| Accounting Information Systems | Information systems that record and report business transactions and the flow of funds through an organization, then produce financial statements. These statements provide information for the planning and control of business operations, as well as for legal and historical recordkeeping.
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| Ada | A programming language named after Augusta Ada Byron, considered the world's first computer programmer. Developed for the U.S. Department of Defense as a standard high-order language.
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| Ad Hoc Inquiries | Unique, unscheduled, situation-specific information requests.
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| Agile Competition | The ability of a company to operate profitably in a competitive environment of continual and unpredictable changes in customer preferences, market conditions, and business opportunities.
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| Algorithm | A set of well-defined rules or processes for solving a problem in a finite number of steps.
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| Analog Computer | A computer that operates on data by measuring changes in continuous physical variables such as voltage, resistance, and rotation. Contrast with Digital Computer.
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| Analytical Database | A database of data extracted from operational and external databases to provide data tailored to online analytical processing, decision support, and executive information systems.
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| Analytical Modeling | Interactive use of computer-based mathematical models to explore decision alternatives using what-if analysis, sensitivity analysis, goal-seeking analysis, and optimization analysis.
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| Applet | A small, limited-purpose application program or small, independent module of a larger application program.
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| Application Development | See Systems Development.
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| Application Generator | A software package that supports the development of an application through an interactive terminal dialogue, where the programmer/analyst defines screens, reports, computations, and data structures.
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| Application Portfolio | A planning tool used to evaluate present and proposed information systems applications in terms of the amount of revenue or assets invested in information systems that support major business functions and processes.
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| Applications Architecture | A conceptual planning framework in which business applications of information technology are designed as an integrated architecture of enterprise systems that support strategic business initiatives and cross-functional business processes.
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| Application Server | System software that provides a middleware interface between an operating system and the application programs of users.
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| Application Software | Programs that specify the information processing activities required for the completion of specific tasks of computer users. Examples are electronic spreadsheet and word processing programs or inventory or payroll programs.
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| Application-Specific Programs | Application software packages that support specific applications of end users in business, science and engineering, and other areas.
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| Arithmetic-Logic Unit (ALU) | The unit of a computing system containing the circuits that perform arithmetic and logical operations.
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| Artificial Intelligence (AI) | A science and technology whose goal is to develop computers that can think, as well as see, hear, walk, talk, and feel. A major thrust is the development of computer functions normally associated with human intelligence, for example, reasoning, inference, learning, and problem solving.
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| ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange | A standard code used for information interchange among data processing systems, communication systems, and associated equipment.
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| Assembler | A computer program that translates an assembler language into machine language.
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| Assembler Language | A programming language that utilizes symbols to represent operation codes and storage locations.
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| Asynchronous | A sequence of operations without a regular or predictable time relationship. Thus, operations do not happen at regular timed intervals, but an operation will begin only after a previous operation is completed. In data transmission, involves the use of start and stop bits with each character to indicate the beginning and end of the character being transmitted. Contrast with Synchronous.
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| Audit Trail | The presence of media and procedures that allow a transaction to be traced through all stages of information processing, beginning with its appearance on a source document and ending with its transformation into information in a final output document.
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| Automated Teller Machine (ATM) | A special-purpose transaction terminal used to provide remote banking services.
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| Back-End Processor | Typically, a smaller, general-purpose computer dedicated to database processing using a database management system (DBMS). Also called a database machine or server.
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| Background Processing | The automatic execution of lower-priority computer programs when higher-priority programs are not using the resources of the computer system. Contrast with Foreground Processing.
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| Backward-Chaining | An inference process that justifies a proposed conclusion by determining if it will result when rules are applied to the facts in a given situation.
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| Bandwidth | The frequency range of a telecommunications channel, which determines its maximum transmission rate. The speed and capacity of transmission rates are typically measured in bits per second (bps). Bandwidth is a function of the telecommunications hardware, software, and media used by the telecommunications channel.
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| Bar Codes | Vertical marks or bars placed on merchandise tags or packaging that can be sensed and read by optical character-reading devices. The width and combination of vertical lines are used to represent data.
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| Barriers to Entry | Technological, financial, or legal requirements that deter firms from entering an industry.
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| BASIC: Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code | A programming language developed at Dartmouth College and designed for programming by end users.
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| Batch Processing | A category of data processing in which data are accumulated into batches and processed periodically. Contrast with Real-Time Processing.
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| Baud | A unit of measurement used to specify data transmission speeds. It is a unit of signaling speed equal to the number of discrete conditions or signal events per second. In many data communications applications, it represents one bit per second.
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| Binary | Pertaining to a characteristic or property involving a selection, choice, or condition in which there are two possibilities, or pertaining to the number system that utilizes a base of 2.
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| Biometric Controls | Computer-based security methods that measure physical traits and characteristics such as fingerprints, voice prints, retina scans, and so on.
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| Bit | A contraction of "binary digit." It can have the value of either 0 or 1.
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| Block | A grouping of contiguous data records or other data elements that are handled as a unit.
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| Branch | A transfer of control from one instruction to another in a computer program that is not part of the normal sequential execution of the instructions of the program.
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| Browser | See Web Browser.
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| Buffer | Temporary storage used when transmitting data from one device to another to compensate for a difference in rate of flow of data or time of occurrence of events.
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| Bug | A mistake or malfunction.
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| Bulletin Board System (BBS) | A service of online computer networks in which electronic messages, data files, or programs can be stored for other subscribers to read or copy.
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| Bundling | The inclusion of software, maintenance, training, and other products or services in the price of a computer system.
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| Bus | A set of conducting paths for movement of data and instructions that interconnects the various components of the CPU.
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| Business Ethics | An area of philosophy concerned with developing ethical principles and promoting ethical behavior and practices in the accomplishment of business tasks and decision making.
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| Business Intelligence (BI) | A term primarily used in industry that incorporates a range of analytical and decision support applications in business including data mining, decision support systems, knowledge management systems, and online analytical processing.
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| Business/IT Planning | The process of developing a company's business vision, strategies, and goals, as well as how they will be supported by the company's information technology architecture and implemented by its business application development process.
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| Business Process Reengineering (BPR) | Restructuring and transforming a business process by a fundamental rethinking and redesign to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, speed, and so on.
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| Byte | A sequence of adjacent binary digits operated on as a unit and usually shorter than a computer word. In many computer systems, a byte is a grouping of eight bits that can represent one alphabetic or special character or that can be packed with two decimal digits.
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| C | A low-level structured programming language that resembles a machine-independent assembler language.
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| C | An object-oriented version of C that is widely used for software package development.
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| Cache Memory | A high-speed temporary storage area in the CPU for storing parts of a program or data during processing.
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| Capacity Management | The use of planning and control methods to forecast and control information processing job loads, hardware and software usage, and other computer system resource requirements.
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| Case-Based Reasoning | Representing knowledge in an expert system's knowledge base in the form of cases, that is, examples of past performance, occurrences, and experiences.
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| Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) | An electronic vacuum tube (television picture tube) that displays the output of a computer system.
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| CD-ROM | An optical disk technology for microcomputers featuring compact disks with a storage capacity of over 500 megabytes.
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| Cellular Phone Systems | A radio communications technology that divides a metropolitan area into a honeycomb of cells to greatly increase the number of frequencies and thus the users that can take advantage of mobile phone service.
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| Central Processing Unit (CPU) | The unit of a computer system that includes the circuits that control the interpretation and execution of instructions. In many computer systems, the CPU includes the arithmetic-logic unit, the control unit, and the primary storage unit.
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| Change Management | Managing the process of implementing major changes in information technology, business processes, organizational structures, and job assignments to reduce the risks and costs of change and optimize its benefits.
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| Channel | (1) A path along which signals can be sent. (2) A small special-purpose processor that controls the movement of data between the CPU and input/output devices.
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| Chargeback Systems | Methods of allocating costs to end-user departments on the basis of the information services rendered and information system resources utilized.
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| Chat Systems | Software that enables two or more users at networked PCs to carry on online, real-time text conversations.
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| Check Bit | A binary check digit; for example, a parity bit.
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| Check Digit | A digit in a data field that is utilized to check for errors or loss of characters in the data field as a result of data transfer operations.
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| Checkpoint | A place in a program where a check or a recording of data for restart purposes is performed.
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| Chief Information Officer | A senior management position that oversees all information technology for a firm concentrating on long-range information system planning and strategy.
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| Client | (1) An end user. (2) The end user's networked microcomputer in client/server networks. (3) The version of a software package designed to run on an end user's networked microcomputer, such as a Web browser client, a groupware client, and so on.
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| Client/Server Network | A computer network where end-user workstations (clients) are connected via telecommunications links to network servers and possibly to mainframe superservers.
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| Clock | A device that generates periodic signals utilized to control the timing of a computer. Also, a register whose contents change at regular intervals in such a way as to measure time.
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| Coaxial Cable | A sturdy copper or aluminum wire wrapped with spacers to insulate and protect it. Groups of coaxial cables may also be bundled together in a bigger cable for ease of installation.
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| COBOL: COmmon Business Oriented Language | A widely used business data processing programming language.
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| Code | Computer instructions.
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| Cognitive Science | An area of artificial intelligence that focuses on researching how the human brain works and how humans think and learn, to apply such findings to the design of computer-based systems.
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| Cognitive Styles | Basic patterns in how people handle information and confront problems.
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| Cognitive Theory | Theories about how the human brain works and how humans think and learn.
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| Collaborative Work Management Tools | Software that helps people accomplish or manage joint work activities.
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| Communications Satellite | Earth satellites placed in stationary orbits above the equator that serve as relay stations for communications signals transmitted from earth stations.
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| Competitive Advantage | Developing products, services, processes, or capabilities that give a company a superior business position relative to its competitors and other competitive forces.
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| Competitive Forces | A firm must confront (1) rivalry of competitors within its industry, (2) threats of new entrants, (3) threats of substitutes, (4) the bargaining power of customers, and (5) the bargaining power of suppliers.
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| Competitive Strategies | A firm can develop cost leadership, product differentiation, and business innovation strategies to confront its competitive forces.
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| Compiler | A program that translates a high-level programming language into a machine-language program.
