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Definition
| A list of the materials that comprise a product. |
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Term
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Definition
See Business process redesign
The creation of new, usually cross-departmental, business practices during information systems development. Most business process redesign uses technology to enable new, more efficient business processes that require people to work in new ways and to follow different procedures. |
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| The very first information systems. The goal of such systems was to relieve workers of tedious, repetitive calculations. These systems were labor-saving devices that produced little information. |
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| A liability that could possibly, but not necessarily will, occur. Failure to adequately secure a company’s data, for example, could produce a contingent liability. |
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Term
| Cross-departmental systems |
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Definition
| The third era of computing systems. In this era, systems are designed not to facilitate the work of a single department or function, but rather to integrate the activities of a complete business process. |
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Definition
| Synonym for Cross-departmental systems. |
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Definition
| Taken as a whole, the processes of marketing, customer acquisition, relationship management, and loss/churn that must be managed by CRM systems. |
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Term
| Customer-management systems |
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Definition
| Information systems that companies use to obtain additional sales from existing customers. Such systems maintain customer contact and order-history data and track product interests, and some maintain information about the customer’s credit status with the organization. |
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Term
| Customer relationship management (CRM) system |
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Definition
| An information system that maintains data about customers and all their interactions with the organization. |
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Term
| Enterprise application integration (EAI) |
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Definition
| The integration of existing systems by providing layers of software that connect applications and their data together. |
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Term
| Enterprise resource planning (ERP) |
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Definition
| The integration of all the organization’s principal processes. ERP is an outgrowth of MRP II manufacturing systems, and most ERP users are manufacturing companies. |
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Definition
| Software that provides features and functions necessary to support a particular business activity (function). |
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Term
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Definition
| The second era of information systems. The goal of such systems was to facilitate the work of a single department or function. Over time, in each functional area, companies added features and functions to encompass more activities and to provide more value and assistance. |
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Term
| Human resources information systems |
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Definition
| Systems that support recruitment, compensation, evaluation, and development of employees and affiliated personnel. |
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Term
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Definition
| The procedures that must be followed to effectively use licensed software. For example, the processes inherent in MRP systems assume that certain users will take specified actions in a particular order. In most cases, the organization must conform to the processes inherent in the software. |
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Term
| Inventory information systems |
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Definition
| Operations systems that help control and manage inventory and that support inventory policy. |
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Term
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Definition
| The structure that results when functional applications work independently in isolation from one another. Usually problematic because data is duplicated, integration is difficult, and results can be inconsistent. |
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Term
| Just-in-time (JIT) inventory policy |
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Definition
| A policy that seeks to have production inputs (both raw materials and work-in-process) delivered to the manufacturing site just as they are needed. By scheduling delivery of inputs in this way, companies are able to reduce inventories to a minimum. |
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Definition
| Sales and marketing information systems that send mailings (postal or email) for the purpose of generating sales prospects. |
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Definition
| Sales and marketing information systems that record data on sales prospects and keep records of customer contacts. |
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Term
| Manufacturing information systems |
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Definition
| Information systems that support one or more aspects of manufacturing processes, including planning, scheduling, integration with inventory, quality control, and related processes. |
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Term
| Manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) |
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Definition
| A follow-on to MRP that includes the planning of materials, personnel, and machinery. It supports many linkages across the organization, including linkages with sales and marketing via the development of a master production schedule. It also includes the capability to perform what-if analyses on variances in schedules, raw materials availabilities, personnel, and other resources. |
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Term
| Master production schedule (MPS) |
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Definition
| A plan for producing products. To create the MPS, the company analyzes past sales levels and makes estimates of future sales. This process is sometimes called a push manufacturing process, because the company pushes the products into sales (and customers) according to the MPS. |
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Term
| Materials requirements planning (MRP) |
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Definition
| An information system that plans the need for materials and inventories of materials used in the manufacturing process. Unlike MRP II, MRP does not include the planning of personnel, equipment, or facilities requirements. |
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Term
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Definition
| Another name for Materials requirement planning (MRP). |
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Term
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Definition
| Another name for Manufacturing resource planning. |
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Term
| Operations information systems |
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Definition
| Systems that maintain data on finished goods inventory and the movements of goods from inventory to the customer. |
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Term
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Definition
| In an ERP application, a comprehensive set of inherent processes for all organizational activities, each of which is documented with diagrams that use a set of standardized symbols. |
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Term
| Product and brand management systems |
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Definition
| Marketing information systems that import records of past sales from order processing or accounts receivable systems and compare those data to projections and sales estimates, in order to assess the effectiveness of promotions, advertising, and general success of a product brand. |
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Term
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Definition
| A manufacturing process whereby products are pulled through manufacturing by demand. Items are manufactured in response to signals from customers or other production processes that products or components are needed. |
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Term
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Definition
| A manufacturing process in which a company pushes products into sales. The company analyzes past sales levels, makes estimates of future sales, creates a master production schedule, produces products according to that schedule, and pushes them into sales. |
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Term
| Radio frequency identification (RFID) tag |
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Definition
| A computer chip that transmits data about the container or product to which it is attached. RFID data include not just product numbers, but also data about where the product was made, what the components are, special handling requirements, and, for perishable products, when the contents will expire. RFIDs facilitate inventory tracking by signaling their presence to scanners as they are moved throughout the manufacturing facility. |
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Term
| Sales and marketing information system |
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Definition
| System that supports the basic functions of sales and marketing: lead generation, lead tracking, customer management, sales forecasting, and product and brand management. |
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Term
| Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 |
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Definition
| Law passed by the U.S. Congress in 2002 that governs the reporting requirements of publicly held companies. Among other things, it strengthened requirements for internal controls and management’s responsibility for accurate financial reporting. |
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Term
| Separation of duties and authorities |
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Definition
| An internal control that requires that different people be responsible for different portions of activities involving receipt and disbursement of a company’s funds. |
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