of Facebook APIs that allow retailers to present products, information and offers to consumers, as well as allow consumers to complete transactions within Facebook.

 

Fiber Optics

 

Fiber optics is a high-bandwidth transmission technology that uses light to carry digital information. One fiber telephone cable carries hundreds of thousands of voice circuits. These cables, or light guides, replace conventional coaxial cables and wire pairs. Fiber transmission facilities occupy far less physical volume for an equivalent transmission capacity, which is a major advantage in crowded ducts. Optical fiber is also immune to electrical interference.

 

Fintech

 

Fintechs are startup technology providers that approach financial business in innovative (sometimes disruptive) ways through emerging technologies. Fintechs can fundamentally change the way in which a financial services institution’s products and services are created, are distributed and generate revenue. The term may also refer to the technologies these providers offer.

 

Firewall

 

A firewall is an application or an entire computer (e.g., an Internet gateway server) that controls access to the network and monitors the flow of network traffic. A firewall can screen and keep out unwanted network traffic and ward off outside intrusion into a private network. This is particularly important when a local network connects to the Internet. Firewalls have become critical applications as use of the Internet has increased.

 

Footfall Analysis

 

Footfall analysis is the use of analytic techniques to monitor waiting times in bank branch teller lines or lengths of waiting time to use automated teller machines (ATMs). Newer systems use fixed video cameras to track the movements of each visitor to the branch, with algorithms that compute individual and average waiting times. This entry refers to applications designed for collecting data, especially video-based, about customer wait times to measure and analyze traffic throughout the branch.

 

Framework

 

A style guide that defines the look, feel and interoperability of software applications.

 

Gamification

 

Gamification is the use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals. It is important to distinguish gamification from video games and loyalty programs, as gamification uses techniques from behavioral science to “nudge” people into achieving their goals.

 

Gateway Server

 

A server designed to transform data streams to better match device capabilities. For example, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) gateway servers convert HTML to Wireless Markup Language (WML) for wireless devices, and a number of products can reformat HTML for devices such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Today, HTML-based servers predominate. While HTML can be made aware of a unique device requesting content, more often “shadow” Web server applications are created to draw off and reformat the native content.

 

Geofencing

 

Creating a virtual boundary in which a device, individual or asset can be tracked and monitored or detected if the boundary is violated. Examples are the tracking of pets, children and Alzheimer’s patients, criminals sentenced to home detention, trucks and high-value cargos.

 

Gesture Recognition

 

Camera-based application that identifies and interprets user motions.

 

GUI (Graphical User Interface)

 

A graphics-based operating system interface that uses icons, menus and a mouse (to click on the icon or pull down the menus) to manage interaction with the system. Developed by Xerox, the GUI was popularized by the Apple Macintosh in the 1980s. At the time, Microsoft’s operating system, MS-DOS, required the user to type specific commands, but the company’s GUI, Microsoft Windows, is now the dominant user interface for personal computers (PCs). A comprehensive GUI environment includes four components: a graphics library, a user interface toolkit, a user interface style guide and consistent applications. The graphics library provides a high-level graphics programming interface. The user interface toolkit, built on top of the graphics library, provides application programs with mechanisms for creating and managing the dialogue elements of the windows, icons, menus, pointers and scroll bars (WIMPS) interface. The user interface style guide specifies how applications should employ the dialogue elements to present a consistent, easy-to-use environment (i.e., “look and feel”) to the user. Application program conformance with a single user interface style is the primary determinant of ease of learning and use, and thus, of application effectiveness and user productivity.

 

Hadoop

 

Hadoop is an open-source software framework that supports the processing and storage of extremely large datasets in a distributed computing environment. All the modules in Hadoop are designed with a fundamental assumption that hardware failures are a common occurrence and should be automatically handled by the framework. It is part of the Apache project sponsored by the Apache Software Foundation.

 

Haptics

 

Haptics is a tactile or force-feedback technology that leverages a person’s sense of touch by applying vibrations and/or motion to the user’s fingertips. This stimulation can assist the technology in the development of virtual objects on the device screen. In its broad sense, haptics can be any system that incorporates tactile feedback and vibrates through a sense of touch.

 

Head-Up Display (HUD)

 

A head-up display (HUD) is a transparent display using light-emitting diode or other display projection technology to display customizable information and images (for example, speed data and warnings). It displays such content within a driver’s line of vision onto a windshield or other surface viewed by passengers (such as side windows).

 

Hosted Virtual Desktops (HVD)

 

A hosted virtual desktop (HVD) is a full, thick-client user environment, which is run as a virtual machine (VM) on a server and accessed remotely. HVD implementations comprise server virtualization software to host desktop software (as a server workload), brokering/session management software to connect users to their desktop environment, and tools for managing the provisioning and maintenance (e.g., updates and patches) of the virtual desktop software stack.

 

Hot Spot

 

Area, often public, such as an airport, coffee shop or convention center, that is covered with a WLAN service. This service is available for the public to use for a nominal charge, for free or as a premium service.

 

HTML5

 

HTML5 is a collection of proposed specifications for the next generation of HTML. Beyond this, HTML5 is used as a short-hand label for all that’s new with the Web, including CSS3 and changes to HTTP.

 

Human Augmentation

 

The field of human augmentation (sometimes referred to as “Human 2.0”) focuses on creating cognitive and physical improvements as an integral part of the human body. An example is using active control systems to create limb prosthetics with characteristics that can exceed the highest natural human performance.

 

Human Capital Management (HCM)

 

Human capital management (HCM) is a set of practices related to people resource management. These practices are focused on the organizational need to provide specific competencies and are implemented in three categories: workforce acquisition, workforce management and workforce optimization. 

 

Hybrid Cloud Computing

 

Hybrid cloud computing refers to policy-based and coordinated service provisioning, use and management across a mixture of internal and external cloud services.

 

Hype Cycle

 

Gartner’s Hype Cycle is a graphical depiction of a common pattern that arises with each new technology or other innovation. Each year, Gartner creates more than 90 Hype Cycles in various domains as a way for clients to track technology maturity and future potential. The five phases in the Hype Cycle are Technology Trigger, Peak of Inflated Expectations, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment and Plateau of Productivity.

 

Hyperlink

 

An area on a Web page that, when clicked on with a mouse, will transport the user to another Web page. Also called “links” or “hot links,” hyperlinks are analogous to hypertext. Hyperlinks are commonly used on the Web to provide navigation, reference and depth where published text cannot. A hyperlink can be created from text or from a graphic.

 

Idea Engine

 

A social environment where participants can enter an idea for social validation and contribution. Other participants can support and augment the idea, ignore it or refute it.

 

Industrial Iot Platforms

 

Gartner defines the market for industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platforms as a set of integrated software capabilities. These capabilities span efforts to improve asset management decision making, as well as operational visibility and control for plants, depots, infrastructure and equipment within asset-intensive industries. These efforts also occur within related operating environments of those industries. The IIoT platform may be consumed as a technology suite or as an open and general-purpose application platform, or both in combination. The platform is engineered to support the requirements of safety, security and mission criticality associated with industrial assets and their operating environments. The IIoT platform software that resides on devices — such as, controllers, routers, access points, gateways and edge computing systems — is considered part of a distributed IIoT platform.

