A glossary of Business and IT related terms

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	MARKETING TERMS
ENET Enable Networks’ Enterprise Technologies	The branded business service exclusively available through Enable Networks and its business partners. Encompasses Enables’ 5-technologies™ philosophy.
Independent Entrepreneur	An innovative individual or small group who recognise business opportunities and decide to seize the initiative. They rapidly organise resources and take business risks to exploit the perceived profit potential.
SME Small & Medium sized Enterprise	Defined (by the EU) as an independent company with fewer than 250 employees and either an annual turnover under €40m or valued under €27m.
B2B Business-to-Business	Organisations doing business with other organisations. The term is most commonly used in connection with e-commerce and advertising, when targeting business entities as opposed to individual consumers (see B2C).
B2C Business-to-Consumer	A transaction that occurs between an organisation and a consumer, as opposed to a transaction between organisations (see B2B). It links consumers to commercial entities in one-way trading networks.

	TECHNOLOGY TERMS
IT Information Technology	A term that encompasses all forms of technology used to create, store, exchange and utilise information in its various forms including business data, text, conversations, still images, motion pictures and multi-media presentations.
IP address	Also called an Internet address. The unique address for each computer on the Internet. The IP address appears as a set of four numbers separated by periods ‘.’.
Mobile Computing	Being able to use a major proportion of computing devices functionality whilst away from a single point of working and/or changing location. Portability is a key aspect of mobile computing.
Windows Mobile Version 5	Microsoft's latest operating system for handheld or PDA devices, supersedes Microsoft’s ‘2003’ Pocket PC operating systems in 2005, includes enhanced usability, security, telephony, multi-media, storage and connectivity.
PDA Personal Digital Assistant	A hand held computer about the size of half a sandwich that combines computing, telephone/fax, and networking features. Other names that may signify the same thing are palmtop, palm, or palm pilot™.
iPaq	Early Microsoft based personal digital assistant introduced by Compaq (now Hewlett-Packard) in November 1999. Some models now feature telephony.
MDA / XDA	Telephone PDA’s from T-Mobile and O2 respectively. All made by HTC, models have variety of Microsoft operating systems and options.
SIP Session Initiation Protocol	A standard technology for initiating an interactive connection that involves multimedia elements such as video, voice, text and gaming. A core requirement for IP based telephony (VoIP) in order to call another person.
WiFi Wireless Fidelity (also 802.11)	A wireless local area network (LAN) that uses high frequency radio signals to transmit and receive Ethernet based data over distances less than hundred metres.
Ethernet (also 802.3)	A LAN standard developed by Xerox specifying the hardware, communication, and cabling to link data and telephony devices.
LAN Local Area Network	A user-owned and operated data transmission facility connecting a number of communicating devices (such as computers, terminals, printers, storage units and telephone systems) usually within a single building.

	INTERNET RELATED TERMS
Internet	A global interconnected system of commercial, government and academic networks that connects millions of computers around the world via the IP protocol. The World Wide Web is one element of the Internet.
WWW World Wide Web	A system of Internet servers that support specially formatted documents. The documents are formatted in a language called HTML.
HTML HyperText Markup Language	Document format that supports links to other documents, as well as graphics, audio, and video files. This means you can jump from one document to another simply by clicking on hot spots.
Domain	The unique name of an Internet site; for example www.enet.org.uk. Widely used top-level domains include: .co (commercial), .edu (educational), .net (network operations), .gov (government) and .org (organisation). Other, two letter domains represent countries; e.g. .uk for the United Kingdom.
ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line	Often incorrectly referred to as Broadband is a method for moving data over regular telephone lines. An ADSL circuit is always on and is much faster than a regular telephone data connection which charges for the time elapsed during the connection.
Broadband	A digital connection that provides for a wide range of frequencies (the broad band width) that enables voice, video and other technologies over the same line.
E-Commerce Electronic Commerce	The buying and selling of goods and services, and the transfer of funds, through digital communications, typically using the internet as the connecting medium
E-mail Electronic Mail	Message, usually text, transmitted over the Internet and sent from one person to one or more others. Mailing lists allow users to send to multiple addressees. Unsolicited emails sent this way are sometimes called ‘spam’.
POP Post Office Protocol	Enables users to download email messages from a server to their local computer. It is suitable for users who don't have a permanent connection to the Internet but does not allow users to manage email from multiple locations.

	SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT TERMS
On Demand	Services that can be accessed as required and at a time determined by the consumer.
Utility Computing	Computing power and facilities ‘on demand’, charged as it is used (in the same way as a utility such as electricity is charged on a consumption basis).
SLA Service Level Agreement	Formal agreement between a service provider and their customer to provide a pre-agreed level of service performance. Penalty clauses might apply if the SLA is not met.
24x7	Normally indicates service availability 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without any downtime or letup, including holidays.
5x9s	Normally indicates service availability 99.999% of the time; equates to less than 9 hours of non-unavailability in a year. The highest warranted service level that is usually offered.

	TELEPHONY TERMS
VoIP Voice over IP	The process of making and receiving voice transmissions over any IP network. IP networks include the Internet, office LANs, and private data networks between corporate offices. The main advantage of VoIP is that users can connect from anywhere and make phone calls without incurring typical analogue telephone charges, such as for long-distance calls.
IP Internet Protocol (also TCP/IP)	The underlying technique by which data is sent from one computer to another on the Internet. Each device (computer, telephone, server etc) on the Internet has at least one IP address that uniquely identifies it from all the other – a directory service that quickly establishes a point-to-point connection anywhere in the world.
NGN Non-geographic number	A telephone number that is ‘virtual’ and re-directs a telephone call to an alternative telephone number. Examples include 0800 (free), 0845 (local rate), 0870 (national rate) and 0870 (premium rate). Conceals the true destination of the call (such as an off-shore call centre).
Geographic & Mobile Number	Geographic numbers relate to a specific area. Examples include 020 for London and 01189 for Reading. Mobile numbers terminate at a cellular telephone and commence with the prefix 07.
Call Conferencing	The ability for a group of three or more telephone callers to converse together. Requires a facility to join the callers in the same conversation.
Call Re-direction	The ability to forward an incoming call to another telephone number. Options include one-to-one substitution, hunt group (if a number fails to respond within a set time an alternative number is automatically tried, possibly voicemail) and time/date control (controlling where calls are answered during business hours and afterwards)

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