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| Computer | A device that has the ability to accept data; internally store and execute a program of instructions; perform mathematical, logical, and manipulative operations on data; and report the results.
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| Computer-Aided Design (CAD) | The use of computers and advanced graphics hardware and software to provide interactive design assistance for engineering and architectural design.
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| Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) | The use of computers to simulate, analyze, and evaluate models of product designs and production processes developed using computer-aided design methods.
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| Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) | The use of computers to automate the production process and operations of a manufacturing plant. Also called factory automation.
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| Computer-Aided Planning (CAP) | The use of software packages as tools to support the planning process.
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| Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) | Same as Computer-Aided Systems Engineering, but emphasizing the importance of software development.
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| Computer-Aided Systems Engineering (CASE) | Using software packages to accomplish and automate many of the activities of information systems development, including software development or programming.
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| Computer Application | The use of a computer to solve a specific problem or accomplish a particular job for an end user. For example, common business computer applications include sales order processing, inventory control, and payroll.
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| Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) | The use of computers to provide drills, practice exercises, and tutorial sequences to students.
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| Computer-Based Information System | An information system that uses computer hardware and software to perform its information processing activities.
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| Computer Crime | Criminal actions accomplished through the use of computer systems, especially with intent to defraud, destroy, or make unauthorized use of computer system resources.
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| Computer Ethics | A system of principles governing the legal, professional, social, and moral responsibilities of computer specialists and end users.
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| Computer Generations | Major stages in the historical development of computing.
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| Computer Graphics | Using computer-generated images to analyze and interpret data, present information, and create computer-aided design and art.
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| Computer Industry | The industry composed of firms that supply computer hardware, software, and services.
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| Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) | An overall concept that stresses that the goals of computer use in factory automation should be to simplify, automate, and integrate production processes and other aspects of manufacturing.
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| Computer Matching | Using computers to screen and match data about individual characteristics provided by a variety of computer-based information systems and databases to identify individuals for business, government, or other purposes.
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| Computer Monitoring | Using computers to monitor the behavior and productivity of workers on the job and in the workplace.
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| Computer Program | A series of instructions or statements in a form acceptable to a computer, prepared to achieve a certain result.
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| Computer System | Computer hardware as a system of input, processing, output, storage, and control components. Thus, a computer system consists of input and output devices, primary and secondary storage devices, the central processing unit, the control unit within the CPU, and other peripheral devices.
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| Computer Terminal | Any input/output device connected by telecommunications links to a computer.
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| Computer Virus or Worm | Program code that copies its destructive program routines into the computer systems of anyone who accesses computer systems that have used the program, or anyone who uses copies of data or programs taken from such computers. This spreads the destruction of data and programs among many computer users. Technically, a virus will not run unaided but must be inserted into another program, whereas a worm is a distinct program that can run unaided.
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| Concurrent Processing | The generic term for the capability of computers to work on several tasks at the same time, that is, concurrently. This may involve specific capabilities such as overlapped processing, multiprocessing, multiprogramming, multitasking, parallel processing, and so on.
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| Connectivity | The degree to which hardware, software, and databases can be easily linked together in a telecommunications network.
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| Control | (1) The systems component that evaluates feedback to determine whether the system is moving toward the achievement of its goal and then makes any necessary adjustments to the input and processing components of the system to ensure that proper output is produced. (2) A management function that involves observing and measuring organizational performance and environmental activities and modifying the plans and activities of the organization when necessary.
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| Control Listing | A detailed report that describes each transaction occurring during a period.
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| Control Totals | Accumulating totals of data at multiple points in an information system to ensure correct information processing.
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| Control Unit | A subunit of the central processing unit that controls and directs the operations of the computer system. The control unit retrieves computer instructions in proper sequence, interprets each instruction, and then directs the other parts of the computer system in their implementation.
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| Conversion | The process in which the hardware, software, people, network, and data resources of an old information system must be converted to the requirements of a new information system. This usually involves a parallel, phased, pilot, or plunge conversion process from the old to the new system.
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| Cooperative Processing | Information processing that allows the computers in a distributed processing network to share the processing of parts of an end user's application.
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| Cost/Benefit Analysis | Identifying the advantages or benefits and the disadvantages or costs of a proposed solution.
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| Critical Success Factors | A small number of key factors that executives consider critical to the success of the enterprise. These are key areas in which successful performance will assure the success of the organization and attainment of its goals.
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| Cross-Functional Information Systems | Information systems that are integrated combinations of business information systems, thus sharing information resources across the functional units of an organization.
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| Cursor | A movable point of light displayed on most video display screens to assist the user in the input of data.
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| Customer Relationship Management (CRM) | A cross-functional e-business application that integrates and automates many customer serving processes in sales, direct marketing, account and order management, and customer service and support.
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| Cybernetic System | A system that uses feedback and control components to achieve a self-regulating capability.
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| Cylinder | An imaginary vertical cylinder consisting of the vertical alignment of tracks on each surface of magnetic disks that are accessed simultaneously by the read/write heads of a disk drive.
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| Data | Facts or observations about physical phenomena or business transactions. More specifically, data are objective measurements of the attributes (characteristics) of entities such as people, places, things, and events.
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| Data Administration | A data resource management function that involves the establishment and enforcement of policies and procedures for managing data as a strategic corporate resource.
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| Database | An integrated collection of logically related data elements. A database consolidates many records previously stored in separate files so that a common pool of data serves many applications.
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| Database Administration | A data resource management function that includes responsibility for developing and maintaining the organization's data dictionary, designing and monitoring the performance of databases, and enforcing standards for database use and security.
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| Database Administrator | A specialist responsible for maintaining standards for the development, maintenance, and security of an organization's databases.
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| Database Maintenance | The activity of keeping a database up to date by adding, changing, or deleting data.
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| Database Management Approach | An approach to the storage and processing of data in which independent files are consolidated into a common pool, or database, of records available to different application programs and end users for processing and data retrieval.
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| Database Management System (DBMS) | A set of computer programs that controls the creation, maintenance, and utilization of the databases of an organization.
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| Database Processing | Utilizing a database for data processing activities such as maintenance, information retrieval, or report generation.
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| Data Center | An organizational unit that uses centralized computing resources to perform information processing activities for an organization. Also known as a computer center.
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| Data Conferencing | Users at networked PCs can view, mark up, revise, and save changes to a shared whiteboard of drawings, documents, and other material.
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| Data Conversion | Converting data into new data formats required by a new business application and its software and databases. Also includes correcting incorrect data, filtering out unwanted data, and consolidating data into new databases and other data subsets.
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| Data Design | The design of the logical structure of databases and files to be used by a proposed information system. This design produces detailed descriptions of the entities, relationships, data elements, and integrity rules for system files and databases.
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| Data Dictionary | A software module and database containing descriptions and definitions concerning the structure, data elements, interrelationships, and other characteristics of a database.
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| Data Entry | The process of converting data into a form suitable for entry into a computer system. Also called data capture or input preparation.
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| Data Flow Diagram | A graphic diagramming tool that uses a few simple symbols to illustrate the flow of data among external entities, processing activities, and data storage elements.
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| Data Management | Control program functions that provide access to data sets, enforce data storage conventions, and regulate the use of input/output devices.
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| Data Mining | Using special purpose software to analyze data from a data warehouse to find hidden patterns and trends.
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| Data Model | A conceptual framework that defines the logical relationships among the data elements needed to support a basic business or other process.
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| Data Modeling | A process in which the relationships between data elements are identified and defined to develop data models.
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| Data Planning | A corporate planning and analysis function that focuses on data resource management. It includes the responsibility for developing an overall information policy and data architecture for the firm's data resources.
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| Data Processing | The execution of a systematic sequence of operations performed on data to transform them into information.
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| Data Resource Management | A managerial activity that applies information systems technology and management tools to the task of managing an organization's data resources. Its three major components are database administration, data administration, and data planning.
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| Data Warehouse | An integrated collection of data extracted from operational, historical, and external databases and cleaned, transformed, and cataloged for retrieval and analysis (data mining) to provide business intelligence for business decision making.
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| Debug | To detect, locate, and remove errors from a program or malfunctions from a computer.
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| Decision Support System (DSS) | An information system that utilizes decision models, a database, and a decision maker's own insights in an ad hoc, interactive analytical modeling process to reach a specific decision by a specific decision maker.
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| Demand Reports and Responses | Information provided whenever a manager or end user demands it.
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| Desktop Publishing | The use of microcomputers, laser printers, and page makeup software to produce a variety of printed materials that were formerly produced only by professional printers.
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| Desktop Videoconferencing | The use of end-user computer workstations to conduct two-way interactive video conferences.
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| Development Centers | Systems development consultant groups formed to serve as consultants to the professional programmers and systems analysts of an organization to improve their application development efforts.
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| Digital Computer | A computer that operates on digital data by performing arithmetic and logical operations on the data. Contrast with Analog Computer.
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| Digitizer | A device that is used to convert drawings and other graphic images on paper or other materials into digital data that are entered into a computer system.
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| Direct Access | A method of storage in which each storage position has a unique address and can be individually accessed in approximately the same period without having to search through other storage positions. Same as Random Access. Contrast with Sequential Access.
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| Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) | A storage device that can directly access data to be stored or retrieved, for example, a magnetic disk unit.
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| Direct Data Organization | A method of data organization in which logical data elements are distributed randomly on or within the physical data medium. For example, logical data records distributed randomly on the surfaces of a magnetic disk file. Also called direct organization.
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| Direct Input/Output | Methods such as keyboard entry, voice input/output, and video displays that allow data to be input into or output from a computer system without the use of machine-readable media.
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| Disaster Recovery | Methods for ensuring that an organization recovers from natural and human-caused disasters that have affected its computer-based operations.
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| Discussion Forum | An online network discussion platform to encourage and manage online text discussions over a period among members of special interest groups or project teams.
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| Distributed Databases | The concept of distributing databases or portions of a database at remote sites where the data are most frequently referenced. Sharing of data is made possible through a network that interconnects the distributed databases.
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| Distributed Processing | A form of decentralization of information processing made possible by a network of computers dispersed throughout an organization. Processing of user applications is accomplished by several computers interconnected by a telecommunications network, rather than relying on one large centralized computer facility or on the decentralized operation of several independent computers.