 

Industrialized IT Services

 

The standardization of IT services through predesigned and preconfigured solutions that are highly automated and repeatable, scalable and reliable, and meet the needs of many organizations.
information access with search
Information access technologies interact with applications such as document management, Web content management and other repositories to provide users with insight into their content. Increasingly, information access technology is also expected to include results from enterprise applications, such as CRM and legacy systems. In addition, it looks outside enterprises to access Internet-based content. Information access technology is often acquired as an embedded aspect of other applications, and portal, ECM, business application and other vendors frequently include enterprise search as part of their products.
The first and most mature information access technology is search engine technology. It is typically applied to unstructured data in document repositories. It includes both enterprise and desktop search. Increasingly, automatic categorization, creative visualization, content analytics and taxonomy support technologies are being added to this category.

 

Infonomics

 

Infonomics is the emerging discipline of managing and accounting for information with the same or similar rigor and formality as other traditional assets and liabilities (such as financial, physical and intangible assets and human capital). Infonomics posits that information itself meets all the criteria of formal company assets, and, although not yet recognized by GAAP, it is increasingly incumbent on organizations to behave as if information were a real asset.

 

Information (knowledge) Assets

 

Information relevant to an enterprise’s business function, including captured and tacit knowledge of employees, customers or business partners; data and information stored in highly-structured databases; data and information stored in textual form and in less-structured databases such as messages, e-mail, workflow content and spreadsheets; information stored in digital and paper documents; purchased content; and public content from the Internet or other sources.

 

Information Capabilities Framework

 

The information capabilities framework is the people-, process- and technology-agnostic set of capabilities needed to describe, organize, integrate, share and govern an organization’s information assets in an application-independent manner in support of its enterprise information management (EIM) goals.

 

Information Governance

 

Gartner defines information governance as the specification of decision rights and an accountability framework to ensure appropriate behavior in the valuation, creation, storage, use, archiving and deletion of information. It includes the processes, roles and policies, standards and metrics that ensure the effective and efficient use of information in enabling an organization to achieve its goals.

 

Integrated Marketing Management

 

Integrated marketing management (IMM) represents the business strategy, process automation and technologies required to integrate people, processes and technologies across the marketing ecosystem. IMM supports closed-loop marketing by integrating operational, executional and analytical marketing processes from concept/idea to planning to resource allocation to creation/project management to piloting to full-scale execution through to evaluation and analysis.

 

Integration as a Service (IaaS)

 

Integration functionality (secure B2B communications, data and message translation, and adapters for applications, data and cloud APIs) delivered as a service.

 

Internet

 

A loose confederation of independent yet interconnected networks that use the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocols for communications. The Internet evolved from research done during the 1960s on a network called the ARPANet. It provides universal connectivity and three levels of network services: connectionless packet delivery, full-duplex stream delivery, and application-level services.

 

Internet Of Things (iot)

 

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment.

 

Interoperability

 

The ability for a device from one manufacturer to work with one from another.

 

IoT Integration

 

Integration means making independently designed applications and data work well together. IoT integration means making the mix of new IoT devices, IoT data, IoT platforms and IoT applications — combined with IT assets (business applications, legacy data, mobile, and SaaS) — work well together in the context of implementing end-to-end IoT business solutions. The IoT integration market is defined as the set of IoT integration capabilities that IoT project implementers need to successfully integrate end-to-end IoT business solutions.

 

IoT Platforms

 

Enterprises are increasingly connecting a broad variety and number of IoT endpoints to access data from and better manage physical assets that are relevant to their business. Typical IoT-enabled business objectives include traditional benefits, such as improved asset optimization, as well as new business opportunities and revenue models, such as subscribed-to services (versus owned assets). An IoT platform is an on-premises software suite or a cloud service (IoT platform as a service [PaaS]) that monitors and may manage and control various types of endpoints, often via applications business units deploy on the platform. The IoT platform usually provides (or provisions) Web-scale infrastructure capabilities to support basic and advanced IoT solutions and digital business operations.

 

IT Asset Management (ITAM)

 

IT asset management (ITAM) provides an accurate account of technology asset lifecycle costs and risks to maximize the business value of technology strategy, architecture, funding, contractual and sourcing decisions.

 

IT Budget

 

The IT budget is the enterprise’s total allocation of IT spending over a 12-month period. IT spending/budget can come from anywhere in the enterprise that incurs IT costs, and it is not limited to the IT organization. It includes estimates by enterprises on decentralized IT spending and/or shadow IT. The IT budget covers hardware, software, personnel, outsourcing, disaster recovery and occupancy costs associated with supporting IT within the enterprise. Costs also include all taxes (except value-added tax where it is recovered or refunded to the organization).

 

IT Consulting

 

IT consulting services are advisory services that help clients assess different technology strategies and, in doing so, align their technology strategies with their business or process strategies. These services support customers’ IT initiatives by providing strategic, architectural, operational and implementation planning. Strategic planning includes advisory services that help clients assess their IT needs and formulate system implementation plans. Architecture planning includes advisory services that combine strategic plans and knowledge of emerging technologies to create the logical design of the system and the supporting infrastructure to meet customer requirements. Operational assessment/benchmarking include services that assess the operating efficiency and capacity of a client’s IT environment. Implementation planning includes services aimed at advising customers on the rollout and testing of new solution deployments.

 

IT Industrialization

 

IT industrialization is the standardization of IT services through predesigned and preconfigured solutions that are highly automated, repeatable, scalable and reliable, and that meet the needs of many organizations.

 

IT Infrastructure

 

IT infrastructure is the system of hardware, software, facilities and service components that support the delivery of business systems and IT-enabled processes.

 

IT Management Services

 

Management services transfer all or part of the day-to-day management responsibility for a customer’s network environment (including LAN hardware and software, WAN — voice and data — and voice network hardware and software) and, in some cases, the ownership of the technology or personnel assets, to an outside vendor. These services may include system operation or support, capacity planning, asset management, availability management, performance management, administration, security, remote monitoring, technical diagnostics/troubleshooting, configuration management, system repair management and generation of management reports. Network remote monitoring and management, and backup and recovery services, also fall into this category when some degree of management is included in the service.

 

IT Operations

 

Gartner defines IT operations as the people and management processes associated with IT service management to deliver the right set of services at the right quality and at competitive costs for customers.

 

IT Outsourcing

 

IT outsourcing is the use of external service providers to effectively deliver IT-enabled business process, application service and infrastructure solutions for business outcomes. Outsourcing, which also includes utility services, software as a service and cloud-enabled outsourcing, helps clients to develop the right sourcing strategies and vision, select the right IT service providers, structure the best possible contracts, and govern deals for sustainable win-win relationships with external providers. Outsourcing can enable enterprises to reduce costs, accelerate time to market, and take advantage of external expertise, assets and/or intellectual property.

 

IT Strategy

 

IT strategy is the discipline that defines how IT will be used to help businesses win in their chosen business context.

