Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Terms related to business, including definitions about project management and words and phrases about human resources, finance and vertical industries.

warehouse management system (WMS) - A warehouse management system (WMS) consists of software and processes that allow organizations to control and administer warehouse operations from the time goods or materials enter a warehouse until they move out.
What are leadership skills? - Leadership skills are the strengths and abilities individuals demonstrate that help to oversee processes, guide initiatives and steer their employees toward the achievement of goals.
What are systems of engagement? - Systems of engagement are decentralized IT components that incorporate technologies such as social media and the cloud to encourage and enable peer interaction.
What are virtual agents and how are they being used? - A virtual agent -- sometimes called an intelligent virtual agent (IVA) -- is a software program or cloud service that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, such as machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to provide automated services or guidance to humans.
What is a CEO (chief executive officer)? - A chief executive officer (CEO) is the highest-ranking position in an organization and responsible for implementing plans and policies related to a company's financial strength, operational efficiency and strategic management.
What is a customer account record? - A customer account record is the basic unit of information about a customer that resides in a CRM, or customer relationship management system.
What is a customer health score? - A customer health score is a value that indicates the long-term prospect for a customer to drop off or, conversely, to become a high-value, repeat customer through renewal or Cross-selling or up-selling strategies.
What is a key performance indicator (KPI)? Strategy and guide - Key performance indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable business metrics that corporate executives, managers and other stakeholders use to track and analyze factors deemed crucial to meeting the organization's stated objectives.
What is a paperless office? - The paperless office is an umbrella term for business practices that improve the workplace by reducing reliance on paper.
What is a PMO (project management office)? - A project management office (PMO) is a group, agency or department that defines and maintains the standards of project management for a company.
What is a private cloud? - Private cloud is a type of cloud computing that delivers similar advantages to public cloud, including scalability and self-service, but through a proprietary architecture.
What is a product owner? - A product owner is a role on a Scrum team that is responsible for the project's outcome.
What is a sales funnel? Everything you need to know - A sales funnel, also called a 'purchase funnel,' is the visual representation of the customer journey, depicting the sales process from awareness to action.
What is a smart contract? - A smart contract is a self-executing computer program that automatically executes the terms of a contract without the involvement of third parties.
What is a startup company? - A startup company is a newly formed business with particular momentum behind it based on perceived demand for its product or service.
What is a voice user interface (VUI)? - A voice user interface (VUI) is a type of interface that relies on speech recognition technology to enable users to interact with an application or device through voice commands.
What is a Waterfall model? Definition and guide - The Waterfall model is a linear, sequential approach to the software development lifecycle (SDLC) that is popular in software engineering and product development.
What is an IT service catalog? - An IT service catalog is a list of information technology resources and offerings available from the IT service provider within an organization.
What is an organizational goal? - Organizational goals are strategic objectives that a company's management establishes to outline expected outcomes and guide employees' efforts toward the achievement of those outcomes.
What is an outbound call? - An outbound call is one initiated by a contact center agent to prospective customers and focuses on sales, lead generation, telemarketing and fundraising.
What is B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer)? - B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) extends the B2B (business-to-business) model to include e-commerce for consumers.
What is BCDR? Business continuity and disaster recovery guide - Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) are closely related practices that support an organization's ability to remain operational after an adverse event.
What is Blue Yonder (formerly JDA Software)? - Blue Yonder, formerly JDA Software, is a software and consultancy company that specializes in selling supply chain management products and services to businesses.
What is brand recognition? - Brand recognition is the extent to which a consumer can correctly identify a particular product or service just by viewing the product or service's logo, tagline, packaging or advertising campaign.
What is business process modeling? - Business process modeling, often called process modeling, is the graphical representation or illustration of an organization's business processes.
What is business sustainability? - Business sustainability, also known as corporate sustainability, is the management of environmental, social and financial concerns by a company to ensure responsible, ethical and ongoing success.
What is C-level (C-suite)? - C-level, also called the C-suite, is a term used to describe high-ranking executive titles in an organization.
What is cloud computing? Types, examples and benefits - Cloud computing is a general term for the delivery of hosted computing services and IT resources over the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.
What is corporate social responsibility (CSR)? - Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a strategy undertaken by companies to not just grow profits, but also to take an active and positive social role in the world around them.
What is CPQ software (configure price quote software)? - CPQ (configure, price, quote) is programming that helps sales representatives and self-service customers quickly generate accurate quotes for configurable products and services.
What is customer experience (CX) and why is it important? - Customer experience (CX) is the sum total of customers' perceptions and feelings resulting from interactions with a brand's products and services.
What is customer experience management (CXM)? Ultimate guide - Building brand loyalty among customers involves a customer-centric strategy and measuring feedback through voice of the customer data to improve customer experiences.
