The Insider's Guide to Next-Generation BPM
The Insider's Guide to Next-Generation BPM
This glossary is by no means definitive or exhaustive - in fact, it's just a start. We hope you find it useful. If it only leads you to think of a better way to describe one term or acronym, drop us a line at editor@ebizq.net. With your help, this glossary will continue to evolve and develop, just like the IT areas it serves.
API
Application Program Interface - an Interface that enables programs to communicate with each other
APPC
Advanced Program-to-Program Communication - IBM's solution for program-to-program communciation, distributed transcation processing and remote data access across the IBM product line.
Application Service Provider
Companies which allow business customers to rent or lease the use e-business applications over secured Internet connections
Application to Application Integration (A2A)
A form of enterprise application integration in which two or more applications, usually but not exclusively within the same organization, are linked.
B2B
Business to Business. In reference to commerce conducted between companies rather than between companies and private individuals or consumers. See B2C
B2C
Business to Consumer. This refers to commerce conducted between companies adn individuals or consumers. In contrast to B2B.
Bandwidth
The amount of data that can be sent through a connection; usually measured in bits per second. A fast modem can move about 15,000 bits in one second (about a page of English text).
BizTalk
A Microsoft sponsored set of guidelines for how to publish schemas in XML and how to use XML messages to easily integrate software programs together in order to build rich new solutions.
Blocking Communications
A synchronous messaging process whereby the requestor of a service must wait until a response is received.
Business Process Management
The concept of shepherding work items through a multi-step process. The items are identified and tracked as they move through each step, with either specified people or applications processing the information. The process flow is determined by process logic and the applications (or processes) themselves play virtually no role in determining where the messages are sent.
COM
Component Object Model—Microsoft’s standard for distributed objects, an object encapsulation technology that specifies interfaces between component objects within a single application or between applications. It separates the interface from the implementation and provides APIs for dynamically locating objects and for loading and invoking them (see DCOM).
Communications Middleware
Software that provides inter-application connectivity based on communication styles such as message queuing, ORBs and publish/subscribe.
Communications Protocol
A formally defined system for controlling the exchange of information over a network or communications channel.
Connectionless Communications
Communications that do not require a dedicated connection or session between applications.
CPI-C
Common Programming Interface-Communications—IBM’s SNA peer-to-peer API that can run over SNA and TCP/IP. It masks the complexity of APPC.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the art of integrating every aspect of IT that relates to the customer - quite literally everything from marketing through sales to accounts receivable and bill collection.
Customer Relationship Marketing (CReM)
Using a company's knowledge and understanding of a customer to more effectively market to that customer. While most often used in B2C e-commerce, CReM techniques are still frequently employed in B2B situations.
cXML
Commerce XML. A meta-language that defines the necessary information about a product. It is a set of document type definitions (DTD) for the XML specification. Eventually, it will be used to define the exchange of transaction data for secure electronic transaction over the Internet.
CEP
Complex Event Processing (CEP) is an emerging technology for building and managing information systems. The goal of CEP is to enable the information contained in the events flowing through all of the layers of the enterprise IT infrastructure to be discovered, understood in terms of its impact on high level management goals and business processes, and acted upon in real time.
Data Level Integration
A form of EAI that integrates different data stores to allow the sharing of information among applications. It requires the loading of data directly into the database via its native interface and does not involve the changing of business logic.
Data Knowledge and Decision Support
Using IT technology and information to both measure and improve an organization's performance.
Data Transformation
A key requirement of EAI and message brokers. There are two basic kinds: syntactic translation changes one data set into another (such as different date or number formats), while semantic transformation changes data based on the underlying data definitions or meaning.
Database Middleware
Allows clients to invoke SQL-based services across multi-vendor databases. This middleware is defined by de facto standards such as ODBC, DRDA, RDA, etc.
DCE
Distributed Computing Environment—from the Open Software Foundation, DCE provides key distributed technologies such as RPC, distributed naming service, time synchronization service, distributed file system and network security.