 

IT/OT Alignment

 

IT/OT alignment is an approach to deal with the internal changes within an organization in response to IT/OT convergence. As the nature of the OT systems starts to change, organizations need to respond by aligning the standards, policies, tools, processes and staff between IT and the business.

 

ITIL

 

ITIL (formerly known as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is an IT service management framework owned by Axelos — a joint venture between the U.K. government and Capita. ITIL is structured as five core books to cover the full-service life cycle: service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation and continual service improvement.

 

Java

 

The term “Java” can be applied to Sun’s Java platform or to its Java programming language. The Java platform is made up of a set of technologies that provide cross-platform, network-centric computing solutions. The programming language is simply one aspect of the Java platform. The elements of the Java platform include the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which provides a uniform Java byte code emulator for Java’s cross-platform runtime environment; the Java programming language, which provides a robust, object-oriented language for constructing Java components and applications; and the standard Java-class library packages, which provide sets of reusable services that promote consistency among components and applications.

The Java programming language is based on C and extends and complements the basic capabilities of HTML. Java permits the creation of applications and application modules (called “applets”) that run in the JVM on the browser. Browsers from Netscape and Microsoft have a JVM. Java’s platform independence and security are designed in, rather than added on, so applications can run on a wide variety of desktop platforms as long as they can run a Java-enabled browser.

 

Javascript

 

A scripting language targeted specifically to the Internet. It is the first scripting language to fully conform to ECMAScript, the Web’s only standard scripting language. Despite its name, JavaScript is not a derivative of Java; its origin is Netscape’s Livescript language. JavaScript is, in fact, closer to C/C++ in syntax than it is to Java.

 

JIT (Just in Time)

 

An approach of sequencing the arrival of material to a work center just prior to consumption to avoid large work-in-process inventories.

 

 

 

Kaizen

 

Incremental, continuous improvement.

 

Kanban

 

Kanban is a technique used in lean manufacturing (i.e., just-in-time) environments to reduce process cycle time by managing flow.

 

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

 

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a high-level measure of system output, traffic or other usage, simplified for gathering and review on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. Typical examples are bandwidth availability, transactions per second and calls per user. KPIs are often combined with cost measures (e.g., cost per transaction or cost per user) to build key system operating metrics.

 

Knowledge Base

 

The knowledge, which may include assertion, rules, objects and constraints, used by a knowledge-based or expert system. Its organization is based on knowledge representations. The developer or user of the system may be unaware of the underlying knowledge representations, seeing only the domain knowledge representations.

 

LAN (Local-Area Network)

 

A geographically limited communication network that connects users within a defined area. A LAN is generally contained within a building or small group of buildings and is managed and owned by a single enterprise. The shorter distances within a building or campus enable faster communications at a lower cost than wide-area networks (WANs). Although an increasing number of LANs use Internet standards and protocols, they are normally protected from the public Internet by firewalls.
LANs are generally used to perform the following functions:
• Send output to printers attached to the network.
• Transfer data or software to or from other systems attached to the network.
• Send e-mail to other users on the network.
• Access wider-area networks, including the Internet, via a direct connection from the network, for external file transfer, e-mail, facsimile, group collaboration and videoconferencing.

 

Latency

 

Measure of the responsiveness of a network, often expressed as the round-trip time (in milliseconds); that is, the time between initiating a network request and receiving a response. High latency tends to have more impact than bandwidth on the end-user experience in interactive applications, such as Web browsing. Low latency is required for many next-generation IP applications, such as VoIP, video telephony and PTT. See also round-trip time (RTT).

 

Lean

 

A customer-value focused approach to the provision of effective solutions involving the consumption of a minimum of resources.

 

Lean Enterprise

 

The extended supply chain responsible for effectively satisfying consumer requirements using a minimum of resources.

 

Learning Stack

 

A learning stack as an architectural construct is a collection of elements, such as applications, personal productively tools, Web 2.0 applications, content repositories and data sources, that can be accessed through, for example, a social learning platform. The learning stack is dynamic. Elements can be added, updated, removed and replaced in the open structure of the social learning platform.

 

Line Of Code

 

Line of code is a unit used in measuring or estimating the scale of programming or code conversion efforts.

 

Linux

 

Linux is a Unix-based computer OS and was originally designed as free software for open-source development. Its source code can be freely modified, used and redistributed by anyone under the GNU Public License. Several GUIs run on top of Linux, including K Desktop Environment and GNU Network Object Model Environment. Of the many distributions of Linux, the most-popular enterprise versions include those from Red Hat (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), Novell (SUSE Enterprise Linux), Ubuntu and Debian, and regional ones, such as Mandriva, Red Flag and Asianux. There are two Linux subsegments, Linux (client) and Linux (server), in our segmentation.

 

Location-aware Applications

 

Location-aware applications use the geographical position of a mobile worker or an asset to execute a task. Position is detected mainly through satellite technologies, such as a GPS, or through mobile location technologies in cellular networks and mobile devices. Examples include fleet management applications with mapping, navigation and routing functionalities, government inspections and integration with geographic information system applications.

 

Location-based Advertising (LBA)

 

Location-based advertising (LBA) refers to advertisements that appear on a mobile device, including banner or text ads on a mobile Internet site or mobile application, including maps.

 

Location-based Marketing (LBM)

 

Location-based marketing (LBM) addresses the user directly. Usually, the consumer receives a message on their mobile device containing a call to action (such as enter a competition, visit a website or order a product) and an incentive, such as a coupon.

 

Loyalty Marketing

 

Loyalty marketing is a discipline used to promote a sustained relationship with a brand by illustrating achievable benefits — such as convenience, cost and customization through long-term loyalty. Loyalty marketing often includes the management of loyalty cards, discount clubs or other programs that are designed to encourage and reward repeat purchases over time.

 

M-business

 

Mobile business (m-business) refers to new business models enabled by the extensive deployment of key mobile and wireless technologies and devices (for example, Bluetooth, e-purses, smartphones, UMTS and WAP), and by the inherent mobility of most people’s work styles and lifestyles. The value proposition of m-business is that the user can benefit from information or services any time and in any place.

 

M-commerce

 

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) refers to the delivery of e-commerce capabilities directly to mobile service users by wireless technology.

 

Machine Learning

 

Advanced machine learning algorithms are composed of many technologies (such as deep learning, neural networks and natural language processing), used in unsupervised and supervised learning, that operate guided by lessons from existing information.

 

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communications

 

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications is used for automated data transmission and measurement between mechanical or electronic devices. The key components of an M2M system are: Field-deployed wireless devices with embedded sensors or RFID-Wireless communication networks with complementary wireline access includes, but is not limited to cellular communication, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, WiMAX, wireless LAN (WLAN), generic DSL (xDSL) and fiber to the x (FTTx).

 

Mainframe

 

A mainframe is a large-capacity computer system with processing power that is significantly superior to PCs or midrange computers. Traditionally, mainframes have been associated with centralized, rather than distributed, computing environments. Skilled technicians are required to program and maintain mainframes, although client/server technology has made mainframes easier to operate from the user’s and programmer’s perspectives. They are generally used by large organizations to handle data processing for enterprisewide administrative tasks like payroll or accounts payable.

