ERP and business software glossary
Short, clear definitions of the concepts you meet when choosing and using business software — each with an example and how it is used.
- APS Advanced Planning and Scheduling — advanced planning and scheduling — considers materials and capacity together and produces a feasible, finite-capacity schedule, usually with the ability to simulate different scenarios.
- BI Business Intelligence — business intelligence — is the set of methods and tools that turn a company’s raw data into reports, dashboards and analysis people can use to make decisions.
- BOM Bill of Materials — a bill of materials — is the structured list of every material, part and sub-assembly needed to make one unit of a product, with the quantity of each.
- ERP Enterprise Resource Planning — enterprise resource planning — is business software that runs a company’s core processes, such as sales, finance, inventory, manufacturing and HR, on one shared database so each piece of data is entered once and everyone works from the same numbers.
- KPI Key Performance Indicator — key performance indicator — is a measurable number that shows how close an organisation or team is to an important goal set for it.
- Lead Sales lead — in sales — is a person or company that has shown interest in your product or service but has not yet been qualified for real need, budget and authority to buy.
- MES Manufacturing Execution System — a manufacturing execution system — records and controls production as it happens on the shop floor: operation starts and stops, material use, output per machine, quality and reasons for downtime.
- MFA Multi-Factor Authentication — multi-factor authentication — requires something in addition to a password, such as a one-time code or a hardware key, so a leaked password alone is not enough to sign in.
- Moadian system Iran’s taxpayer e-invoicing system is the platform operated by Iran’s National Tax Administration under the 2019 Law on Sales Terminals and the Taxpayer System for registering, issuing and verifying taxpayers’ electronic invoices.
- MRP Material Requirements Planning — material requirements planning — calculates which materials are needed, in what quantity and by when, to carry out a production plan.
- MRP II Manufacturing Resource Planning — manufacturing resource planning — extends MRP beyond materials to include machine capacity, labour and the financial consequences of the production plan.
- Multi-tenancy Multi-tenancy is an architecture in which one instance of software serves several organisations (tenants) while each tenant’s data and settings stay fully separated from the others.
- OEE Overall Equipment Effectiveness — overall equipment effectiveness — shows what share of a machine’s planned production time actually produced good parts at ideal speed. It is the product of availability, performance and quality.
- On-premise On-premises software software is installed and run on an organisation’s own servers, inside its network — as opposed to cloud software running on the provider’s infrastructure.
- RBAC Role-Based Access Control — role-based access control — grants permissions to roles (such as “sales rep” or “accountant”) rather than to individuals; users inherit a role’s permissions when they are assigned to it.
- SaaS Software as a Service — software as a service — is a model in which software runs on the provider’s infrastructure and customers use it over the internet, usually by subscription, without installing or maintaining servers.
- Sales pipeline Sales pipeline is the stage-by-stage view of open sales opportunities, from first contact to won or lost, showing where each deal is and how much revenue is on the way.
- SPC Statistical Process Control — statistical process control — monitors a process’s quality characteristics with statistical tools, chiefly control charts, so drift is detected before defective product is made.
- SSO Single Sign-On — single sign-on — lets a user authenticate once with the organisation’s identity provider and access several applications without separate passwords.
- WMS Warehouse Management System — a warehouse management system — manages not only how much stock you have but exactly where each item sits, down to aisle and shelf, along with receiving, put-away, picking and shipping.
See the concepts in practice
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