What is customer segmentation? - Customer segmentation is the practice of dividing a customer base into groups of individuals that have similar characteristics relevant to marketing, such as age, gender, interests and spending habits.
What is Data as a Service (DaaS)? - Data as a Service (DaaS) is an information provision and distribution model in which data files (including text, images, sounds, and videos) are made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet.
What is data monetization? - Data monetization is the process of measuring the economic benefit of corporate data.
What is demand shaping? - Demand shaping is an operational supply chain management (SCM) strategy where a company uses tactics such as price incentives, cost modifications and product substitutions to entice customers to purchase specific items.
What is DevOps 2.0? - DevOps 2.0 is the extension of DevOps practices through the entire organization, beyond development and IT ops.
What is digital labor? - Digital labor is work that's performed by robotic process automation (RPA) systems and interactive applications, including chatbots and digital assistants.
What is digital transformation? Everything you need to know - Digital transformation is the incorporation of computer-based technologies into an organization's products, processes and strategies.
What is direct marketing? - Direct marketing is a type of advertising campaign that seeks to elicit an action (such as an order, a visit to a store or website or a request for further information) from a selected group of consumers in response to communication from a marketer.
What is enterprise content management? Guide to ECM - Enterprise content management is a set of defined processes, strategies and tools that enables a business to obtain, organize, store and deliver critical information to its employees, business stakeholders and customers.
What is Epicor Software Corp.? - Epicor Software Corp.
What is executive leadership? - Executive leadership is the ability of those who manage or direct employees in an organization to influence and guide these individuals.
What is FinOps? - FinOps -- a combination of the terms finance and DevOps -- is a framework for managing operational costs across an organization, often in conjunction with cloud computing.
What is greenwashing? - Greenwashing refers to the act of making false or misleading claims about the positive environmental impact that a company, product or service has on the environment.
What is hardware as a service (HaaS)? - Hardware as a service (HaaS) is a procurement model that's similar to leasing or licensing.
What is IFS AB? - IFS AB (Industrial and Financial Systems) is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software vendor that specializes in asset-intensive, project-centric industries, such as manufacturing and distribution.
What is Infor? - Infor is a New York-based vendor of ERP and other enterprise business software.
What is information rights management (IRM)? - Information rights management (IRM) is a discipline that involves managing, controlling and securing content from unwanted access.
What is inventory management? - Inventory management is the component of supply chain management that tracks and supervises noncapitalized assets -- or inventory -- and stock items.
What is IoT Cloud (Salesforce IoT Cloud)? - IoT Cloud is a Salesforce platform designed to store and process internet of things (IoT) data.
What is labor arbitrage? - Labor arbitrage is the practice of searching for and then using the lowest-cost workforce to produce products or goods.
What is lead scoring? - Lead scoring is a methodology sales and marketing departments use to determine the worthiness of leads, or potential customers, by attaching values to them based on their behavior relating to their interest in products or services.
What is multichannel marketing? - Multichannel marketing refers to the practice of companies interacting with customers via multiple direct and indirect channels to sell them goods and services.
What is Open Platform Communications (OPC)? - Open Platform Communications (OPC) is an interoperability standard for secure data exchange in industrial automation and other areas.
What is Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN)? - Oracle PartnerNetwork, also known as OPN, is a channel partner program that provides resources and benefits for value-added resellers (VARs), independent software vendors (ISVs) and other businesses that want to collaborate with Oracle.
What is PaaS? Platform as a service definition and guide - Platform as a service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model where a third-party provider delivers hardware and software tools to users over the internet.
What is predictive analytics? An enterprise guide - Predictive analytics is a form of advanced analytics that uses current and historical data to forecast activity, behavior and trends.
What is professional services automation (PSA)? - Professional services automation (PSA) is a type of software application suite that provides a service business with the functionality it needs to manage core business processes.
What is ROI? How to calculate return on investment - Return on investment (ROI) is a crucial financial metric investors and businesses use to evaluate an investment's efficiency or compare the efficiencies of several different investments.
What is sales enablement? - Sales enablement is composed of strategies, tools and processes that provide sales representatives with the ability to boost their productivity and revenue generation.
What is sales motion? - A sales motion is the particular sales method an organization uses to sell and deliver a product or a service to its customers.
What is Salesforce Customer Success Platform? - The Salesforce Customer Success Platform (CSP) is the official name of the Salesforce portfolio of products.
What is Salesforce Einstein 1? - Salesforce Einstein 1 refers to an integrated set of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies developed for the Salesforce platform.
What is Salesforce Journey Builder? - Salesforce Journey Builder is a campaign planning tool in Salesforce Marketing Cloud to build personalized customer journeys and deliver unique campaigns and content that enhance customer experiences and secure their loyalty.