DCOM
Distributed Component Object Model—Microsoft’s protocol that enables software components to communicate directly over a network in a reliable, secure, and efficient manner. DCOM is based on the DCE-RPC specification and works with both Java applets and ActiveX components through its use of the COM.
Directory Services
A way for clients to locate services. Usually contained in a single system image of available servers.
EAI
Enterprise Application Integration is a set of technologies that allows the movement and exchange of information between different applications and business processes within and between organizations.
E-BUSINESS
Also "E-Biz." The use of Internet technologies, and the Web in particular, to conduct business operations.
Groupware
A collection of technologies that allows the representation of complex processes that center around collaborative human activities. It is a model for client/server computing based on five foundation technologies: multimedia document management, workflow, e-mail, conferencing and scheduling.
Heterogeneity
A typical enterprise information system today includes many types of computer technology, from PCs to mainframes. These include a wide variety of different operating systems, application software and in-house developed applications. EAI solves the complex problem of making a heterogeneous infrastructure more coherent.
IIOP
Internet Inter-ORB Protocol—a standard that ensures interoperability for objects in a multi-vendor ORB environment.
Integrity
In a client/server environment, integrity means that the server code and server data are centrally maintained and therefore secure and reliable.
Information
Machine readable content or data that is in the correct format to be processed by an application or system.
Message Broker
A key component of EAI, a message broker is an intelligent intermediary that directs the flow of messages between applications, which become sources and consumers of information. Message brokers provide a very flexible communications backbone and provide such services as data transformation, message routing and message warehousing.
MOM
Message-Oriented Middleware is a set of products that connects applications running on different systems by sending and receiving application data as messages. Examples are RPC, CPI-C and message queuing.
Message Queuing
A form of communication between programs. Application data is combined with a header (information about the data) to form a message. Messages are stored in queues, which can be buffered or persistent (see Buffered Queue and Persistent Queue). It is an asynchronous communications style and provides a loosely coupled exchange across multiple operating systems.
Message Routing
A super-application process where messages are routed to applications based on business rules. A particular message may be directed based on its subject or actual content
Message Warehousing
A central repository for temporarily storing messages for analysis or transmission.
Middleware
Software that facilitates the communication between two applications. It provides an API through which applications invoke services and it controls the transmission of the data exchange over the network. There are three basic types: communications middleware, database middleware and systems middleware.
Object Middleware
Allows clients to invoke methods or objects that reside on a remote server. This middleware revolves around OMG’s CORBA and Microsoft’s DCOM.
Persistent Queue
A message queue that resides on a permanent device, such as a disk, and can be recovered in case of system failure.
Publish/Subscribe
Pub/Sub is a style of inter-application communications. Publishers are able to broadcast data to a community of information users or subscribers, which have issued issued the type of information they wish to receive (normally defining topics or subjects of interest). An application or user can be both a publisher and subscriber.
Scalability
The ability of an information system to provide high performance as greater demands are placed upon it, through the addition of extra computing power,
Server
A computer or software package that provides a specific capabilities to client software running on other computers.
Stored Procedure
A program that creates a named collection of SQL or other procedural statements and logic that is compiled, verified and stored in a server database.
STP
Straight Through Processing occurs when a transaction, once entered into a system, passes through its entire life cycle without any manual intervention. STP is an example of a Zero Latency Process, but one specific to the finance industry which has many proprietary networks and messaging formats.
Supply Chain Management
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is that set of skills and disciplines, including those of IT, which shepherd a product from its original design to its ultimate delivery to the buyer.
VPN
Virtual Private Network. A solution by which an enterprise may link to its customers and business partners via secure Internet connections. The company thus has a network which is "just like" a private network, but isn't. (That is, it is "virtual.") This gives the company the advantages of a private network at the much lower cost of a public one.
XML
Like HTML, eXtensible Markup Language is a subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language, a standard for defining descriptions of structure and content in documents. However, where HTML is concerned with the presentation of information on a web page (without context or dynamic behavior), XML provides context and gives meaning to data.