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| Document | (1) A medium on which data have been recorded for human use, such as a report or invoice. (2) In word processing, a generic term for text material such as letters, memos, reports, and so on.
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| Documentation | A collection of documents or information that describes a computer program, information system, or required data processing operations.
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| Downsizing | Moving to smaller computing platforms, such as from mainframe systems to networks of personal computers and servers.
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| Downtime | The time interval during which a device is malfunctioning or inoperative.
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| DSS Generator | A software package for a decision support system that contains modules for database, model, and dialogue management.
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| Duplex | In communications, pertains to a simultaneous two-way independent transmission in both directions.
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| EBCDIC: Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code | An eight-bit code that is widely used by mainframe computers.
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| Echo Check | A method of checking the accuracy of data transmission in which the received data are returned to the sending device for comparison with the original data.
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| e-Commerce Marketplaces | Internet, intranet, and extranet Web sites and portals hosted by individual companies, consortiums of organizations, or third-party intermediaries providing electronic catalog, exchange, and auction markets to unite buyers and sellers to accomplish e-commerce transactions.
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| Economic Feasibility | Whether expected cost savings, increased revenue, increased profits, and reductions in required investment exceed the costs of developing and operating a proposed system.
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| EDI: Electronic Data Interchange | The automatic electronic exchange of business documents between the computers of different organizations.
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| Edit | To modify the form or format of data. For example, to insert or delete characters such as page numbers or decimal points.
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| Edit Report | A report that describes errors detected during processing.
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| EFT: Electronic Funds Transfer | The development of banking and payment systems that transfer funds electronically instead of using cash or paper documents such as checks.
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| Electronic Business (e-Business) | The use of Internet technologies to internetwork and empower business processes, electronic commerce, and enterprise communication and collaboration within a company and with its customers, suppliers, and other business stakeholders.
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| Electronic Commerce (e-Commerce) | The buying and selling, marketing and servicing, and delivery and payment of products, services, and information over the Internet, intranets, extranets, and other networks, between an internetworked enterprise and its prospects, customers, suppliers, and other business partners. Includes business-to- consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce.
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| Electronic Communications Tools | Software that helps communicate and collaborate with others by electronically sending messages, documents, and files in data, text, voice, or multimedia over the Internet, intranets, extranets, and other computer networks.
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| Electronic Conferencing Tools | Software that helps networked computer users share information and collaborate while working together on joint assignments, no matter where they are located.
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| Electronic Data Processing (EDP) | The use of electronic computers to process data automatically.
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| Electronic Document Management | An image processing technology in which an electronic document may consist of digitized voice notes and electronic graphics images, as well as digitized images of traditional documents.
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| Electronic Mail | Sending and receiving text messages between networked PCs over telecommunications networks. E-mail can also include data files, software, and multimedia messages and documents as attachments.
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| Electronic Meeting Systems (EMS) | Using a meeting room with networked PCs, a large-screen projector, and EMS software to facilitate communication, collaboration, and group decision making in business meetings.
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| Electronic Payment Systems | Alternative cash or credit payment methods using various electronic technologies to pay for products and services in electronic commerce.
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| Electronic Spreadsheet Package | An application program used as a computerized tool for analysis, planning, and modeling that allows users to enter and manipulate data into an electronic worksheet of rows and columns.
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| Emulation | To imitate one system with another so that the imitating system accepts the same data, executes the same programs, and achieves the same results as the imitated system.
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| Encryption | To scramble data or convert them, prior to transmission, to a secret code that masks the meaning of the data to unauthorized recipients. Similar to enciphering.
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| End User | Anyone who uses an information system or the information it produces.
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| End-User Computing Systems | Computer-based information systems that directly support both the operational and managerial applications of end users.
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| Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) | A cross-functional e-business application that integrates front-office applications like customer relationship management with back-office applications like enterprise resource management.
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| Enterprise Collaboration Systems | The use of groupware tools and the Internet, intranets, extranets, and other computer networks to support and enhance communication, coordination, collaboration, and resource sharing among teams and workgroups in an internetworked enterprise.
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| Enterprise Information Portal | A customized and personalized Web-based interface for corporate intranets and extranets that gives qualified users access to a variety of internal and external e-business and e-commerce applications, databases, software tools, and information services.
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| Enterprise Knowledge Portal | An enterprise information portal that serves as a knowledge management system by providing users with access to enterprise knowledge bases.
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| Enterprise Model | A conceptual framework that defines the structures and relationships of business processes and data elements, as well as other planning structures, such as critical success factors and organizational units.
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| Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) | Integrated cross-functional software that reengineers manufacturing, distribution, finance, human resources, and other basic business processes of a company to improve its efficiency, agility, and profitability.
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| Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) | A data planning and systems development diagramming tool that models the relationships among the entities in a business process.
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| Entropy | The tendency of a system to lose a relatively stable state of equilibrium.
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| Ergonomics | The science and technology emphasizing the safety, comfort, and ease of use of human-operated machines such as computers. The goal of ergonomics is to produce systems that are user friendly: safe, comfortable, and easy to use. Ergonomics is also called human factors engineering.
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| Exception Reports | Reports produced only when exceptional conditions occur, or reports produced periodically that contain information only about exceptional conditions.
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| Executive Information System (EIS) | An information system that provides strategic information tailored to the needs of executives and other decision makers.
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| Executive Support System (ESS) | An executive information system with additional capabilities, including data analysis, decision support, electronic mail, and personal productivity tools.
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| Expert System (ES) | A computer-based information system that uses its knowledge about a specific complex application area to act as an expert consultant to users. The system consists of a knowledge base and software modules that perform inferences on the knowledge and communicate answers to a user's questions.
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| Extranet | A network that links selected resources of a company with its customers, suppliers, and other business partners, using the Internet or private networks to link the organizations' intranets.
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| Facilities Management | The use of an external service organization to operate and manage the information processing facilities of an organization.
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| Fault Tolerant Systems | Computers that have multiple central processors, peripherals, and system software and that are able to continue operations even if there is a major hardware or software failure.
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| Faxing (Facsimile) | Transmitting and receiving images of documents over the telephone or computer networks using PCs or fax machines.
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| Feasibility Study | A preliminary study that investigates the information needs of end users and the objectives, constraints, basic resource requirements, cost/benefits, and feasibility of proposed projects.
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| Feedback | (1) Data or information concerning the components and operations of a system. (2) The use of part of the output of a system as input to the system.
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| Fiber Optics | The technology that uses cables consisting of very thin filaments of glass fibers that can conduct the light generated by lasers for high-speed telecommunications.
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| Field | A data element that consists of a grouping of characters that describe a particular attribute of an entity. For example, the name field or salary field of an employee.
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| Fifth Generation | The next generation of computers. Major advances in parallel processing, user interfaces, and artificial intelligence may provide computers that will be able to see, hear, talk, and think.
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| File | A collection of related data records treated as a unit. Sometimes called a data set.
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| File Management | Controlling the creation, deletion, access, and use of files of data and programs.
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| File Processing | Organizing data into specialized files of data records designed for processing only by specific application programs. Contrast with Database Management Approach.
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| Financial Management Systems | Information systems that support financial managers in the financing of a business and the allocation and control of financial resources. These include cash and securities management, capital budgeting, financial forecasting, and financial planning.
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| Firewall | Computers, communications processors, and software that protect computer networks from intrusion by screening all network traffic and serving as a safe transfer point for access to and from other networks.
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| Firmware | The use of microprogrammed read-only memory circuits in place of hard-wired logic circuitry. See also Microprogramming.
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| Floating Point | Pertaining to a number representation system in which each number is represented by two sets of digits. One set represents the significant digits or fixed-point "base" of the number, while the other set of digits represents the "exponent," which indicates the precision of the number.
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| Floppy Disk | A small plastic disk coated with iron oxide that resembles a small phonograph record enclosed in a protective envelope. It is a widely used form of magnetic disk media that provides a direct access storage capability for microcomputer systems.
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| Flowchart | A graphical representation in which symbols are used to represent operations, data, flow, logic, equipment, and so on. A program flowchart illustrates the structure and sequence of operations of a program, whereas a system flowchart illustrates the components and flows of information systems.
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| Foreground Processing | The automatic execution of the computer programs that have been designed to preempt the use of computing facilities. Contrast with Background Processing.
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| Format | The arrangement of data on a medium.
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| FORTRAN: FORmula TRANslation | A high-level programming language widely utilized to develop computer programs that perform mathematical computations for scientific, engineering, and selected business applications.
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| Forward Chaining | An inference strategy that reaches a conclusion by applying rules to facts to determine if any facts satisfy a rule's conditions in a particular situation.
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| Fourth-Generation Languages (4GL) | Programming languages that are easier to use than high-level languages like BASIC, COBOL, or FORTRAN. They are also known as nonprocedural, natural, or very-high-level languages.
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| Frame | A collection of knowledge about an entity or other concept consisting of a complex package of slots, that is, data values describing the characteristics or attributes of an entity.
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| Frame-Based Knowledge | Knowledge represented in the form of a hierarchy or network of frames.
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| Front-End Processor | Typically a smaller, general-purpose computer that is dedicated to handling data communications control functions in a communications network, thus relieving the host computer of these functions.
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| Functional Business Systems | Information systems within a business organization that support one of the traditional functions of business such as marketing, finance, or production. Functional business systems can be either operations or management information systems.
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| Functional Requirements | The information system capabilities required to meet the information needs of end users. Also called system requirements.
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| Fuzzy Logic Systems | Computer-based systems that can process data that are incomplete or only partially correct, that is, fuzzy data. Such systems can solve unstructured problems with incomplete knowledge, as humans do.
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| General Purpose Application Programs | Programs that can perform information processing jobs for users from all application areas. For example, word processing programs, electronic spreadsheet programs, and graphics programs can be used by individuals for home, education, business, scientific, and many other purposes.
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| General-Purpose Computer | A computer that is designed to handle a wide variety of problems. Contrast with Special-Purpose Computer.
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| Generate | To produce a machine-language program for performing a specific data processing task based on parameters supplied by a programmer or user.