 

Managed File Transfer (MFT)

 

Managed file transfer (MFT) is a technology that provides the secure transfer of data in an efficient and a reliable manner. Unlike traditional file transfer tools, such as FTP and scripting, MFT core functionalities include the ability to secure files in transit and at rest, and reporting and auditing of file activity. What also differentiates MFT from other forms of infrastructure and integration technologies is its unique focus on managing the transfer of large file sizes and volume.

 

Management Consulting

 

Management consulting is strategic consulting focused on high-level corporate or business unit strategy (e.g., deciding what businesses to participate in or whether to make an acquisition), or on operational improvement (e.g., improving customer service or determining the most effective type of retail delivery system).

 

Management Information Base

 

A management information base (MIB) is a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) flat-file, nonrelational database that describes devices being monitored. Network management platforms monitor nodes by reading the value of the managed resources in the MIB. Management platforms can affect changes in managed resources by altering MIB values (e.g., by establishing thresholds beyond which alerts are created).

 

Marketing Analytics

 

Marketing analytics is an umbrella term representing a market that encompasses analytics features within end-to-end marketing platforms and specialized tools. These platforms and tools allow marketers to collect, analyze, model and visualize data to optimize marketing and advertising campaigns by better understanding prospects and customers, and their behaviors across channels.

 

Marketing Automation Platform

 

Marketing automation platforms support lead management, scoring and nurturing activities across multiple marketing channels. The main goal of these systems is to convert contacts into scored, nurtured leads for sales teams to close. They assist with data cleansing by eliminating incomplete or redundant lead information, and with lead augmentation by providing additional information about prospects. Lead process management and multichannel orchestration and execution are the primary functions of marketing automation in a B2B or business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) context.

 

Marketing Automation System

 

A marketing automation system is a system that helps marketers execute multichannel marketing campaigns by providing a scripting environment for authoring business rules and interfaces to a variety of third-party applications.

 

Marketing Content Management

 

Marketing content management (MCM) is a category of applications that help enterprises respond rapidly to unfolding business circumstances by applying the optimal combination of marketing content across multiple channels. MCM databases provide enterprises with an overview of all available marketing content.

 

Marketing Database System

 

A marketing database system is a database system designed to meet the specialized analytical and application needs of marketers.

 

Marketing Mix Modeling

 

Marketing mix modeling refers to analytical solutions that help marketers to understand and simulate the effect of advertising (volume decomposition), and to optimize tactics and the delivery medium. More recently, it is being used to simulate and analyze the trade-offs between trade and consumer spending. Marketing mix modeling can also help managers with P&L responsibility understand ROI by tactic. For example, if I have $1 to invest, I can get an X return from advertising and a Y return from a consumer promotion. This helps marketers make informed decisions on where to invest based on their measures of success.

 

Marketing Mix Optimization

 

Marketing mix optimization enables marketers to maximize returns on their marketing expenditures by determining the best set of advertising and targeted campaigns across various channels (offline and online) and media (traditional, digital and social).

 

Marketing Performance Management (MPM)

 

Marketing performance management (MPM) encompasses the technologies and services for solutions that support marketing’s ability to gain access to insights, analyze data, make predictions, and optimize marketing programs, campaigns and resources. At the foundational level, MPM includes a data repository, BI tools and analytical workbenches. At the strategic level, MPM provides role-based access to information and KPIs through dashboards, visualization, point-and-click analysis, modeling, simulation and optimization.

 

Marketing Service Providers (MSPs)

 

Marketing service providers (MSPs) supply professional services, system integration, creative services, third-party data, and application service provider (ASP) and hosted solutions for marketing organizations. MSPs’ competencies include customer data integration (CDI), data quality and deduping, database marketing, prospecting, campaign management, marketing resource management (MRM), customer analytics, e-marketing and advertising. Competencies range from technology hosting to full business process outsourcing.

 

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)

 

The massive open online course (MOOC) is an online phenomenon made possible by: (1) social networking facilitation of acknowledged expert(s) in a field of study; (2) freely accessible online resources; and (3) hundreds to thousands of registered students. MOOCs have free (no fee) open enrollment to anyone anywhere with network access. MOOCs do not seek or require accreditation. Students self-organize their participation in a MOOC. However, even student “lurkers” are welcome.

 

Mesh Network

 

A mesh network has no centralized access points but uses wireless nodes to create a virtual wireless backbone. Mesh network nodes typically establish network links with neighboring nodes, enabling user traffic to be sent through the network by hopping between nodes on many different paths. At least some nodes must be connected to a core network for backhaul. Mesh networks are self-healing, self-organizing and somewhat scalable, with additional capacity supplied by adding incremental nodes.

 

 

Metadata

 

Metadata is information that describes various facets of an information asset to improve its usability throughout its life cycle. It is metadata that turns information into an asset. Generally speaking, the more valuable the information asset, the more critical it is to manage the metadata about it, because it is the metadata definition that provides the understanding that unlocks the value of data.

 

Mobile IP

 

Mobile IP is a packet-forwarding mechanism for mobile and remote hosts so that remote users can connect to their networks over the Internet. It can work with Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

 

 

 

Mobile Web Applications

 

Mobile Web applications refer to applications for mobile devices that require only a Web browser to be installed on the device. They typically use HTML and Ajax (and, increasingly, HTML5 components), although they may make use of augmented rich Internet application (RIA) technologies, such as Flash, JavaFX and Silverlight, but are not written specifically for the device. Rich, mobile Web applications have roughly equivalent usability to PC-rich Web applications (or RIAs), when designed specifically for smaller form factors. Simple mobile Web applications limit the use of RIA technologies and are designed to present information in a readable, action-oriented format. Mobile Web applications differ from mobile native applications, in that they use Web technologies and are not limited to the underlying platform for deployment.

 

Multimedia

 

Multimedia (MM) refers to applications and technologies that manipulate text, data, images, sound and full-motion-video objects. Given the usage of multiple formats, multimedia is capable of delivering a stronger and more engaging message than standard text. Multimedia files are typically larger than text-based information and are therefore usually stored on CD-ROMs. Games and educational software commonly use multimedia.

 

 

Object-oriented Programming

 

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a style of programming characterized by the identification of classes of objects closely linked with the methods (functions) with which they are associated. It also includes ideas of inheritance of attributes and methods. It is a technique based on a mathematical discipline, called “abstract data types,” for storing data with the procedures needed to process that data. OOP offers the potential to evolve programming to a higher level of abstraction.

 

Off The Shelf

 

Off the shelf  refers to equipmentthat has already been manufactured and is available for delivery from stock.

 

Online Program Management In Higher Education

 

Online program management (OPM) providers are a growing segment of service providers that work with colleges and universities globally to take new academic programs online. OPM providers offer a suite of services either as a package or on a fee-for-service basis. These services include market research, student recruitment and enrollment, course design and technology platforms, student retention, and placement of students in employment or training opportunities.