What is Salesforce Marketing Cloud? - Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) and digital marketing platform that enables marketers to generate better marketing outcomes and ROI.
What is Salesforce Platform (formerly Force.com)? - Salesforce Platform (formerly known as Force.
What is Salesforce Sales Cloud? - Salesforce Sales Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform designed to support sales, marketing and customer support in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer contexts.
What is Salesforce Service Cloud? - Salesforce Service Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform for Salesforce clients to provide service and support to their business customers.
What is Salesforce Wave Analytics (Salesforce CRM Analytics)? - Salesforce Wave Analytics, now known as CRM Analytics, is a business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform from Salesforce that provides native analytics, visual insights and predictions powered by artificial intelligence (AI) for Salesforce CRM to help businesses make better, data-driven decisions.
What is Salesforce Work.com? - Salesforce Work.
What is SAP Basis? - SAP Basis is the technical foundation that enables SAP applications to function.
What is SAP Production Planning? - SAP Production Planning (SAP PP) is the component of ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) that helps businesses plan the manufacturing, sale and distribution of goods.
What is SAP Project System (SAP PS)? - SAP Project System is a module in the SAP ERP system that enables tightly controlled project management from planning to completion.
What is SAP Sales and Distribution (SAP SD)? - SAP Sales and Distribution (SAP SD) is an SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) core functional module that helps organizations store and manage customer- and product-related data.
What is strategic innovation? - Strategic innovation is an organization's process of reinventing or redesigning its corporate strategy to drive business growth, generate value for the company and its customers, and create competitive advantage.
What is systems development life cycle? - The systems development life cycle (SDLC) is a conceptual model used in project management that describes the stages involved in an information system development project -- from an initial feasibility study all the way through maintenance of the completed application.
What is the bullwhip effect? - The bullwhip effect is a supply chain phenomenon describing how small fluctuations in demand at the retail level can cause progressively larger fluctuations in demand at the wholesale, distributor, manufacturer and raw material supplier levels.
What is the law of diminishing returns? - The law of diminishing returns is an economic principle stating that as investment in a particular area increases, the rate of profit from that investment, after a certain point, can't continue to increase if other variables remain at a constant.
What is the risk-reward ratio? - The risk-reward ratio, also known as a risk-return ratio, is a mathematical calculation investors use to measure the expected gains of a given investment against the risk of loss.
What is the Salesforce Service Console? - The Salesforce Service Console is the centralized interface in Salesforce Service Cloud, an application devoted to customer service, support and customer experience.
What is the triple bottom line (TBL)? - The triple bottom line (TBL) is a sustainability-based accounting framework that includes social, environmental and financial factors as bottom-line categories.
What is transactional marketing? - Transactional marketing is a business strategy that focuses on single, point-of-sale transactions.
What is unobtainium? - Unobtainium is a term used to refer to a material that cannot be accessed.
What is value-sensitive design? - Value-sensitive design is a concept that advocates the consideration of human principles and standards when planning technology.
Whistleblower Protection Act - The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 is a law that protects federal government employees in the United States from retaliatory action for voluntarily disclosing information about dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government organization.
whole-team approach (team-based approach) - The whole-team approach (team-based approach) is a style of project management in which everyone on the project team is held equally responsible for the quality and success of the project.
Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) - Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is a Windows server role that can plan, manage and deploy updates, service packs, patches and hotfixes for Windows servers, client operating systems (OSes) and other Microsoft software.
WNS Global Services (WNS Holdings) - WNS Global Services (WNS Holdings Ltd) is a Mumbai-based business process outsourcing (BPO) company that provides services to enterprises worldwide.
work in progress (WIP) - Work in progress (WIP) refers to the number of tasks or projects that are currently in the process of being completed.
workflow automation - Workflow automation is an approach to making the flow of tasks, documents and information across work-related activities perform independently in accordance with defined business rules.
workforce analytics - Workforce analytics is a combination of software and methodology that applies statistical models to worker-related data, allowing enterprise leaders to optimize human resource management (HRM).
workforce management (WFM) - Workforce management (WFM) is an integrated set of processes that a company uses to optimize the productivity of its employees.
Workforce management (WFM) software - Workforce management (WFM) software is an umbrella term for desktop and mobile programs that help a business manage staff scheduling.
workforce optimization (WFO) software - Workforce optimization (WFO) software is a program suite that combines recording, quality management (QM) and other call center technologies into one console with the purpose of optimizing call center performance.
workforce planning - Workforce planning is the strategy used by employers to anticipate labor needs and deploy workers most effectively, usually with advanced human resources technology.
working capital - Working capital is the difference between a business's current assets and current liabilities.
XaaS (anything as a service) - XaaS is a collective term that refers to the delivery of anything as a service.