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| Genetic Algorithm | An application of artificial intelligence software that uses Darwinian (survival of the fittest) randomizing and other functions to simulate an evolutionary process that can yield increasingly better solutions to a problem.
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| Gigabyte | One billion bytes. More accurately, 2 to the 30th power, or 1,073,741,824 in decimal notation.
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| GIGO | An acronym of "Garbage In, Garbage Out," which emphasizes that information systems will produce erroneous and invalid output when provided with erroneous and invalid input data or instructions.
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| Global Company | A business that is driven by a global strategy so that all of its activities are planned and implemented in the context of a whole-world system.
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| Global e-Business Technology Management | Managing information technologies in a global e-business enterprise, amid the cultural, political, and geoeconomic challenges involved in developing e-business/IT strategies, global e-business and e-commerce applications portfolios, Internet-based technology platforms, and global data resource management policies.
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| Global Information Technology | The use of computer-based information systems and telecommunications networks using a variety of information technologies to support global business operations and management.
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| Globalization | Becoming a global enterprise by expanding into global markets, using global production facilities, forming alliances with global partners, and so on.
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| Goal-Seeking Analysis | Making repeated changes to selected variables until a chosen variable reaches a target value.
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| Graphical User Interface | A software interface that relies on icons, bars, buttons, boxes, and other images to initiate computer-based tasks for users.
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| Graphics | Pertaining to symbolic input or output from a computer system, such as lines, curves, and geometric shapes, using video display units or graphics plotters and printers.
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| Graphics Pen and Tablet | A device that allows an end user to draw or write on a pressure-sensitive tablet and have the handwriting or graphics digitized by the computer and accepted as input.
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| Graphics Software | A program that helps users generate graphics displays.
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| Group Decision Making | Decisions made by groups of people coming to an agreement on a particular issue.
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| Group Decision Support System (GDSS) | A decision support system that provides support for decision making by groups of people.
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| Group Support Systems (GSS) | An information system that enhances communication, coordination, collaboration, decision making, and group work activities of teams and workgroups.
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| Groupware | Software to support and enhance the communication, coordination, and collaboration among networked teams and workgroups, including software tools for electronic communications, electronic conferencing, and cooperative work management.
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| Hacking | (1) Obsessive use of a computer. (2) The unauthorized access and use of computer systems.
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| Handshaking | Exchange of predetermined signals when a connection is established between two communications terminals.
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| Hard Copy | A data medium or data record that has a degree of permanence and that can be read by people or machines.
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| Hardware | (1) Machines and media. (2) Physical equipment, as opposed to computer programs or methods of use. (3) Mechanical, magnetic, electrical, electronic, or optical devices. Contrast with Software.
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| Hash Total | The sum of numbers in a data field that are not normally added, such as account numbers or other identification numbers. It is utilized as a control total, especially during input/output operations of batch processing systems.
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| Header Label | A machine-readable record at the beginning of a file containing data for file identification and control.
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| Heuristic | Pertaining to exploratory methods of problem solving in which solutions are discovered by evaluation of the progress made toward the final result. It is an exploratory trial-and-error approach guided by rules of thumb. Opposite of algorithmic.
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| Hierarchical Data Structure | A logical data structure in which the relationships between records form a hierarchy or tree structure. The relationships among records are one to many, because each data element is related only to one element above it.
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| High-Level Language | A programming language that utilizes macro instructions and statements that closely resemble human language or mathematical notation to describe the problem to be solved or the procedure to be used. Also called a compiler language.
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| Homeostasis | A relatively stable state of equilibrium of a system.
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| Host Computer | Typically a larger central computer that performs the major data processing tasks in a computer network.
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| Human Factors | Hardware and software capabilities that can affect the comfort, safety, ease of use, and user customization of computer-based information systems.
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| Human Information Processing | A conceptual framework about the human cognitive process that uses an information processing context to explain how humans capture, process, and use information.
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| Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) | Information systems that support human resource management activities such as recruitment, selection and hiring, job placement and performance appraisals, and training and development.
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| Hybrid AI Systems | Systems that integrate several AI technologies, such as expert systems and neural networks.
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| Hypermedia | Documents containing multiple forms of media, including text, graphics, video, and sound, that can be interactively searched, like Hypertext.
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| Hypertext | Text in electronic form that has been indexed and linked (hyperlinks) by software in a variety of ways so that it can be randomly and interactively searched by a user.
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| Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) | A popular page description language for creating hypertext and hypermedia documents for World Wide Web and intranet Web sites.
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| Icon | A small figure on a video display that looks like a familiar office or other device such as a file folder (for storing a file) or a wastebasket (for deleting a file).
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| Image Processing | A computer-based technology that allows end users to electronically capture, store, process, and retrieve images that may include numeric data, text, handwriting, graphics, documents, and photographs. Image processing makes heavy use of optical scanning and optical disk technologies.
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| Impact Printers | Printers that form images on paper through the pressing of a printing element and an inked ribbon or roller against the face of a sheet of paper.
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| Index | An ordered reference list of the contents of a file or document together with keys or reference notations for identification or location of those contents.
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| Index Sequential | A method of data organization in which records are organized in sequential order and also referenced by an index. When utilized with direct access file devices, it is known as index sequential access method, or ISAM.
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| Inference Engine | The software component of an expert system, which processes the rules and facts related to a specific problem and makes associations and inferences resulting in recommended courses of action.
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| Infomediaries | Third-party market-maker companies that serve as intermediaries to bring buyers and sellers together by developing and hosting electronic catalog, exchange, and auction markets to accomplish e-commerce transactions.
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| Information | Data placed in a meaningful and useful context for an end user.
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| Information Appliances | Small Web-enabled microcomputer devices with specialized functions, such as handheld PDAs, TV set–top boxes, game consoles, cellular and PCS phones, wired telephone appliances, and other Web-enabled home appliances.
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| Information Architecture | A conceptual framework that defines the basic structure, content, and relationships of the organizational databases that provide the data needed to support the basic business processes of an organization.
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| Information Center | A support facility for the end users of an organization. It allows users to learn to develop their own application programs and accomplish their own information processing tasks. End users are provided with hardware support, software support, and people support (trained user consultants).
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| Information Float | The time that a document is in transit between the sender and receiver and thus unavailable for any action or response.
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| Information Processing | A concept that covers both the traditional concept of processing numeric and alphabetic data and the processing of text, images, and voices. It emphasizes that the production of information products for users should be the focus of processing activities.
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| Information Quality | The degree to which information has content, form, and time characteristics that give it value for specific end users.
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| Information Resource Management (IRM) | A management concept that views data, information, and computer resources (computer hardware, software, networks, and personnel) as valuable organizational resources that should be efficiently, economically, and effectively managed for the benefit of the entire organization.
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| Information Retrieval | The methods and procedures for recovering specific information from stored data.
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| Information Superhighway | An advanced high-speed Internet-like network that connects individuals, households, businesses, government agencies, libraries, schools, universities, and other institutions with interactive voice, video, data, and multimedia communications.
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| Information System | (1) A set of people, procedures, and resources that collects, transforms, and disseminates information in an organization. (2) A system that accepts data resources as input and processes them into information products as output.
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| Information System Model | A conceptual framework that views an information system as a system that uses the resources of hardware (machines and media), software (programs and procedures), people (users and specialists), and networks (communications media and network support) to perform input, processing, output, storage, and control activities that transform data resources (databases and knowledge bases) into information products.
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| Information Systems Development | See Systems Development.
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| Information System Specialist | A person whose occupation is related to the providing of information system services. For example, a systems analyst, programmer, or computer operator.
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| Information Technology (IT) | Hardware, software, telecommunications, database management, and other information processing technologies used in computer-based information systems.
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| Information Technology Architecture | A conceptual blueprint that specifies the components and interrelationships of a company's technology infrastructure, data resources, applications architecture, and IT organization.
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| Information Technology Management | Managing information technologies by (1) the joint development and implementation of business and IT strategies by business and IT executives, (2) managing the research and implementation of new information technologies and the development of business applications, and (3) managing the IT processes, professionals, subunits, and infrastructure within a company.
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| Information Theory | The branch of learning concerned with the likelihood of accurate transmission or communication of messages subject to transmission failure, distortion, and noise.
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| Input | Pertaining to a device, process, or channel involved in the insertion of data into a data processing system. Opposite of Output.
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| Input/Output (I/O) | Pertaining to either input or output, or both.
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| Input/Output Interface Hardware | Devices such as I/O ports, I/O buses, buffers, channels, and input/output control units, which assist the CPU in its input/output assignments. These devices make it possible for modern computer systems to perform input, output, and processing functions simultaneously.
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| Inquiry Processing | Computer processing that supports the real-time interrogation of online files and databases by end users.
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| Instruction | A grouping of characters that specifies the computer operation to be performed.
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| Intangible Benefits and Costs | The nonquantifiable benefits and costs of a proposed solution or system.
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| Integrated Circuit | A complex microelectronic circuit consisting of interconnected circuit elements that cannot be disassembled because they are placed on or within a "continuous substrate" such as a silicon chip.
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| Integrated Packages | Software that combines the ability to do several general-purpose applications (such as word processing, electronic spreadsheet, and graphics) into one program.
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| Intelligent Agent | A special-purpose knowledge-based system that serves as a software surrogate to accomplish specific tasks for end users.
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| Intelligent Terminal | A terminal with the capabilities of a microcomputer that can thus perform many data processing and other functions without accessing a larger computer.
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| Interactive Marketing | A dynamic collaborative process of creating, purchasing, and improving products and services that builds close relationships between a business and its customers, using a variety of services on the Internet, intranets, and extranets.
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| Interactive Processing | A type of real-time processing in which users can interact with a computer on a real-time basis.
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| Interactive Video | Computer-based systems that integrate image processing with text, audio, and video processing technologies, which makes interactive multimedia presentations possible.
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| Interface | A shared boundary, such as the boundary between two systems. For example, the boundary between a computer and its peripheral devices.
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| Internet | A rapidly growing computer network of millions of business, educational, and governmental networks connecting hundreds of millions of computers and their users in over 200 countries.
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| Internetwork Processor | Communications processors used by local area networks to interconnect them with other local area and wide area networks. Examples include switches, routers, hubs, and gateways.