 

Online Transaction Processing

 

Online transaction processing (OLTP) is a mode of processing that is characterized by short transactions recording business events and that normally requires high availability and consistent, short response times. This category of applications requires that a request for service be answered within a predictable period that approaches “real time.” Unlike traditional mainframe data processing, in which data is processed only at specific times, transaction processing puts terminals online, where they can update the database instantly to reflect changes as they occur. In other words, the data processing models the actual business in real time, and a transaction transforms this model from one business state to another. Tasks such as making reservations, scheduling and inventory control are especially complex; all the information must be current.

 

Open Architecture

 

Open architecture is a technology infrastructure with specifications that are public as opposed to proprietary. This includes officially approved standards as well as privately designed architectures, the specifications of which are made public by their designers.

 

Open Data

 

Open data is information or content made freely available to use and redistribute, subject only to the requirement to attribute it to the source.  The term also may be used more casually to describe any data that is shared outside the organization and beyond its original intended use, for example, with business partners, customers or industry associations.  Formally, data designated as “open” is subject to several conditions and licensing that can be found at opendefinition.org.

 

Open Source

 

Open source describes software that comes with permission to use, copy and distribute, either as is or with modifications, and that may be offered either free or with a charge. The source code must be made available.

 

Operating Model

 

An operating model is the blueprint for how value will be created and delivered to target customers. An operating model brings the business model to life; it executes the business model. An information and technology (I&T) operating model represents how an organization orchestrates its I&T capabilities to achieve its strategic objectives. An enterprise operating model describes how the enterprise configures its capabilities to execute its actions to deliver business outcomes as defined in the business model.

 

Operating System

 

An operating system (OS) is software that, after being loaded into the computer by an initial boot program, manages a computer’s resources, controlling the flow of information into and from a main processor. OSs perform complex tasks, such as memory management, control of displays and other input/output peripheral devices, networking and file management, and other resource allocation functions between software and system components. The OS provides the foundation on which applications, middleware and other infrastructure components function. An OS usually provides user interfaces, such as command-line shell and GUI, for interaction between user and computer.

 

P2P (Peer-to-Peer)

 

Style of networking in which computers communicate directly with one another rather than routing traffic through managed central servers and networks.

 

Packet Switching

 

A technique in which a message is broken into smaller units called packets, which may be individually addressed and routed through the network, possibly using several different routes. The receiving-end node ascertains that all packets are received and in the proper sequence before forwarding the complete message to the addressee.

 

Pattern-based Strategy

 

Gartner defines Pattern-Based Strategy as the discipline that enables business leaders to seek, amplify, examine and exploit new business patterns. A business pattern is a set of recurring and/or related elements (business activities, events, weak or strong signals) that indicates a business opportunity or threat. A weak or strong signal is a piece of information, an activity, and/or an event that indicates an impending change that might have an impact on your business pattern. The term “business pattern framework” refers to an organization’s focus on and its investment in a balanced diversity of business activities (in the defined, creative, collective and exceptions categories) that enable it to lead and respond to weak and strong signals of change (opportunity or threat). The aim of business pattern recognition is to understand how elements (activities, events, objects and information) may form new patterns that represent an opportunity for innovation or a threat of disruption to business operations or strategy.

 

Penetration Rate (mobile)

 

Number of (mobile) connections to a service divided by the population.

 

Performance Management

 

Gartner defines “performance management” as the combination of methodologies and metrics that enables users to define, monitor and optimize outcomes necessary to achieve organizational goals and objectives.

 

Persona Management

 

Persona management is the nascent class of tools that helps people keep track of and communicate what they are saying in the context in which they are saying it while participating in multiple social communities.

 

Platform (Digital Business)

 

A platform is a product that serves or enables other products or services.

Platforms (in the context of digital business) exist at many levels. They range from high-level platforms that enable a platform business model to low-level platforms that provide a collection of business and/or technology capabilities that other products or services consume to deliver their own business capabilities. Platforms that enable a platform business model have associated business ecosystems. They typically expose their capabilities to members of those ecosystems via APIs. Internal platforms also typically expose their capabilities via APIs. But they may offer other mechanisms, such as direct data access, as required by the products that consume them.

 

 

Modifying code that runs on one hardware platform or operating system so that it will properly execute on another hardware platform or operating system.

 

POS (Point of Sale)

 

POS systems use personal computers or specialized terminals in combination with cash registers, optical scanners or magnetic-stripe readers to capture and record data at the time of transaction. POS systems are usually online to a central computer for credit checking and inventory updating. Alternatively, they may be independent systems that store daily transactions until they can be transmitted to the central system for processing.

 

Predictive Analytics

 

Predictive analytics describes any approach to data mining with four attributes:

1. An emphasis on prediction (rather than description, classification or clustering)

2. Rapid analysis measured in hours or days (rather than the stereotypical months of traditional data mining)

3. An emphasis on the business relevance of the resulting insights (no ivory tower analyses)

4. (increasingly) An emphasis on ease of use, thus making the tools accessible to business users.

 

Predictive Modeling

 

Predictive modeling is a commonly used statistical technique to predict future behavior. Predictive modeling solutions are a form of data-mining technology that works by analyzing historical and current data and generating a model to help predict future outcomes. In predictive modeling, data is collected, a statistical model is formulated, predictions are made, and the model is validated (or revised) as additional data becomes available. For example, risk models can be created to combine member information in complex ways with demographic and lifestyle information from external sources to improve underwriting accuracy. Predictive models analyze past performance to assess how likely a customer is to exhibit a specific behavior in the future. This category also encompasses models that seek out subtle data patterns to answer questions about customer performance, such as fraud detection models. Predictive models often perform calculations during live transactions—for example, to evaluate the risk or opportunity of a given customer or transaction to guide a decision. If health insurers could accurately predict secular trends (for example, utilization), premiums would be set appropriately, profit targets would be met with more consistency, and health insurers would be more competitive in the marketplace.

 

Process Management

 

Specific to the communications environment, the practice of telecom expense management (TEM) encompasses the business processes conducted by IT and finance departments to acquire the provision (and support) of corporate telecommunications assets. Put another way, TEM is the build-out of services, or the acquisition of third-party services, to manage the supply chain for telecommunications. Gartner has identified the component services of TEM as: sourcing, ordering and provisioning, inventory management, invoice and contract management, use management, dispute management, and business intelligence.

 

Product (digital Business)

 

A product is a named collection of business capabilities valuable to a defined customer segment. A product may be just software and data. Alternatively, it may comprise any combination of software, hardware, facilities and services, as required to deliver the entire product experience.

A product may be a repeatable service (for example, a subscription service); or it may be a platform (one-sided or multisided).

Although products (in the context of digital business) principally serve external customers, software organizations can also apply a product model to any collection of business capabilities delivered in a coherent value stream to internal customers.

 

Product Life Cycle Management (PLM)

 

Product life cycle management (PLM) is a philosophy, process and discipline supported by software for managing products through the stages of their life cycles, from concept through retirement. As a discipline, it has grown from a mechanical design and engineering focus to being applied to many different vertical-industry product development challenges.

 

Public Cloud Computing

 

Gartner defines public cloud computing as a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are provided as a service to external customers using Internet technologies—i.e., public cloud computing uses cloud computing technologies to support customers that are external to the provider’s organization. Using public cloud services generates the types of economies of scale and sharing of resources that can reduce costs and increase choices of technologies.From a government organization’s perspective, using public cloud services implies that any organization (in any industry sector and jurisdiction) can use the same services (e.g., infrastructure, platform or software), without guarantees about where data would be located and stored.

