Glossary
Internet Applications
Ad Space
The space on a Web page available for advertisements.
ALT Text
HTML attribute that provides alternative text when non-textual elements, typically images, cannot be displayed.
API
API is an acronym that stands for Application Programming Interface. If you are wanting to integrate two or more existing systems together, then you may require the use of an API. A programming interface allows programmers to expand a system or change / customize it to work with other systems.
ASP / Application Service Provider
An Application Service Provider (ASP) hosts and maintains a variety of business applications on a central server. Customers can access the applications that they utilize over standard or secure Internet connections. The benefits of an Application Service Provider hosting model is that our customer does not need to: purchase, install and maintain the software themselves; instead they are able to rent the applications they need from the ASP. The network connection and infrastructure together with the software implementation are generally included in the services provided by ASPs as well. No expensive servers, operating systems, database applications, special programs need to be purchased, installed or maintained by the customer - this is all done for them by the Application Service Provider.
B2B / B2C
B2B is short for 'Business to Business' and is used to designate those aspects of e-commerce that involve the exchange of goods of services between companies over the Internet. B2C (Business to Consumer), on the other hand, refers to Internet sales by businesses to consumers. B2B platforms encompass not only commodity exchanges and wholesale supplies on the Internet but virtual auctions as well.
Blog
A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.
Forum
An online community where visitors may read and post topics of common interest.
Moderator
At a forum, someone entrusted by the administrator to help discussions stay productive and within the guidelines.
CSS / Cascading Style Sheets
A data format used to separate style from structure on Web pages.
Collaborative Commerce
Collaborative commerce means that companies communicate and cooperate with one another as part of a comprehensive value-added chain of suppliers, consultants, customers and even employees. This includes the exchange of ideas, information and product data as well as the conclusion of business transactions. Collaborative commerce results in increased profits, and is, therefore, a win-win situation for all participants.
Content Management
Content management is the general term for processing content. This can be unstructured content like web contents or structured content like product data, for example. In this sense, catalog management is actually a subset of content management. Frequently, however, the term content management is used as a synonym for web content management.
Cross-Media Publishing
Cross-media publishing refers to the shared use of a single data source for different publication formats such as print, CD-Rom, web sites, and electronic catalogs, for example. In cross-media publishing, the data source is independent of the final publication medium.
cXML
cXML stands for 'commerce XML' and is a data exchange format used by Ariba as well as other electronic marketplace applications. It is also used by a host of other applications to facilitate interoperability between different applications.
Data Exchange Format
The seamless exchange of product data between buyers and suppliers is indispensable for a correctly functioning e-procurement system. In order for different procurement systems to be able to 'read' electronic product catalogs, the catalogs must be available in the required format. Examples of these formats are: BMEcat, cXML and xCBL.
Domain Name
A name that identifies one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name commerceti.com represents several IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.commerceti.com/index.html, the domain name is commerceti.com.
E-Commerce
e-Commerce is the term for electronic business transactions, commerce or Internet trade. e-Commerce or e-business, therefore, refers to the business transactions between companies (B2B) or between companies and their customers (B2C) that are wholly or partially conducted over the Internet or similar public or private computer networks. e-Commerce, however, not only refers to the electronic commerce of goods and services but all electronic business transactions, i.e., from trade to financial transactions (monetary transactions) as well, for example. At times, Internet marketing, such as e-mail advertising, for example, is also included in e-commerce. The boundary between e-commerce and e-business is not clearly defined. The two terms are often used synonymously.
Economies of Scale
Economies of scale refers to the synergies that arise when large quantities of a product are traded. These advantages are usually price-related.
Electronic Marketplace
An electronic marketplace is an Internet-based trading platform where buyers and sellers can meet and do business on. By bringing supply and demand together more efficiently, market transparency is increased and greater cost savings are possible. B2B marketplaces can have different numbers of buyers and sellers. A neutral marketplace offers its services to a large number of buyers and sellers. If the marketplace is run by a single buyer, it is referred to as an e-procurement solution or an electronic purchasing system.
ERP / Enterprise Resource Planning
ERP systems are software systems that are used for operational planning and administration and for optimizing internal business processes. The best-known supplier of these systems is SAP.
E-Procurement
e-Procurement is the term for electronic procurement or purchasing. e-Procurement is a part of e-business and is used to designate the optimized, Internet-based acquisition process of a company. It refers not just to the purchasing process itself but to electronic negotiations and the conclusion of contracts with suppliers as well.
Because the purchasing process is simplified by the electronic handling of operative tasks, strategic tasks can be given a more important role in the process. These new strategic purchasing tasks include the management of contacts to existing and new suppliers as well as the creation of new market structures by actively consolidating the supply-side.
Favicon
A small icon that is used by some browsers to identify a bookmarked Web site.
Business Processes
On the one hand, business processes refer to the workflows within a company and, on the other hand, to the processes involved in inter-company transactions – in other words: offers, price negotiations, purchasing agreements, and orders. Software that reproduces these business processes, therefore, can be both an ERP system as well as e-commerce software.
Host
A host is a computer that provides data or services to other computers on a network. A host, for example, can be a mainframe or a server.
JavaScript
A scripting language developed by Netscape and used to create interactive Web sites.
Catalog Management
Catalog management is the abstract umbrella term for all electronic catalog and e-procurement processes. For the supplier, catalog management includes the creation of a central catalog as well as specific customer catalogs and, ultimately, the delivery of these catalogs to the buyer. The buyer then verifies, approves, and unites these product catalogs into a multi-supplier catalog that can be used for ordering.
Catalog Platform
In order for detailed, high-quality product information to be available in the procurement systems of large corporations, experts from both the purchasing organization as well as suppliers need to work together optimally. A catalog platform is a software solution that supports the necessary workflows for this process both across departments and companies. For the supplier, these workflows include catalog generation; for the buyer, verification of the catalog and additional processing to convert them into complete, company-specific catalogs.