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| Internetworks | Interconnected local area and wide area networks.
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| Interoperability | Being able to accomplish end-user applications using different types of computer systems, operating systems, and application software, interconnected by different types of local and wide area networks.
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| Interorganizational Information Systems | Information systems that interconnect an organization with other organizations, such as a business and its customers and suppliers.
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| Interpreter | A computer program that translates and executes each source language statement before translating and executing the next one.
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| Interrupt | A condition that causes an interruption in a processing operation during which another task is performed. At the conclusion of this new assignment, control may be transferred back to the point at which the original processing operation was interrupted or to other tasks with a higher priority.
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| Intranet | An Internet-like network within an organization. Web browser software provides easy access to internal Web sites established by business units, teams, and individuals, and other network resources and applications.
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| Inverted File | A file that references entities by their attributes.
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| IT Architecture | A conceptual design for the implementation of information technology in an organization, including its hardware, software, and network technology platforms, data resources, application portfolio, and IS organization.
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| Iterative | Pertaining to the repeated execution of a series of steps.
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| Java | An object-oriented programming language designed for programming real-time, interactive, Web-based applications in the form of applets for use on clients and servers on the Internet, intranets, and extranets.
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| Job | A specified group of tasks prescribed as a unit of work for a computer.
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| Job Control Language (JCL) | A language for communicating with the operating system of a computer to identify a job and describe its requirements.
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| Joystick | A small lever set in a box used to move the cursor on the computer's display screen.
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| K | An abbreviation for the prefix kilo, which is 1,000 in decimal notation. When referring to storage capacity, it is equivalent to 2 to the 10th power, or 1,024 in decimal notation.
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| Key | One or more fields within a data record that are used to identify it or control its use.
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| Keyboarding | Using the keyboard of a microcomputer or computer terminal.
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| Knowledge Base | A computer-accessible collection of knowledge about a subject in a variety of forms, such as facts and rules of inference, frames, and objects.
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| Knowledge-Based Information System | An information system that adds a knowledge base to the database and other components found in other types of computer-based information systems.
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| Knowledge Engineer | A specialist who works with experts to capture the knowledge they possess to develop a knowledge base for expert systems and other knowledge-based systems.
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| Knowledge Management | Organizing and sharing the diverse forms of business information created within an organization. Includes managing project and enterprise document libraries, discussion databases, intranet Web site databases, and other types of knowledge bases.
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| Knowledge Workers | People whose primary work activities include creating, using, and distributing information.
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| Language Translator Program | A program that converts the programming language instructions in a computer program into machine language code. Major types include assemblers, compilers, and interpreters.
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| Large-Scale Integration (LSI) | A method of constructing electronic circuits in which thousands of circuits can be placed on a single semiconductor chip.
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| Legacy Systems | The older, traditional, mainframe-based business information systems of an organization.
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| Light Pen | A photoelectronic device that allows data to be entered or altered on the face of a video display terminal.
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| Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) | Electronic visual displays that form characters by applying an electrical charge to selected silicon crystals.
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| List Organization | A method of data organization that uses indexes and pointers to allow for nonsequential retrieval.
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| List Processing | A method of processing data in the form of lists.
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| Local Area Network (LAN) | A communications network that typically connects computers, terminals, and other computerized devices within a limited physical area such as an office, building, manufacturing plant, or other worksite.
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| Locking In Customers and Suppliers | Building valuable relationships with customers and suppliers that deter them from abandoning a firm for its competitors or intimidating it into accepting less profitable relationships.
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| Logical Data Elements | Data elements that are independent of the physical data media on which they are recorded.
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| Logical System Design | Developing general specifications for how basic information systems activities can meet end-user requirements.
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| Loop | A sequence of instructions in a computer program that is executed repeatedly until a terminal condition prevails.
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| Machine Cycle | The timing of a basic CPU operation as determined by a fixed number of electrical pulses emitted by the CPU's timing circuitry or internal clock.
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| Machine Language | A programming language in which instructions are expressed in the binary code of the computer.
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| Macro Instruction | An instruction in a source language that is equivalent to a specified sequence of machine instructions.
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| Magnetic Disk | A flat, circular plate with a magnetic surface on which data can be stored by selective magnetization of portions of the curved surface.
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| Magnetic Ink | An ink that contains particles of iron oxide that can be magnetized and detected by magnetic sensors.
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| Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) | The machine recognition of characters printed with magnetic ink. Primarily used for check processing by the banking industry.
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| Magnetic Tape | A plastic tape with a magnetic surface on which data can be stored by selective magnetization of portions of the surface.
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| Mag Stripe Card | A plastic, wallet-size card with a strip of magnetic tape on one surface; widely used for credit/ debit cards.
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| Mainframe | A larger computer system, typically with a separate central processing unit, as distinguished from microcomputer and minicomputer systems.
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| Management Information System (MIS) | A management support system that produces prespecified reports, displays, and responses on a periodic, exception, demand, or push reporting basis.
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| Management Support System (MSS) | An information system that provides information to support managerial decision making. More specifically, an information-reporting system, executive information system, or decision support system.
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| Managerial End User | A manager, entrepreneur, or managerial-level professional who personally uses information systems. Also, the manager of the department or other organizational unit that relies on information systems.
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| Managerial Roles | Management of the performance of a variety of interpersonal, information, and decision roles.
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| Manual Data Processing | Data processing that requires continual human operation and intervention and that utilizes simple data processing tools such as paper forms, pencils, and filing cabinets.
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| Manufacturing Information Systems | Information systems that support the planning, control, and accomplishment of manufacturing processes. This includes concepts such as computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) and technologies such as computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) or computer-aided design (CAD).
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| Marketing Information Systems | Information systems that support the planning, control, and transaction processing required for the accomplishment of marketing activities, such as sales management, advertising, and promotion.
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| Mass Storage | Secondary storage devices with extra-large storage capacities, such as magnetic or optical disks.
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| Master File | A data file containing relatively permanent information that is utilized as an authoritative reference and is usually updated periodically. Contrast with Transaction File.
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| Mathematical Model | A mathematical representation of a process, device, or concept.
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| Media | All tangible objects on which data are recorded.
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| Megabyte | One million bytes. More accurately, 2 to the 20th power, or 1,048,576 in decimal notation.
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| Memory | See Storage.
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| Menu | A displayed list of items (usually the names of alternative applications, files, or activities) from which an end user makes a selection.
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| Menu Driven | A characteristic of interactive computing systems that provides menu displays and operator prompting to assist an end user in performing a particular job.
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| Metadata | Data about data; data describing the structure, data elements, interrelationships, and other characteristics of a database.
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| Microcomputer | A very small computer, ranging in size from a "computer on a chip" to handheld, laptop, and desktop units, and servers.
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| Micrographics | The use of microfilm, microfiche, and other microforms to record data in greatly reduced form.
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| Microprocessor | A microcomputer central processing unit (CPU) on a chip. Without input/output or primary storage capabilities in most types.
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| Microprogram | A small set of elementary control instructions called microinstructions or microcode.
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| Microprogramming | The use of special software (microprograms) to perform the functions of special hardware (electronic control circuitry). Microprograms stored in a read-only storage module of the control unit interpret the machine language instructions of a computer program and decode them into elementary microinstructions, which are then executed.
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| Microsecond | A millionth of a second.
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| Middleware | Software that helps diverse software programs and networked computer systems work together, thus promoting their interoperability.
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| Midrange Computer | A computer category between microcomputers and mainframes. Examples include minicomputers, network servers, and technical workstations.
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| Millisecond | A thousandth of a second.
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| Minicomputer | A type of midrange computer.
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| Model Base | An organized software collection of conceptual, mathematical, and logical models that express business relationships, computational routines, or analytical techniques.
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| Modem | (MOdulator-DEModulator) A device that converts the digital signals from input/output devices into appropriate frequencies at a transmission terminal and converts them back into digital signals at a receiving terminal.
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| Monitor | Software or hardware that observes, supervises, controls, or verifies the operations of a system.
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| Mouse | A small device that is electronically connected to a computer and is moved by hand on a flat surface to move the cursor on a video screen in the same direction. Buttons on the mouse allow users to issue commands and make responses or selections.
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| Multidimensional Structure | A database model that uses multidimensional structures (such as cubes or cubes within cubes) to store data and relationships between data.
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| Multimedia Presentations | Providing information using a variety of media, including text and graphics displays, voice and other audio, photographs, and video segments.
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| Multiplex | To interleave or simultaneously transmit two or more messages on a single channel.
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| Multiplexer | An electronic device that allows a single communications channel to carry simultaneous data transmissions from many terminals.
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| Multiprocessing | Pertaining to the simultaneous execution of two or more instructions by a computer or computer network.
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| Multiprocessor Computer Systems | Computer systems that use a multiprocessor architecture in the design of their central processing units. This includes the use of support microprocessors and multiple instruction processors, including parallel processor designs.
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| Multiprogramming | Pertaining to the concurrent execution of two or more programs by a computer by interleaving their execution.
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| Multitasking | The concurrent use of the same computer to accomplish several different information processing tasks. Each task may require the use of a different program or the concurrent use of the same copy of a program by several users.
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| Nanosecond | One billionth of a second.
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| Natural Language | A programming language that is very close to human language. Also called very-high-level language.
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| Network | An interconnected system of computers, terminals, and communications channels and devices.
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| Network Architecture | A master plan designed to promote an open, simple, flexible, and efficient telecommunications environment through the use of standard protocols, standard communications hardware and software interfaces, and the design of a standard multilevel telecommunications interface between end users and computer systems.
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| Network Computer | A low-cost networked microcomputer with no or minimal disk storage, which depends on Internet or intranet servers for its operating system and Web browser, Java-enabled application software, and data access and storage.
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| Network Computing | A network-centric view of computing in which "the network is the computer," that is, the view that computer networks are the central computing resource of any computing environment.
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| Network Data Structure | A logical data structure that allows many-to-many relationships among data records. It allows entry into a database at multiple points, because any data element or record can be related to many other data elements.
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| Neural Networks | Computer processors or software whose architecture is based on the human brain's meshlike neuron structure. Neural networks can process many pieces of information simultaneously and learn to recognize patterns and programs to solve related problems on their own.