 

Pulse Carrier

 

A series of identical pulses intended for modulation.

 

Push Technology

 

Software that automates the delivery of information to users. In contrast, the Web is a “pull” environment that requires a user to seek information.
In a “push” environment, information is sent to a person proactively, through a Web browser, e-mail, or even voice mail or a pager. In business, push technology can be used for the conveyance of time-sensitive information, like changes in commodity pricing or the introduction of promotional programs to a sales force. Enterprises can employ push technology to communicate externally with their clients or internally with their employees over a network.

 

RAAD (Rapid Architected Application Development)

 

An approach to large-scale application development (AD) that includes the following phases, which are executed by up to 10 teams of 10 people each during a period of no more than 18 months:
• Phase 1: Business and technical architecture reconciliation.
• Phase 2: Functional requirements gathering and specification.
• Phase 3: Initial architecture design, building and implementation.
• Phase 4: First building and testing of application, including user interface, data access and business logic.
• Phase 5: Initial installation of application.
• Phase 6: Concurrent engineering for subsequent builds.
• Phase 7: Rapid release plan.

 

RAD (Rapid Application Development)

 

An application development (AD) approach that includes small teams (typically two to six people, but never more than 10) using joint application development (JAD) and iterative-prototyping techniques to construct interactive systems of low to medium complexity within a time frame of 60 to 120 days.

 

Radio-frequency Identification (RFID)

 

Radio frequency identification (RFID) refers to an automated data collection technology that uses radio frequency waves to transfer data between a reader and a tag to identify, track and locate the tagged item. There are two basic categories of tags used for logistics and transportation: passive and battery-enabled. Passive tags collect the necessary energy from the antenna of the reader, which can be fixed or portable. Battery-enabled tags fall into two major groupings: battery-assisted passive (BAP) technology and active RFID tag technology.

 

Real-time Analytics

 

Real-time analytics is the discipline that applies logic and mathematics to data to provide insights for making better decisions quickly. For some use cases, real time simply means the analytics is completed within a few seconds or minutes after the arrival of new data. On-demand real-time analytics waits for users or systems to request a query and then delivers the analytic results. Continuous real-time analytics is more proactive and alerts users or triggers responses as events happen.

 

Remote Diagnostics

 

Remote diagnostic technologies provide the ability to deliver onboard vehicle-related performance and quality data to a central monitoring application for the purpose of improving parts performance and reliability insights for engineering and product development. Remote diagnostics can also improve customer relationship management by automating repair and service scheduling.

 

RFID Tags

 

RFID tags are generally small devices that respond to an RFID reader’s interrogation via radio frequency. Tags vary in terms of memory, the range over which they can be read, the level of read and write capabilities, and the availability of other computational functions. The tag can hold just a product’s serial number all the way up to a mass of information about the product and its history.

• Passive RFID: A passive RFID tag has no battery. It harvests all its power from the radio interrogation of the RFID reader, including enough power to respond. This yields fairly low-cost devices, but they can be read only at a fairly short range (about 20 feet in the best operating conditions).
• Active RFID: Active tags have batteries attached to them so that they can respond to a reader with more power. They are much more expensive than passive tags but have a much-greater range (up to 300 feet).
• Smart Cards: Contactless smart cards are often referred to as RFID tags. From a technical perspective, they are just a specially packaged form of RFID tags.
• Sensors: RFID tags don’t tell you anything about their environment. They can only tell you what is in the memory of the tag. However, a common application of RFID is to attach the tag to a sensor that can fill the tag’s memory with data. This is then communicated to other systems through RFID protocols. The sensory technology, while intertwined with RFID, is independent.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

 

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a productivity tool that allows a user to configure one or more scripts (which some vendors refer to as “bots”) to activate specific keystrokes in an automated fashion. The result is that the bots can be used to mimic or emulate selected tasks (transaction steps) within an overall business or IT process. These may include manipulating data, passing data to and from different applications, triggering responses, or executing transactions. RPA uses a combination of user interface  interaction and descriptor technologies. The scripts can overlay on one or more software applications.

 

ROIT (Return on Information Technology)

 

Financial gain expressed as a function of an enterprise’s investment in information technology.

 

SAP Application Services, Worldwide

 

This market is focused on the full life cycle of SAP application services, spanning project-based implementation and multiyear application management services (AMS). Evaluate service providers for their ability to deliver a comprehensive set of implementation and management services across the SAP portfolio of products for clients worldwide. Comprehensive is defined as follows:
• A distinct offering, consistent with common market service offerings as defined by the following: scope of service, delivery structure, intellectual property (IP), roles and responsibilities, service metrics and levels, terms and conditions, and pricing model.
• A consolidated set of distinct offerings to address industry-specific demand or cross-industry demand, where the offering is recognized by clients or analysts as an integrated offering.

 

Scalability

 

Scalability is the measure of a system’s ability to increase or decrease in performance and cost in response to changes in application and system processing demands. Examples would include how well a hardware system performs when the number of users is increased, how well a database withstands growing numbers of queries, or how well an operating system performs on different classes of hardware. Enterprises that are growing rapidly should pay special attention to scalability when evaluating hardware and software.

 

SCM (Software Configuration Management)

 

Also known as “software change management,” SCM is a methodology for software problem/change request initiation and tracking; change impact analysis; version control; security administration of software assets; software promotion; quality reviews; and software distribution.

 

Search Engine

 

A large, searchable index of Web pages that is automatically updated by spiders or Web crawlers and housed on a central server connected to the Internet. Examples include Yahoo and AltaVista.

 

Security Information And Event Management

 

Gartner defines the security and information event management (SIEM) market by the customer’s need to analyze event data in real time for early detection of targeted attacks and data breaches, and to collect, store, investigate and report on log data for incident response, forensics and regulatory compliance. SIEM technology aggregates event data produced by security devices, network infrastructure, systems and applications. The primary data source is log data, but SIEM technology can also process other forms of data, such as network telemetry. Event data is combined with contextual information about users, assets, threats and vulnerabilities. The data may be normalized, so that events, data and contextual information from disparate sources can be analyzed for specific purposes, such as network security event monitoring, user activity monitoring and compliance reporting. The technology provides real-time analysis of events for security monitoring, query and long-range analytics for historical analysis.

 

Semantic Data Model

 

A method of organizing data that reflects the basic meaning of data items and the relationships among them. This organization makes it easier to develop application programs and to maintain the consistency of data when it is updated.

 

 

Server Virtualization Infrastructure

 

Server virtualization infrastructure includes the hypervisor, VM and virtual machine monitors (VMMs). The key to “virtualizing” a server is the hypervisor. A hypervisor is a layer of software (the term “software” can mean preloaded software that runs in a protected area or microcode/firmware, depending on the implementation) that runs directly on hardware and allows the definition of fixed partitions with predefined priorities for accessing hardware resources. These partitions are incomplete VMs because they prioritize, but do not share, all hardware resources. To support flexible configuration, a hypervisor in general is implemented with a VMM. The VMM virtualizes all hardware needed for VMs to run. Most products currently labeled hypervisors bundle a VMM.

