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B2B
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Business to business. An e-business term for
transactions between businesses over the Internet. Somewhat passé term.
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B2C
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Business to consumer. An e-business term for
transactions from businesses to consumers over the Internet. Somewhat passé
term.
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B2E
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Business to employee. An e-business term for
transactions between businesses and their staff. This is not so much retail
as managing expenses, appraisals and remuneration packages via the web.
Somewhat passé term.
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B2G
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Business to government. An e-business term
for transactions between businesses to government(s) over the Internet.
Somewhat passé term.
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Back-end
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The term used to describe those technologies
that sit in the IT department (or broom cupboard depending on the size of the
organisation). In other words those technologies that the users access
indirectly via their desktop and handheld devices.
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Back-end database
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Multi-user, industrial, secure, robust, (and
often expensive) database residing on a server or mainframe.
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Back-end language
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Programming language primarily used for
building the server end of the application. Usually a 3GL.
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Back-office
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This is a generic term used for non-sales
related activities that take place within an organisation. Examples being bank statement production
or payment chasing. This is not specifically an IT term and is not to be
confused with back-end.
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Back Office Server
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This was a suite of Microsoft products that
ran on Windows servers. It includes Exchange server, SMS server, Proxy server
and SQL server. It was discontinued
in 2001.
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Back Orifice
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A programme created by the hacktivist group,
Cult of the Dead Cow, to exploit weaknesses in Microsoft’s back office
products. Apologies if you have arrived at this page hoping for something
more graphical. It has benign use as well as a tool for remote system
administration.
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Backbone
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A term used to describe the network that
links a number of smaller networks together.
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Bandwidth
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A measure of the quantity of data that can be
passed down a communication link in a given time. Measured in Mbps (Mega bits
per second) and increasingly Gbps (Giga bits per second).
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Basis
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Is the software that sits on the operating
system that creates the SAP platform.
Basis specialists in many ways are like system administrators in that
they have to set up, configure and tune Sap software
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Basle II
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Not specifically an IT related term. It is
legislation that relates to operational risk in the Financial services
sector. The implementation of Basle II does however have a major impact on
the IT systems of those financial organisations affected by this legislation.
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Beenz
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Internet concept similar to air-miles from
Beenz.com (now defunct). Buy a product and get some beenz that can then be
redeemed for other products. Not to be confused with Java beans. Essentially
a crazy dotcom era alternative to money.
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Beta testing
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A type of product or system testing that
involves getting feedback from a selected set of real (and tame) users. Some
big software organisations, sadly, use this as the first step in their
testing methodology as opposed to the last.
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Biometrics
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A term used to describe the emerging branch
of security that uses ‘what you are’ to authenticate a person. An alternative
security approach involves ‘what you know’, eg. password. Characteristics
measured using biometrics include: iris, cranium, and fingerprint
recognition.
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BI
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See Business Intelligence.
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BizTalk
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Microsoft BizTalk Server enables companies to
integrate and manage business processes by handling the exchange of documents
such as invoices and purchase orders.
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Blackcomb
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A Microsoft internal project name for the
next generation of Windows desktop and server operating systems. Launch
planned circa 2010. It has been renamed to Windows Vienna.
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Blackberry
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Neat little device from Research in Motion
that allows one to access emails whilst on the move. Given the impact it has
on users it is sometimes referred to as a crackberry.
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Bluetooth
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A wireless short range networking technology.
Amongst other things it will herald the arrival of client server applications
into the home, eg. distributed music centres or integrated toasters and alarm
clocks.
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Blog
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An abbreviation of weblog. It can be thought
of as an online diary that is accessible to everyone or to just a confined
community. To captivate the readership, blogs are usually some combination of
informative, interesting and entertaining. Some organisations see them as an
effective approach to releasing corporate messages into the market.
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Blogger
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Bloggers are people who populate blogs.
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Broadband
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A term used to describe a high bandwidth
medium. This usually refers to video quality data rates.
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Bridge
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A networking device that links networks
together. It is a less intelligent
version of a router
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.brk (dot brick)
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e-business expression for a traditional high
street organisation. By implication it has little or no web presence. Note
that .brk does not exist as part of an internet address (there is no such
thing as www.bigshop.brk).
Somewhat passé term.
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Booch
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An object oriented software development
methodology, named after its originator.
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Bot
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Short for software robot. Used to describe a
smart piece of software that is used to carry out some task, eg. spot trends
in the database or intelligently search the web.
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BPO
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See Business Process Outsourcing.
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Browser
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Primarily this is software, which enables
users to access the World Wide Web.
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Browser Hijacker
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A type of spyware that takes control of one’s
browser. It is likely that your PC contains a browser hijacker if the default
page for your browser is different to how you set it originally.
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Bull
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Groupe Bull, a French IT company, is most
famous for its mainframes and loss making. Honeywell now owns it. Old school.
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Business Analyst
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A role that exists to gather user
requirements and to relay these to the IT department. Usually confused with systems analysts,
though there is often little difference in what they do.
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Business Analytics
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A term used to describe the ‘emerging’ market
of database querying tools. Past names have included querying tools and
decision support tools. Perhaps the emphasis on doing this via the web
justifies the new name.
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Business Continuity
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A term used to capture the issue of
considering how your business will continue to operate in the event of a
serious problem or even a disaster. This could include issues from network
failure through to terrorist attack.
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Business Intelligence
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A collective term to describe the tools that
enable users to analyse the data held in their data stores. Often these tools
provide a means of displaying the data in a user-friendly format such as a
chart or map.
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Business Logic
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The business rules behind the programming
code. The data processing part of the application.
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Business Process Outsourcing
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A growing branch of the service sector where
the supplier takes full responsibility for one or more of a client’s business
processes, eg. HR or Sales. The vendor is often an IT supplier who uses the
BPO offering as a way to get the attention of the boardroom rather than just
the IT department.
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