by [TC]²
For a glossary of internet terms, visit www.matisse.net
Acronyms and Terminology
Authentication - The security function of recognizing and validating a user.
BPS - Bits Per Second or Business Planning Systems
Business process redesign - The wholesale refocusing and rebuilding of a critical business process, such as customer service or order fulfillment, to improve competitiveness and increase return on technology investment.
CAD - Computer Aided Design
CAM -Computer Aided Manufacturing
CIM - Computer Integrated Manufacturing
CIS - Computer Integrated Sales
Client - A PC, workstation or Macintosh that connects over a network to servers.
Client/server computing - An architecture for distributing computing across the network, using high performance servers and desktop clients. Lotus Notes and relational database management systems use the architecture to separate front-end user processes from back-end database services.
CMM Critical Mass Marketing-An EDI postimplementation program that searches for additional EDI trading partners in an effort to attain "critical mass," or that 20% of trading partners that typically comprises 80% of a company's business volume.
DSS - Decision Support Systems - designed to increase shippability, aytomate marketing and sales analysis and identify consumer preference trends by product, location and time.
EDI Electronic Data Interchange-The electronic and automated flow of business information between organizations. Used to increase factory shipment accuracy, increse event tracking availability, increase pipeline visibility, reduce chargebacks and reduce manual processes.
EMM -Electronic Merchandising and Marketing
ES Electronic Signature-A code or symbol that is the electronic equivalent of a written signature.
Groupware - Application software that lets users of networked PCs' Macintoshes and workstations work together on joint projects. The goal of groupware is to improve cooperation and productivity of those workgroups.
ITI - Information Technology Infrastructure-The redesigning of business management and processing systems in preparation for the efficient and organized implementations of electronic technologies into the business processes.
Legacy Systems - Existing applications and repositories of data; often large and containing years' worth of information. Can be mainframe, midrange, or network based.
LES - Logistics Execution Systems
LMS - Logistics Management Systems
MRP - Materials Requirement Planning
Open environment - A philosophy of non-proprietary computing that recognizes the value of multiple platforms, office productivity applications, and languages. An open environment system can operate on or interface with multiple platforms, applications, and languages.
PDM - Product Data Management - Database driven systems designed to manage the various components used in product development and manufacturing.
Platform - The underlying operating system on which a computer runs. Examples include OS/2, Windows, Mac, UNIX, and Windows NT.
QR Quick Response-The use of electronic information technologies between retail trading partners to reduce purchase order lead times and finished goods inventory.
Re-engineer - Redesign essential data systems and business processes.
RMS - Retail Management Systems
Scalability - The ability of a system and/or application to grow incrementally larger without total replacement of hardware or software, and without the need to re-engineer the process.
SFA -Sales Force Automation
Server - A computer that provides resources for client PCs, workstations, or Macintoshes.
VAN Value Added Network - An EDI service provider that transmits, receives, and stores EDI messages for EDI trading partners, as well as a wide variety of other EDI related functions.
VR - Virtual Reality
WMS - Warehouse Management Systems
XML - stands for eXtensible Markup Language. And since I know how much that is likely to mean to you, allow me to explain what it means. HTML allows you to mark up language to control how it looks; XML allows you to mark up language to say <i>what it is</i>. In HTML you can say <BOLD>$3.99</BOLD> but in XML you could say <PRICE>$3.99</PRICE>. Anyone who has ever tried to search the web for some product at a specific price should be able to understand how powerful this is. Searching for "t-shirt $3.99" is going to return thousands of web pages with the word "t-shirt" and the string "$3.99" but there is absolutely no guarantee that $3.99 will be the price of the t-shirts. XML allows you to specify that "$3.99" is a price and it allows you to associate that price with a specific product, all because it allows you to create your <i>own</i> tags.
XML is essentially nothing more than a set of rules that govern the creation of Markup Languages. It's a kind of meta-language that outlines the structure that a markup language should have. If you follow the structure you can write your own tags and your own markup language. Realistically you won't actually be doing that. It won't help you much to wrap a number inside a <PRICE> tag if the rest of your industry is wrapping their numbers inside <COST> tags. Like human language words, eXtensible Markup Language tags can only mean what people agree for them to mean. Which is why you're more likely to be using a specific language written in XML rather than writing your own from scratch. Rest assured that ad hoc groups from the travel industry to the hard sciences are already hacking together agreements that will standardize XML tags and allow XML-compatible browsers to make sense of them.
by [TC]²
For a glossary of internet terms, visit www.matisse.net
Acronyms and Terminology
Authentication - The security function of recognizing and validating a user.