Classification Scheme
Classification means grouping similar objects into classes. In supermarkets all similar type goods like dairy products, foodstuffs, or candies can be found in one place and each product group is further subdivided or classified – into butter, yogurt, milk, for example. In order for buyers to be able to quickly locate, logically order, and compare products from different suppliers with one another easily, product classifications are necessary as well. The product data is structured using a standardized classification scheme. Thus products with similar properties are grouped together into specific product classes. There have been a number of attempts at establishing an international product classification standard. These include eCl@ss and UN/SPSC, for example.
Load Balancing
Load balancing is a feature that is integrated into catalog solutions in order to prevent system crashes and ensure trouble-free access to the system when a large number of users access an electronic marketplace at the same time.
Multi-Supplier Catalog
A multi-supplier catalog contains the electronic product catalogs from a number of different suppliers. With a multi-supplier catalog, buyers can compare similar goods from different manufacturers and make an informed purchasing decision at their workstation.
Navigation
That which facilitates movement from one Web page to another Web page.
Online Auction
Virtual auctions on the Internet. The seller sells the product to the person who offers the highest price. For sellers, online auctions open up new sales channels for new products and offer buyers favorable purchasing conditions.
Procurement Catalogs
Procurement catalogs are individually negotiated electronic product catalogs and must comply with the specific requirements of the purchasing organization. One important aspect of electronic procurement in large companies is control of the acquisition process. The company's employees are not supposed to order the goods they need from just any supplier (cf. Maverick Buying), but from suppliers with whom a framework agreement has been reached. The product catalogs of the manufacturers, therefore, have to be fed into the purchasing organization's procurement systems directly – and employees are only allowed to order from these catalogs.
Reverse Auction
A reverse auction is an auction in which the usual roles of buyer and seller are reversed. In a reverse auction, a company specifies its need for a product and the suppliers submit offers for the good. MRO goods are especially suited for reverse auctions.
Scalability
In the broadest sense, scalability is the ability to use a software environment on a whole series of different computers without changes – i.e., to expand the software's area of application. The term also refers to the possibility of increasing the data throughput requirements by simply changing the hardware without having to make any substantial changes to the software itself. The software is then referred to as scalable.
Shopping Cart
Software used to make a site's product catalogue available for online ordering, whereby visitors may select, view, add/delete, and purchase merchandise.
Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Supply Chain Management is the management of the entire value-added chain, from the supplier to manufacturer right through to the retailer and the final customer. SCM has three primary goals: Reduce inventory, increase the transaction speed by exchanging data in real-time, and increase sales by implementing customer requirements more efficiently.
UN/SPSC
UN/SPSC (United Nations Standard Product & Services Code) is a classification scheme that is used primarily in North America.
Web Browser
A software application that allows for the browsing of the World Wide Web.
Web Design
The selection and coordination of available components to create the layout and structure of a Web page.
Web Site Usability
The ease with which visitors are able to use a Web site.
XML
XML is the abbreviation for 'Extensible Markup Language' and designates a universal data format for publishing and exchanging structured documents on the Internet or Intranets.
Internet Marketing
Banner Exchange
Network where participating sites display banner ads in exchange for credits which are converted (using a predetermined exchange rate) into ads to be displayed on other sites.
Click-Through
The process of clicking through an online advertisement to the advertiser's destination.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The average number of click-throughs per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of visitors who take a desired action.
Cost-Per-Action (CPA)
Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as sales or registrations.
Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
The cost or cost-equivalent paid per click-through.
CPM
Cost per thousand impressions.
Customer Acquisition Cost
The cost associated with acquiring a new customer.
Email Marketing
The promotion of products or services via email.
eZine
An electronic magazine, whether delivered via a Web site or an email newsletter.
Hit
Request of a file from a Web server.
Hybrid Model
A combination of two or more online marketing payment models.
Impression
A single instance of an online advertisement being displayed.
Keyword
A word used in a performing a search.
Keyword Density
Keywords as a percentage of indexable text words.
Keyword Marketing
Putting your message in front of people who are searching using particular keywords and keyphrases
Keyword Research
The search for keywords related to your Web site, and the analysis of which ones yield the highest return on investment (ROI).
Keywords Tag
META tag used to help define the primary keywords of a Web page.
Link Popularity
A measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site.
Link Text
The text contained in (and sometimes near) a hyperlink.
Pay Per Click Search Engine
Search engine where results are ranked according to the bid amount, and advertisers are charged when a searcher clicks on the search listing.
Reciprocal Links
Links between two sites, often based on an agreement by the site owners to exchange links.
Search Engine Optimization
The process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search.
Search Engine Submission
The act of supplying a URL to a search engine in an attempt to make a search engine aware of a site or page.
Title Tag
HTML tag used to define the text in the top line of a Web browser, also used by many search engines as the title of search listings.
Top 10
The top ten search engine results for a particular search term.
URL
Location of a resource on the Internet.
Opt-In Email
Email that is explicitly requested by the recipient.
Page View
Request to load a single HTML page.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying click-throughs.
Pay Per Lead (PPL)
Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely based on qualifying leads.
Pay Per Sale (PPS)
Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely based on qualifying sales.
Permission Marketing
Marketing centered around obtaining customer consent to receive information from a company.
Search Engine
A program that indexes documents, then attempts to match documents relevant to the users search requests.
Site Stickiness
The amount of time spent at a site over a given time period.
Unique Visitors
Individuals who have visited a Web site (or network) at least once in a fixed time frame, typically a 30 day period.
Web Directory
Organized, categorized listings of Web sites.
Web Site Traffic
The amount of visitors and visits a Web site receives.
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