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| Node | A terminal point in a communications network.
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| Nonprocedural Languages | Programming languages that allow users and professional programmers to specify the results they want without specifying how to solve the problem.
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| Numerical Control | Automatic control of a machine process by a computer that makes use of numerical data, generally introduced as the operation is in process. Also called machine control.
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| Object | A data element that includes both data and the methods or processes that act on those data.
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| Object-Based Knowledge | Knowledge represented as a network of objects.
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| Object-Oriented Language | An object-oriented programming (OOP) language used to develop programs that create and use objects to perform information processing tasks.
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| Object Program | A compiled or assembled program composed of executable machine instructions. Contrast with Source Program.
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| OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer | A firm that manufactures and sells computers by assembling components produced by other hardware manufacturers.
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| Office Automation (OA) | The use of computer-based information systems that collect, process, store, and transmit electronic messages, documents, and other forms of office communications among individuals, workgroups, and organizations.
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| Offline | Pertaining to equipment or devices not under control of the central processing unit.
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| Offshoring | A relocation of an organization's business processes to a lower cost location overseas.
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| Online | Pertaining to equipment or devices under control of the central processing unit.
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| Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) | A capability of some management, decision support, and executive information systems that supports interactive examination and manipulation of large amounts of data from many perspectives.
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| Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) | A real-time transaction processing system.
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| Open Systems | Information systems that use common standards for hardware, software, applications, and networking to create a computing environment that allows easy access by end users and their networked computer systems.
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| Operand | That which is operated upon. That part of a computer instruction that is identified by the address part of the instruction.
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| Operating Environment | Software packages or modules that add a graphics-based interface among end users, the operating system, and their application programs and that may also provide multitasking capability.
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| Operating System | The main control program of a computer system. It is a system of programs that controls the execution of computer programs and may provide scheduling, debugging, input/output control, system accounting, compilation, storage assignment, data management, and related services.
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| Operational Feasibility | The willingness and ability of management, employees, customers, and suppliers to operate, use, and support a proposed system.
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| Operation Code | A code that represents specific operations to be performed upon the operands in a computer instruction.
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| Operations Support System (OSS) | An information system that collects, processes, and stores data generated by the operations systems of an organization and produces data and information for input into a management information system or for the control of an operations system.
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| Operations System | A basic subsystem of the business firm that constitutes its input, processing, and output components. Also called a physical system.
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| Optical Character Recognition (OCR) | The machine identification of printed characters through the use of light-sensitive devices.
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| Optical Disks | A secondary storage medium using CD (compact disk) and DVD (digital versatile disk) technologies to read tiny spots on plastic disks. The disks are currently capable of storing billions of characters of information.
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| Optical Scanner | A device that optically scans characters or images and generates their digital representations.
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| Optimization Analysis | Finding an optimum value for selected variables in a mathematical model, given certain constraints.
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| Organizational Feasibility | How well a proposed information system supports the objectives of an organization's strategic plan for information systems.
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| Output | Pertaining to a device, process, or channel involved with the transfer of data or information out of an information processing system. Opposite of Input.
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| Outsourcing | Turning over all or part of an organization's information systems operation to outside contractors, known as systems integrators or service providers.
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| Packet | A group of data and control information in a specified format that is transmitted as an entity.
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| Packet Switching | A data transmission process that transmits addressed packets such that a channel is occupied only for the duration of transmission of the packet.
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| Page | A segment of a program or data, usually of fixed length.
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| Paging | A process that automatically and continually transfers pages of programs and data between primary storage and direct access storage devices. It provides computers with multiprogramming and virtual memory capabilities.
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| Parallel Processing | Executing many instructions at the same time, that is, in parallel. Performed by advanced computers using many instruction processors organized in clusters or networks.
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| Parity Bit | A check bit appended to an array of binary digits to make the sum of all the binary digits, including the check bit, always odd or always even.
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| Pascal | A high-level, general-purpose, structured programming language named after Blaise Pascal. It was developed by Niklaus Wirth of Zurich in 1968.
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| Pattern Recognition | The identification of shapes, forms, or configurations by automatic means.
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| PCM: Plug-Compatible Manufacturer | A firm that manufactures computer equipment that can be plugged into existing computer systems without requiring additional hardware or software interfaces.
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| Peer-to-Peer Network (P2P) | A computing environment in which end-user computers connect, communicate, and collaborate directly with one another via the Internet or other telecommunications network links.
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| Pen-Based Computers | Tablet-style microcomputers that recognize handwriting and hand drawing done by a pen-shaped device on their pressure-sensitive display screens.
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| Performance Monitor | A software package that monitors the processing of computer system jobs, helps develop a planned schedule of computer operations that can optimize computer system performance, and produces detailed statistics that are used for computer system capacity planning and control.
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| Periodic Reports | Providing information to managers using a prespecified format designed to provide information on a regularly scheduled basis.
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| Peripheral Devices | In a computer system, any unit of equipment, distinct from the central processing unit, that provides the system with input, output, or storage capabilities.
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| Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) | Handheld microcomputer devices that enable you to manage information such as appointments, to-do lists, and sales contacts, send and receive e-mail, access the Web, and exchange such information with your desktop PC or network server.
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| Personal Information Manager (PIM) | A software package that helps end users store, organize, and retrieve text and numerical data in the form of notes, lists, memos, and a variety of other forms.
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| Physical System Design | Design of the user interface methods and products, database structures, and processing and control procedures for a proposed information system, including hardware, software, and personnel specifications.
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| Picosecond | One trillionth of a second.
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| Plasma Display | Output devices that generate a visual display with electrically charged particles of gas trapped between glass plates.
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| Plotter | A hard-copy output device that produces drawings and graphical displays on paper or other materials.
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| Pointer | A data element associated with an index, a record, or other set of data that contains the address of a related record.
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| Pointing Devices | Devices that allow end users to issue commands or make choices by moving a cursor on the display screen.
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| Pointing Stick | A small buttonlike device on a keyboard that moves the cursor on the screen in the direction of the pressure placed upon it.
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| Point-of-Sale (POS) Terminal | A computer terminal used in retail stores that serves the function of a cash register as well as collecting sales data and performing other data processing functions.
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| Port | (1) Electronic circuitry that provides a connection point between the CPU and input/output devices. (2) A connection point for a communications line on a CPU or other front-end device.
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| Postimplementation Review | Monitoring and evaluating the results of an implemented solution or system.
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| Presentation Graphics | Using computer-generated graphics to enhance the information presented in reports and other types of presentations.
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| Prespecified Reports | Reports whose format is specified in advance to provide managers with information periodically, on an exception basis, or on demand.
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| Private Branch Exchange (PBX) | A switching device that serves as an interface between the many telephone lines within a work area and the local telephone company's main telephone lines or trunks. Computerized PBXs can handle the switching of both voices and data.
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| Procedure-Oriented Language | A programming language designed for the convenient expression of procedures used in the solution of a wide class of problems.
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| Procedures | Sets of instructions used by people to complete a task.
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| Process Control | The use of a computer to control an ongoing physical process, such as petrochemical production.
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| Process Design | The design of the programs and procedures needed by a proposed information system, including detailed program specifications and procedures.
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| Processor | A hardware device or software system capable of performing operations on data.
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| Program | A set of instructions that causes a computer to perform a particular task.
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| Programmed Decision | A decision that can be automated by basing it on a decision rule that outlines the steps to take when confronted with the need for a specific decision.
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| Programmer | A person mainly involved in designing, writing, and testing computer programs.
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| Programming | The design, writing, and testing of a program.
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| Programming Language | A language used to develop the instructions in computer programs.
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| Programming Tools | Software packages or modules that provide editing and diagnostic capabilities and other support facilities to assist the programming process.
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| Project Management | Managing the accomplishment of an information system development project according to a specific project plan, in order that a project is completed on time and within its budget and meets its design objectives.
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| Prompt | Messages that assist a user in performing a particular job. This would include error messages, correction suggestions, questions, and other messages that guide an end user.
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| Protocol | A set of rules and procedures for the control of communications in a communications network.
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| Prototype | A working model. In particular, a working model of an information system that includes tentative versions of user input and output, databases and files, control methods, and processing routines.
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| Prototyping | The rapid development and testing of working models, or prototypes, of new information system applications in an interactive, iterative process involving both systems analysts and end users.
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| Pseudocode | An informal design language of structured programming that expresses the processing logic of a program module in ordinary human language phrases.
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| Pull Marketing | Marketing methods that rely on the use of Web browsers by end users to access marketing materials and resources at Internet, intranet, and extranet Web sites.
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| Push Marketing | Marketing methods that rely on Web broadcasting software to push marketing information and other marketing materials to end users' computers.
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| Quality Assurance | Methods for ensuring that information systems are free from errors and fraud and provide information products of high quality.
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| Query Language | A high-level, humanlike language provided by a database management system that enables users to easily extract data and information from a database.
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| Queue | (1) A waiting line formed by items in a system waiting for service. (2) To arrange in or form a queue.
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| RAID | Redundant array of independent disks. Magnetic disk units that house many interconnected microcomputer hard disk drives, thus providing large, fault-tolerant storage capacities.
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| Random Access | Same as Direct Access. Contrast with Sequential Access.
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| Random-Access Memory (RAM) | One of the basic types of semiconductor memory used for temporary storage of data or programs during processing. Each memory position can be directly sensed (read) or changed (written) in the same length of time, regardless of its location on the storage medium.
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| Reach and Range Analysis | A planning framework that contrasts a firm's ability to use its IT platform to reach its stakeholders with the range of information products and services that can be provided or shared through IT.
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| Read-Only Memory (ROM) | A basic type of semiconductor memory used for permanent storage. Can only be read, not "written," that is, changed. Variations are Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM) and Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM).
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| Real Time | Pertaining to the performance of data processing during the actual time a business or physical process transpires, in order that results of the data processing can be used to support the completion of the process.
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| Real-Time Processing | Data processing in which data are processed immediately rather than periodically. Also called online processing. Contrast with Batch Processing.
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| Record | A collection of related data fields treated as a unit.
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| Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) | A CPU architecture that optimizes processing speed by the use of a smaller number of basic machine instructions than traditional CPU designs.