BPS - Bits Per Second or Business Planning Systems
Business process redesign - The wholesale refocusing and rebuilding of a critical business process, such as customer service or order fulfillment, to improve competitiveness and increase return on technology investment.
CAD - Computer Aided Design
CAM -Computer Aided Manufacturing
CIM - Computer Integrated Manufacturing
CIS - Computer Integrated Sales
Client - A PC, workstation or Macintosh that connects over a network to servers.
Client/server computing - An architecture for distributing computing across the network, using high performance servers and desktop clients. Lotus Notes and relational database management systems use the architecture to separate front-end user processes from back-end database services.
CMM Critical Mass Marketing-An EDI postimplementation program that searches for additional EDI trading partners in an effort to attain "critical mass," or that 20% of trading partners that typically comprises 80% of a company's business volume.
DSS - Decision Support Systems - designed to increase shippability, aytomate marketing and sales analysis and identify consumer preference trends by product, location and time.
EDI Electronic Data Interchange-The electronic and automated flow of business information between organizations. Used to increase factory shipment accuracy, increse event tracking availability, increase pipeline visibility, reduce chargebacks and reduce manual processes.
EMM -Electronic Merchandising and Marketing
ES Electronic Signature-A code or symbol that is the electronic equivalent of a written signature.
Groupware - Application software that lets users of networked PCs' Macintoshes and workstations work together on joint projects. The goal of groupware is to improve cooperation and productivity of those workgroups.
ITI - Information Technology Infrastructure-The redesigning of business management and processing systems in preparation for the efficient and organized implementations of electronic technologies into the business processes.
Legacy Systems - Existing applications and repositories of data; often large and containing years' worth of information. Can be mainframe, midrange, or network based.
LES - Logistics Execution Systems
LMS - Logistics Management Systems
MRP - Materials Requirement Planning
Open environment - A philosophy of non-proprietary computing that recognizes the value of multiple platforms, office productivity applications, and languages. An open environment system can operate on or interface with multiple platforms, applications, and languages.
PDM - Product Data Management - Database driven systems designed to manage the various components used in product development and manufacturing.
Platform - The underlying operating system on which a computer runs. Examples include OS/2, Windows, Mac, UNIX, and Windows NT.
QR Quick Response-The use of electronic information technologies between retail trading partners to reduce purchase order lead times and finished goods inventory.
Re-engineer - Redesign essential data systems and business processes.
RMS - Retail Management Systems
Scalability - The ability of a system and/or application to grow incrementally larger without total replacement of hardware or software, and without the need to re-engineer the process.
SFA -Sales Force Automation
Server - A computer that provides resources for client PCs, workstations, or Macintoshes.
VAN Value Added Network - An EDI service provider that transmits, receives, and stores EDI messages for EDI trading partners, as well as a wide variety of other EDI related functions.
VR - Virtual Reality
WMS - Warehouse Management Systems
XML - stands for eXtensible Markup Language. And since I know how much that is likely to mean to you, allow me to explain what it means. HTML allows you to mark up language to control how it looks; XML allows you to mark up language to say <i>what it is</i>. In HTML you can say <BOLD>$3.99</BOLD> but in XML you could say <PRICE>$3.99</PRICE>. Anyone who has ever tried to search the web for some product at a specific price should be able to understand how powerful this is. Searching for "t-shirt $3.99" is going to return thousands of web pages with the word "t-shirt" and the string "$3.99" but there is absolutely no guarantee that $3.99 will be the price of the t-shirts. XML allows you to specify that "$3.99" is a price and it allows you to associate that price with a specific product, all because it allows you to create your <i>own</i> tags.
XML is essentially nothing more than a set of rules that govern the creation of Markup Languages. It's a kind of meta-language that outlines the structure that a markup language should have. If you follow the structure you can write your own tags and your own markup language. Realistically you won't actually be doing that. It won't help you much to wrap a number inside a <PRICE> tag if the rest of your industry is wrapping their numbers inside <COST> tags. Like human language words, eXtensible Markup Language tags can only mean what people agree for them to mean. Which is why you're more likely to be using a specific language written in XML rather than writing your own from scratch. Rest assured that ad hoc groups from the travel industry to the hard sciences are already hacking together agreements that will standardize XML tags and allow XML-compatible browsers to make sense of them.