 

Six Sigma

 

Six Sigma is a collection of techniques used to design, improve and deliver high-quality processes and business outcomes. It derives its name from the statistical concept level 6 standard deviation (6 sigma deviation) from the process norm that is generally understood to represent 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Standard process steps are followed to minimize and control variability, as well as eliminate defects. For design of a new process, common process steps are often DMADV (i.e., Define needs, Measure critical to quality items, Analyse processes, Design product or service, and Verify need alignment). For process improvement, common process steps are often DMAIC (i.e., Define opportunity, Measure performance, Analyze opportunity, Improve performance, and Control performance).

 

Smart Machines

 

Smart machine technologies learn on their own and can produce unanticipated results. They must:

• Adapt their behavior based on experience (learning)
• Not be totally dependent on instructions from people (learn on their own)
• Be able to come up with unanticipated results

 

Smart Manufacturing

 

Smart manufacturing is the notion of orchestrating physical and digital processes within factories and across other supply chain functions to optimize current and future supply and demand requirements. This is accomplished by transforming and improving ways in which people, process and technology operate to deliver the critical information needed to impact decision quality, efficiency, cost and agility.

 

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

 

A protocol introduced by Microsoft in conjunction with some small vendors. Designed to be simple, it creates transparent mapping of the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) interface definition language (IDL) and the Extensible Markup Language (XML) definitions. It provides the key technology for transport in the next-generation Internet as a set of e-services.

 

Social BPM

 

“Social BPM” is a concept that describes collaboratively designed and iterated processes. These processes mirror the way work is performed from a “doer” perspective and experienced from a “receiver” perspective to harness the power of continuous learning from “the collective.”

 

Social Computing

 

An approach to IT whereby individuals tailor information-based and collaborative technologies to support interactions with relatively large and often loosely defined groups.

 

Social CRM

 

Social CRM is a business strategy that entails the extension of marketing, sales and customer service processes to include the active participation of customers or visitors to an Internet channel (Web or mobile) with the goal of fostering participation in the business process.

 

Social Technologies

 

Any technology that facilitates social interactions and is enabled by a communications capability, such as the Internet or a mobile device. Examples are social software (e.g., wikis, blogs, social networks) and communication capabilities (e.g., Web conferencing) that are targeted at and enable social interactions. 

 

SQL (Structured Query Language)

 

A relational data language that provides a consistent, English keyword-oriented set of facilities for query, data definition, data manipulation and data control. It is a programmed interface to relational database management systems (RDBMSs). IBM introduced SQL as the main external interface to its experimental RDBMS, System R, which it developed in the 1970s. SQL statements include:
• Data manipulation language statements: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE
• Data definition language statements, including the CREATE and DROP statements for tables and indexes
• Statements that control data consistency, and grant and revoke authority
SQL statements are called “dynamic” when they are not completely specified until the program is executed. They are called “static” when they are completely specified when the program is compiled. SQL is precise, because it is based on predicate logic, but is difficult for average users to deal with, and its most fruitful position is as a protocol for software-to-software connectivity, rather than for human-to-software access.

 

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)

 

An Internet security standard from Netscape Communications, used for its browser and server software.

 

Strategic Information Office (SIO)

 

The SIO is a business-unit-neutral information office whose role is to propagate the importance of enterprise information management to all business units, generate excitement for these initiatives, negotiate organizational and technological issues across the enterprise, and enforce implementation of and compliance with standards at all levels of the enterprise. Members of the SIO should have in-depth knowledge of, and experience in, both business and technology, with at least one representative from senior management. The SIO is also known as the “office of the chief data officer (CDO).”

 

Streaming

 

Technique that supports the continuous, one-way transmission of audio and/or video data via the Internet and, more recently, via a mobile network. In contrast to audio (for example, MP3) and movie (for example, MPEG) files that must first be downloaded, streaming media begins playing within a few seconds of the request. Streaming requires a streaming encoder (which converts the audio or video source to a data stream), a streaming server that delivers the encoded media over a network, and a client media player that cooperates with the server to deliver uninterrupted media. To compensate for variations in network quality and latency, the client buffers a few seconds of audio or video before beginning delivery, then tries to stay ahead during playback. Examples of streaming systems include Windows Media, QuickTime and RealPlayer.

 

Structural Change

 

Deep-reaching change that alters the way authority, capital, information and responsibility flow within and between organizations. Structural change affects all parties directly or indirectly in one or more particular industries.

 

Supply Chain

 

Supply chain is a group of functions and processes focused on optimizing the flow of products, services and related information from sources of supply to customers or points of demand. It stretches across multiple tiers in the supplier network to customers and to customers of those customers. It includes supply chain planning, sourcing and procurement, manufacturing, distribution, transportation, and services within a company and its ecosystem of partners.

 

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

 

Supply chain management (SCM) refers to the processes of creating and fulfilling demands for goods and services. It encompasses a trading partner community engaged in the common goal of satisfying end customers.

 

Sustainability Management

 

Sustainability management is a management discipline embracing corporate strategies, operational capabilities, competencies, behaviors and cultures. It focuses on products, services, the enterprise and the supply chain, and it seeks to optimally balance organizational performance and outcomes across economic, environment and social criteria over all time scales.

 

Synchronization

 

Establishment of common timing between sending and receiving equipment.

 

System Integration

 

The process of creating a complex information system that may include designing or building a customized architecture or application, integrating it with new or existing hardware, packaged and custom software, and communications. Most enterprises rely on an external contractor for program management of most or all phases of system development. This external vendor generally also assumes a high degree of the project’s risks.

 

Tacit Knowledge

 

The personal knowledge resident within the mind, behavior and perceptions of individuals. Tacit knowledge includes skills, experiences, insight, intuition and judgment. Tacit knowledge is typically shared through discussion, stories, analogies and person-to-person interaction and is, therefore, difficult to capture or represent in explicit form. Because individuals continually add personal knowledge, which changes behavior and perceptions, tacit knowledge is, by definition, uncaptured.

 

Techquilibrium

 

TechQuilibrium is the balance point where the enterprise has the right mix of traditional and digital capabilities and assets, to power the business model needed to compete most effectively, in an industry that is being digitally revolutionized.

 

Techquisitions

 

Techquisitions are acquisitions of digital or IT companies by enterprises in other conventional industries that have not created or sold information and communication technology-based products or services before.

 

Terminal

 

A device, combining keyboard and display screen, that communicates with a computer. Terminals are divided into different classes depending on whether they are able to process data on their own.
• Dumb terminals — display monitor or simple input/output (I/O) devices that send and accept data from a network server or mainframe. They have no built-in processing capabilities. Workers enter data and commands, which are sent to a computer located elsewhere.
• Smart terminals — monitors that process limited amounts of information.
• Intelligent terminals — devices that contain main memory and a central processing unit (CPU) to perform special display functions. Examples include an information kiosk and AT&T Display Phones.
• 3270 terminals — IBM display stations used to communicate with mainframes made by IBM and other manufacturers. They are in widespread use, and are widely copied.