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| Redundancy | In information processing, the repetition of part or all of a message to increase the chance that the correct information will be understood by the recipient.
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| Register | A device capable of storing a specified amount of data, such as one word.
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| Relational Data Structure | A logical data structure in which all data elements within the database are viewed as being stored in the form of simple tables. DBMS packages based on the relational model can link data elements from various tables as long as the tables share common data elements.
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| Remote Access | Pertaining to communication with the data processing facility by one or more stations that are distant from that facility.
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| Remote Job Entry (RJE) | Entering jobs into a batch processing system from a remote facility.
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| Report Generator | A feature of database management system packages that allows an end user to quickly specify a report format for the display of information retrieved from a database.
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| Reprographics | Copying and duplicating technology and methods.
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| Resource Management | An operating system function that controls the use of computer system resources such as primary storage, secondary storage, CPU processing time, and input/output devices by other system software and application software packages.
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| Robotics | The technology of building machines (robots) with computer intelligence and humanlike physical capabilities.
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| Routine | An ordered set of instructions that may have some general or frequent use.
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| RPG: Report Program Generator | A problem-oriented language that utilizes a generator to construct programs that produce reports and perform other data processing tasks.
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| Rule | Statements that typically take the form of a premise and a conclusion, such as if–then rules: If (condition), Then (conclusion).
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| Rule-Based Knowledge | Knowledge represented in the form of rules and statements of fact.
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| Scalability | The ability of hardware or software to handle the processing demands of a wide range of end users, transactions, queries, and other information processing requirements.
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| Scenario Approach | A planning approach in which managers, employees, and planners create scenarios of what an organization will be like three to five years or more into the future and identify the role IT can play in those scenarios.
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| Schema | An overall conceptual or logical view of the relationships between the data in a database.
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| Scientific Method | An analytical methodology that involves (1) recognizing phenomena, (2) formulating a hypothesis about the causes or effects of the phenomena, (3) testing the hypothesis through experimentation, (4) evaluating the results of such experiments, and (5) drawing conclusions about the hypothesis.
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| Secondary Storage | Storage that supplements the primary storage of a computer. Synonymous with auxiliary storage.
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| Sector | A subdivision of a track on a magnetic disk surface.
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| Security Codes | Passwords, identification codes, account codes, and other codes that limit the access and use of computer-based system resources to authorized users.
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| Security Management | Protecting the accuracy, integrity, and safety of the processes and resources of an internetworked e-business enterprise against computer crime, accidental or malicious destruction, and natural disasters, using security measures such as encryption, firewalls, antivirus software, fault tolerant computers, and security monitors.
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| Security Monitor | A software package that monitors the use of a computer system and protects its resources from unauthorized use, fraud, and vandalism.
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| Semiconductor Memory | Microelectronic storage circuitry etched on tiny chips of silicon or other semiconducting material. The primary storage of most modern computers consists of microelectronic semiconductor storage chips for random-access memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM).
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| Semistructured Decisions | Decisions involving procedures that can be partially prespecified but not enough to lead to a definite recommended decision.
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| Sensitivity Analysis | Observing how repeated changes to a single variable affect other variables in a mathematical model.
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| Sequential Access | A sequential method of storing and retrieving data from a file. Contrast with Random Access and Direct Access.
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| Sequential Data Organization | Organizing logical data elements according to a prescribed sequence.
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| Serial | Pertaining to the sequential or consecutive occurrence of two or more related activities in a single device or channel.
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| Server | (1) A computer that supports applications and telecommunications in a network, as well as the sharing of peripheral devices, software, and databases among the workstations in the network. (2) Versions of software for installation on network servers designed to control and support applications on client microcomputers in client/ server networks. Examples include multiuser network operating systems and specialized software for running Internet, intranet, and extranet Web applications, such as electronic commerce and enterprise collaboration.
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| Service Bureau | A firm offering computer and data processing services. Also called a computer service center.
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| Smart Products | Industrial and consumer products, with "intelligence" provided by built-in microcomputers or microprocessors that significantly improve the performance and capabilities of such products.
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| Software | Computer programs and procedures concerned with the operation of an information system. Contrast with Hardware.
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| Software Package | A computer program supplied by computer manufacturers, independent software companies, or other computer users. Also known as canned programs, proprietary software, or packaged programs.
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| Software Piracy | Unauthorized copying of software.
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| Software Suites | A combination of individual software packages that share a common graphical user interface and are designed for easy transfer of data between applications.
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| Solid State | Pertaining to devices such as transistors and diodes whose operation depends on the control of electric or magnetic phenomena in solid materials.
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| Source Data Automation | The use of automated methods of data entry that attempt to reduce or eliminate many of the activities, people, and data media required by traditional data entry methods.
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| Source Document | A document that is the original formal record of a transaction, such as a purchase order or sales invoice.
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| Source Program | A computer program written in a language that is subject to a translation process. Contrast with Object Program.
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| Special-Purpose Computer | A computer designed to handle a restricted class of problems. Contrast with General-Purpose Computer.
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| Speech Recognition | Direct conversion of spoken data into electronic form suitable for entry into a computer system. Also called voice data entry.
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| Spooling | Simultaneous peripheral operation online. Storing input data from low-speed devices temporarily on high-speed secondary storage units, which can be quickly accessed by the CPU. Also, writing output data at high speeds onto magnetic tape or disk units from which it can be transferred to slow-speed devices such as a printer.
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| Stage Analysis | A planning process in which the information system needs of an organization are based on an analysis of its current stage in the growth cycle of the organization and its use of information systems technology.
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| Standards | Measures of performance developed to evaluate the progress of a system toward its objectives.
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| Storage | Pertaining to a device into which data can be entered, in which they can be held, and from which they can be retrieved at a later time. Same as Memory.
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| Strategic Information Systems | Information systems that provide a firm with competitive products and services that give it a strategic advantage over its competitors in the marketplace. Also, information systems that promote business innovation, improve business processes, and build strategic information resources for a firm.
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| Strategic Opportunities Matrix | A planning framework that uses a matrix to help identify opportunities with strategic business potential, as well as a firm's ability to exploit such opportunities with IT.
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| Structure Chart | A design and documentation technique to show the purpose and relationships of the various modules in a program.
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| Structured Decisions | Decisions that are structured by the decision procedures or decision rules developed for them. They involve situations in which the procedures to follow when a decision is needed can be specified in advance.
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| Structured Programming | A programming methodology that uses a top-down program design and a limited number of control structures in a program to create highly structured modules of program code.
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| Structured Query Language (SQL) | A query language that is becoming a standard for advanced database management system packages. A query's basic form is SELECT ... FROM ... WHERE.
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| Subroutine | A routine that can be part of another program routine.
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| Subschema | A subset or transformation of the logical view of the database schema that is required by a particular user application program.
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| Subsystem | A system that is a component of a larger system.
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| Supercomputer | A special category of large computer systems that are the most powerful available. They are designed to solve massive computational problems.
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| Superconductor | Materials that can conduct electricity with almost no resistance. This allows the development of extremely fast and small electronic circuits. Formerly only possible at supercold temperatures near absolute zero. Recent developments promise superconducting materials near room temperature.
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| Supply Chain | The network of business processes and interrelationships among businesses that are needed to build, sell, and deliver a product to its final customer.
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| Supply Chain Management | Integrating management practices and information technology to optimize information and product flows among the processes and business partners within a supply chain.
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| Switch | (1) A device or programming technique for making a selection. (2) A computer that controls message switching among the computers and terminals in a telecommunications network.
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| Switching Costs | The costs in time, money, effort, and inconvenience that it would take a customer or supplier to switch its business to a firm's competitors.
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| Synchronous | A characteristic in which each event, or the performance of any basic operation, is constrained to start on, and usually to keep in step with, signals from a timing clock. Contrast with Asynchronous.
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| System | (1) A group of interrelated or interacting elements forming a unified whole. (2) A group of interrelated components working together toward a common goal by accepting inputs and producing outputs in an organized transformation process. (3) An assembly of methods, procedures, or techniques unified by regulated interaction to form an organized whole. (4) An organized collection of people, machines, and methods required to accomplish a set of specific functions.
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| System Flowchart | A graphic diagramming tool used to show the flow of information processing activities as data are processed by people and devices.
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| Systems Analysis | (1) Analyzing in detail the components and requirements of a system. (2) Analyzing in detail the information needs of an organization, the characteristics and components of presently utilized information systems, and the functional requirements of proposed information systems.
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| Systems Approach | A systematic process of problem solving that defines problems and opportunities in a systems context. Data are gathered describing the problem or opportunity, and alternative solutions are identified and evaluated. Then the best solution is selected and implemented, and its success is evaluated.
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| Systems Design | Deciding how a proposed information system will meet the information needs of end users. Includes logical and physical design activities and user interface, data, and process design activities that produce system specifications that satisfy the system requirements developed in the systems analysis stage.
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| Systems Development | (1) Conceiving, designing, and implementing a system. (2) Developing information systems by a process of investigation, analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance. Also called the systems development life cycle (SDLC), information systems development, or application development.
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| Systems Development Tools | Graphical, textual, and computer-aided tools and techniques used to help analyze, design, and document the development of an information system. Typically used to represent (1) the components and flows of a system, (2) the user interface, (3) data attributes and relationships, and (4) detailed system processes.
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| Systems Implementation | The stage of systems development in which hardware and software are acquired, developed, and installed; the system is tested and documented; people are trained to operate and use the system; and an organization converts to the use of a newly developed system.
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| Systems Investigation | The screening, selection, and preliminary study of a proposed information system solution to a business problem.
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| Systems Maintenance | The monitoring, evaluating, and modifying of a system to make desirable or necessary improvements.
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| System Software | Programs that control and support operations of a computer system. System software includes a variety of programs, such as operating systems, database management systems, communications control programs, service and utility programs, and programming language translators.
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| System Specifications | The product of the systems design stage. It consists of specifications for the hardware, software, facilities, personnel, databases, and the user interface of a proposed information system.
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| Systems Thinking | Recognizing systems, subsystems, components of systems, and system interrelationships in a situation. Also known as a systems context or a systemic view of a situation.
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| System Support Programs | Programs that support the operations, management, and users of a computer system by providing a variety of support services. Examples are system utilities and performance monitors.
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| Tangible Benefits and Costs | The quantifiable benefits and costs of a proposed solution or system.
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| Task and Project Management | Managing team and workgroup projects by scheduling, tracking, and charting the completion status of tasks within a project.
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| Task Management | A basic operating system function that manages the accomplishment of the computing tasks of users by a computer system.
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| TCP/IP | Transmission control protocol/Internet protocol. A suite of telecommunications network protocols used by the Internet, intranets, and extranets that has become a de facto network architecture standard for many companies.
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| Technical Feasibility | Whether reliable hardware and software capable of meeting the needs of a proposed system can be acquired or developed by an organization in the required time.
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| Technology Management | The organizational responsibility to identify, introduce, and monitor the assimilation of new information system technologies into organizations.
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| Telecommunications | Pertaining to the transmission of signals over long distances, including not only data communications but also the transmission of images and voices using radio, television, and other communications technologies.
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| Telecommunications Channel | The part of a telecommunications network that connects the message source with the message receiver. It includes the hardware, software, and media used to connect one network location to another for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.
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| Telecommunications Controller | A data communications interface device (frequently a special purpose mini or microcomputer) that can control a telecommunications network containing many terminals.
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| Telecommunications Control Program | A computer program that controls and supports the communications between the computers and terminals in a telecommunications network.
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| Telecommunications Monitors | Computer programs that control and support the communications between the computers and terminals in a telecommunications network.
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| Telecommunications Processors | Internetwork processors such as switches and routers and other devices such as multiplexers and communications controllers that allow a communications channel to carry simultaneous data transmissions from many terminals. They may also perform error monitoring, diagnostics and correction, modulation-demodulation, data compression, data coding and decoding, message switching, port contention, and buffer storage.
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| Telecommuting | The use of telecommunications to replace commuting to work from one's home.
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| Teleconferencing | The use of video communications to allow business conferences to be held with participants who are scattered across a country, continent, or the world.
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| Telephone Tag | The process that occurs when two people who wish to contact each other by telephone repeatedly miss each other's phone calls.
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| Teleprocessing | Using telecommunications for computer-based information processing.
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| Terabyte | One trillion bytes. More accurately, 2 to the 40th power, or 1,009,511,627,776 in decimal notation.
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| Text Data | Words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs used in documents and other forms of communication.
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| Throughput | The total amount of useful work performed by a data processing system during a given period.
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| Time Sharing | Providing computer services to many users simultaneously while providing rapid responses to each.
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| Total Quality Management | Planning and implementing programs of continuous quality improvement, where quality is defined as meeting or exceeding the requirements and expectations of customers for a product or service.
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| Touch-Sensitive Screen | An input device that accepts data input by the placement of a finger on or close to the CRT screen.
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| Track | The portion of a moving storage medium, such as a drum, tape, or disk, that is accessible to a given reading head position.
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| Trackball | A rollerball device set in a case used to move the cursor on a computer's display screen.
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| Transaction | An event that occurs as part of doing business, such as a sale, purchase, deposit, withdrawal, refund, transfer, payment, and so on.
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| Transaction Document | A document produced as part of a business transaction. For example, a purchase order, paycheck, sales receipt, or customer invoice.
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| Transaction File | A data file containing relatively transient data to be processed in combination with a master file. Contrast with Master File.
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| Transaction Processing Cycle | A cycle of basic transaction processing activities including data entry, transaction processing, database maintenance, document and report generation, and inquiry processing.
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| Transaction Processing System (TPS) | An information system that processes data arising from the occurrence of business transactions.
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| Transaction Terminals | Terminals used in banks, retail stores, factories, and other worksites to capture transaction data at their point of origin. Examples are point-of-sale (POS) terminals and automated teller machines (ATMs).
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| Transborder Data Flows (TDF) | The flow of business data over telecommunications networks across international borders.
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| Transform Algorithm | Performing an arithmetic computation on a record key and using the result of the calculation as an address for that record. Also known as key transformation or hashing.
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| Transnational Strategy | A management approach in which an organization integrates its global business activities through close cooperation and interdependence among its headquarters, operations, and international subsidiaries and its use of appropriate global information technologies.
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| Turnaround Document | Output of a computer system (such as customer invoices and statements) that is designed to be returned to the organization as machine-readable input.
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| Turnaround Time | The elapsed time between submission of a job to a computing center and the return of the results.
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| Turnkey Systems | Computer systems in which all of the hardware, software, and systems development needed by a user are provided.
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| Unbundling | The separate pricing of hardware, software, and other related services.
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| Uniform Resource Locator (URL) | An access code (such as http://www.sun.com) for identifying and locating hypermedia document files, databases, and other resources at Web sites and other locations on the Internet, intranets, and extranets.
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| Universal Product Code (UPC) | A standard identification code using bar coding printed on products that can be read by optical scanners such as those found at a supermarket checkout.
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| Unstructured Decisions | Decisions that must be made in situations in which it is not possible to specify in advance most of the decision procedures to follow.
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| User Friendly | A characteristic of human-operated equipment and systems that makes them safe, comfortable, and easy to use.
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| User Interface | That part of an operating system or other program that allows users to communicate with it to load programs, access files, and accomplish other computing tasks.
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| User Interface Design | Designing the interactions between end users and computer systems, including input/output methods and the conversion of data between human-readable and machine-readable forms.
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| Utility Program | A standard set of routines that assists in the operation of a computer system by performing some frequently required process such as copying, sorting, or merging.
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| Value-Added Carriers | Third-party vendors who lease telecommunications lines from common carriers and offer a variety of telecommunications services to customers.
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| Value-Added Resellers (VARs) | Companies that provide industry-specific software for use with the computer systems of selected manufacturers.
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| Value Chain | Viewing a firm as a series, chain, or network of basic activities that adds value to its products and services and thus adds a margin of value to the firm.
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| Videoconferencing | Real-time video and audio conferencing (1) among users at networked PCs (desktop videoconferencing) or (2) among participants in conference rooms or auditoriums in different locations (teleconferencing). Videoconferencing can also include whiteboarding and document sharing.
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| Virtual Communities | Groups of people with similar interests who meet and share ideas on the Internet and online services and develop a feeling of belonging to a community.
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| Virtual Company | A form of organization that uses telecommunications networks and other information technologies to link the people, assets, and ideas of a variety of business partners, no matter where they may be, to exploit a business opportunity.
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| Virtual Machine | Pertaining to the simulation of one type of computer system by another computer system.
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| Virtual Mall | An online multimedia simulation of a shopping mall with many different interlinked retail Web sites.
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| Virtual Memory | The use of secondary storage devices as an extension of the primary storage of the computer, thus giving the appearance of a larger main memory than actually exists.
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| Virtual Private Network | A secure network that uses the Internet as its main backbone network to connect the intranets of a company's different locations or to establish extranet links between a company and its customers, suppliers, or other business partners.
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| Virtual Reality | The use of multisensory human/ computer interfaces that enable human users to experience computer-simulated objects, entities, spaces, and "worlds" as if they actually existed.
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| Virtual Storefront | An online multimedia simulation of a retail store shopping experience on the Web.
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| Virtual Team | A team whose members use the Internet, intranets, extranets, and other networks to communicate, coordinate, and collaborate with one another on tasks and projects, even though they may work in different geographic locations and for different organizations.
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| VLSI: Very-Large-Scale Integration | Semiconductor chips containing hundreds of thousands of circuits.
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| Voice Conferencing | Telephone conversations shared among several participants via speaker phones or networked PCs with Internet telephone software.
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| Voice Mail | Unanswered telephone messages that are digitized, stored, and played back to the recipient by a voice messaging computer.
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| Volatile Memory | Memory (such as electronic semiconductor memory) that loses its contents when electrical power is interrupted.
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| Wand | A handheld optical character recognition device used for data entry by many transaction terminals.
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| Web Browser | A software package that provides the user interface for accessing Internet, intranet, and extranet Web sites. Browsers are becoming multifunction universal clients for sending and receiving e-mail, downloading files, accessing Java applets, participating in discussion groups, developing Web pages, and other Internet, intranet, and extranet applications.
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| Web Publishing | Creating, converting, and storing hyperlinked documents and other material on Internet or intranet Web servers so they can easily be shared via Web browsers with teams, workgroups, or the enterprise.
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| Web Services | A collection of Web and object-oriented technologies for linking Web-based applications running on different hardware, software, database, or network platforms. For example, Web services could link key business functions within the applications a business shares with its customers, suppliers, and business partners.
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| What-If Analysis | Observing how changes to selected variables affect other variables in a mathematical model.
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| Whiteboarding | See Data Conferencing.
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| Wide Area Network (WAN) | A data communications network covering a large geographic area.
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| Window | One section of a computer's multiple-section display screen, each section of which can have a different display.
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| Wireless LANs | Using radio or infrared transmissions to link devices in a local area network.
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| Wireless Technologies | Using radio wave, microwave, infrared, and laser technologies to transport digital communications without wires between communications devices. Examples include terrestrial microwave, communications satellites, cellular and PCS phone and pager systems, mobile data radio, and various wireless Internet technologies.
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| Word | (1) A string of characters considered as unit. (2) An ordered set of bits (usually larger than a byte) handled as a unit by the central processing unit.
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| Word Processing | The automation of the transformation of ideas and information into a readable form of communication. It involves the use of computers to manipulate text data to produce office communications in the form of documents.
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| Workgroup Computing | Members of a networked workgroup may use groupware tools to communicate, coordinate, and collaborate and to share hardware, software, and databases to accomplish group assignments.
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| Workstation | (1) A computer system designed to support the work of one person. (2) A high-powered computer to support the work of professionals in engineering, science, and other areas that require extensive computing power and graphics capabilities.
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| World Wide Web (WWW) | A global network of multimedia Internet sites for information, education, entertainment, e-business, and e-commerce.
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| XML (Extensible Markup Language) | A Web document content description language that describes the content of Web pages by applying hidden identifying tags or contextual labels to the data in Web documents. By categorizing and classifying Web data this way, XML makes Web content easier to identify, search, analyze, and selectively exchange between computers. l Glossary for Business Professionals
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