 

Text Mining

 

The process of extracting information from collections of textual data and utilizing it for business objectives.

 

Touchpoint

 

A contact point between an enterprise and its customers. Touchpoints may occur in any channel (e.g., via phone, the Web or direct contact with a salesperson).

 

User Experience Platforms (UXP)

 

A user experience platform (UXP) is an integrated set of technologies used to provide interaction between a user and a set of applications, processes, content, services or other users. A UXP has several components, including portals, mashup tools, content management, search, rich Internet application (RIA) tools, analytics, collaboration, social and mobile tools. It may be delivered as a suite of products or as a single product. The UXP market will fully emerge in 2013, seeded by the existing suite-oriented horizontal portal vendors.

 

User Authentication Technologies

 

User authentication technologies encompass a variety of products and services implementing a range of authentication methods in place of legacy passwords. Methods are typically classified by the kind of authentication attributes (or factors) that they use, alone or in combination: something known, something held (a token) or something inherent (a biometric characteristic). Authentication may be natively supported in products or services (including other security tools), or provided by discrete software, hardware or cloud-based services.

 

Ultra-high-speed Broadband Internet

 

Gartner defines ultra-high-speed broadband Internet as residential services that support download speeds of more than 50 Mbps.

 

Value Stream

 

The value stream is defined as the specific activities within a supply chain required to design, order and provide a specific product or service.

 

Value Stream Mapping (VSM)

 

Value stream mapping (VSM) is the process of charting out or visually displaying a value stream so that improvement activity can be effectively planned.

 

Value-adding

 

Value-adding activities are defined as those activities within a company or supply chain that directly contribute to satisfying end consumers, or those activities consumers would be happy to pay for.

 

Vendor Management

 

Vendor management is a discipline that enables organizations to control costs, drive service excellence and mitigate risks to gain increased value from their vendors throughout the deal life cycle.

Gartner’s vendor management research helps clients select the right vendors; categorize vendors to ensure the right contract, metrics and relationship; determine the ideal number of vendors; mitigate risk when using vendors; and establish a vendor management organization that best fits the enterprise.

This enables organizations to optimally develop, manage and control vendor contracts, relationships and performance for the efficient delivery of contracted products and services. This can help clients meet business objectives, minimize potential business disruption, avoid deal and delivery failure, and ensure more-sustainable multisourcing, while driving the most value from their vendors.

 

Virtual Assistant (VA)

 

Virtual assistants (VAs) help users or enterprises with a set of tasks previously only made possible by humans. VAs use semantic and deep learning (such as deep neural networks [DNNs], natural language processing, prediction models, recommendations and personalization) to assist people or automate tasks. VAs listen to and observe behaviors, build and maintain data models, and predict and recommend actions. VAs can be deployed in several use cases, including virtual personal assistants, virtual customer assistants and virtual employee assistants.

 

Virtual Machine (VM)

 

A virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a hardwarelike architecture, which executes predefined instructions in a fashion similar to a physical central processing unit (CPU). VMs can be used to create a cross-platform computing environment that loads and runs on computers independently of their underlying CPUs and operating systems.

 

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

 

A virtual private network (VPN) is a system that delivers enterprise-focused communication services on a shared public network infrastructure and provides customized operating characteristics uniformly and universally across an enterprise. The term is used generically to refer to voice VPNs. To avoid confusion, IP-based data services are referred to as data VPNs. Service providers define a VPN as a WAN of permanent virtual circuits, generally using asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) or frame relay to transport IP. Technology providers define a VPN as the use of encryption software or hardware to bring privacy to communications over a public or untrusted data network.

 

Virtual Reality (VR)

 

Virtual reality (VR) provides a computer-generated 3D environment (including both computer graphics and 360-degree video) that surrounds a user and responds to an individual’s actions in a natural way, usually through immersive head-mounted displays. Gesture recognition or handheld controllers provide hand and body tracking, and haptic (or touch-sensitive) feedback may be incorporated. Room-based systems provide a 3D experience while moving around large areas, or they can be used with multiple participants.

 

Virtualization

 

Virtualization is the abstraction of IT resources that masks the physical nature and boundaries of those resources from resource users. An IT resource can be a server, a client, storage, networks, applications or OSs. Essentially, any IT building block can potentially be abstracted from resource users.

 

Visualization

 

Visualization is the illustration of information objects and their relationships on a display. Strategic visualization graphically illustrates the strength of relationships by the proximity of objects on the display. Advanced technology can make a significant difference in users’ ability to interface to large knowledge repositories. These advances use the distance between objects on the display to reflect the similarity of meaning, similarity of content or other relationships (e.g., association with a group).

 

Voice Application Servers

 

Voice application servers consist primarily of software, operating on Sun or Linux servers located in a service provider network, and functioning in conjunction with other standard network elements such as routers, gateways, integrated access devices (IADs) and telephones. This category is made up of IP-SCPs and IP Centrex platforms.

 

Voice of the Customer (VoC)

 

Voice of the customer (VoC) solutions combine multiple, traditionally siloed technologies associated with the capture, storage and analysis of direct, indirect and inferred customer feedback. Technologies such as social media monitoring, enterprise feedback management, speech analytics, text mining and Web analytics are integrated to provide a holistic view of the customer’s voice. The resultant customer insights are acted on by disseminating relevant information to the right person at the right time on the right channel.

 

X Windows

 

X Windows is the software system written for managing windows under Unix. A graphics architecture, application programming interface (API) and prototype implementation developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, X Windows defines a client/server relationship between the applications program and the workstation. It is not, however, a complete graphical user interface (GUI), but rather the basis upon which one can be built.

 

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)

 

Zero trust network access (ZTNA) is a product or service that creates an identity- and context-based, logical access boundary around an application or set of applications. The applications are hidden from discovery, and access is restricted via a trust broker to a set of named entities. The broker verifies the identity, context and policy adherence of the specified participants before allowing access and prohibits lateral movement elsewhere in the network. This removes application assets from public visibility and significantly reduces the surface area for attack.

 

Zero-latency Enterprise (ZLE)

 

Zero-latency enterprise (ZLE) is any strategy that exploits the immediate exchange of information across technical and organizational boundaries to achieve business benefit. For example, technical boundaries exist between different operating systems, database management systems and programming languages. “Immediate” implies being fast enough to bring all of the business benefits that simultaneous knowledge can potentially achieve. Latency cannot literally be zero in any real system because computers need time to “think.”

 

ZigBee

 

ZigBee is a global wireless mesh networking technology based on the IEEE 802.15.4-2003 standard. Consumer applications include electronics, smart meter infrastructure, home automation and machine-to-machine automation. The technology can be used in several topologies, such as point-to-point or simple mesh. Battery life and low cost — a chip costs $1 to $2; $2 to $4 (with a controller required for most applications) — are prime concerns about the technology, and ZigBee’s targeted battery life and data rates differentiate it from Wi-Fi.

 

Definitions have been sourced from Gartner, a global research and advisory firm providing information, advice, and tools for leaders in IT, finance, HR, customer service and support, communications, legal and compliance, marketing, sales, and supply chain functions.