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Frequently Used Data Management Terms/Expressions

ASP		Application Service Provider
BI		Business Intelligence
BPM		Business Performance Management
CDI		Customer Data Integration
CPM		Corporate Performance Management
CRM		Customer Relationship Management
EIM		Enterprise Information Management
ETL		Extract, Transform, Load
ERP		Enterprise Resource Planning
FTP		File Transfer Protocol
MDM		Master Data Management
ODBC		Open Database Connection
PM		Performance Management
RDBMS		Relational Database Management Systems
SEM		Search Engine Marketing
SOA		Service Oriented Architecture

A

Access Provider		The path chosen by a database management system to retrieve the requested data.

Ad Hoc Query		Any query that cannot be determined prior to the moment the query is issued. A query that consists of dynamically constructed SQL, which is usually constructed by desktop- resident query tools.

Ad Hoc Query Tool		An end-user tool that accepts an English-like or point-and- click request for data and constructs an ad-hoc query to retrieve the desired result.

Administrative Data		In a data warehouse, the data that helps a warehouse administrator manage the warehouse. Examples of administrative data are user profiles and order history data.

Aggregate Data		Data that is the result of applying a process to combine data elements. Data that is taken collectively or in summary form.

Alerts		A notification from an event that has exceeded a pre-defined threshold.

Analyst		Someone who creates views for analytic interpretation of data, performs calculations and distributes the resulting information in the form of reports.

Analytic Applications		Packaged software that meets three distinct conditions: process support, separation of function and time-oriented, integrated data Analytic applications expand the reach of business intelligence to an extended user base, packaging these technologies in a business context.

Analytics		The process and techniques for the exploration and analysis of business data to discover and identify new and meaningful information and trends that allow for analysis to take place.

Application Service Provider (ASP)		ASPs provide the infrastructure needed to deliver reliable application access, including enterprise applications, hardware platforms, operating systems, database systems, network hardware as well as the technical expertise to make it all work for a monthly service charge.

ASCII		American Standard Code for Information Interchange. An eight-bit code for character representation; includes seven bits plus parity.

ASP		Application Service Provider. A company that offers access over the Internet to application programs and related services that would otherwise have to be located in other own personal or enterprise computers.

Attribute		A field represented by a column within an object (entity). An object may be a table, view or report. An attribute is also associated with an SGML(HTML) tag used to further define the usage.

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B

B2B		Business-to-business commerce conducted over the Web.

B2C		Business-to-consumer commerce conducted over the Internet. It links consumers to commercial entities in one-way networks.

Base Tables		The normalized data structures maintained in the target warehousing database. Also known as the detail data.

Benchmarking		A point of reference for measurement.

Best Practices		A case study considered to be a good example of a business discipline.

Business Continuity		The degree to which an organization may achieve uninterrupted stability of systems and operational procedures.

Business Data		Information about people, places, things, business rules, and events, which is used to operate the business. It is not metadata. (Metadata defines and describes business data.)

Business Intelligence (BI)		Business intelligence is actually an environment in which business users receive data that is reliable, consistent, understandable, easily manipulated and timely. With this data, business users are able to conduct analyses that yield overall understanding of where the business has been, where it is now and where it will be in the near future. Business intelligence serves two main purposes. It monitors the financial and operational health of the organization (reports, alerts, alarms, analysis tools, key performance indicators and dashboards). It also regulates the operation of the organization providing two- way integration with operational systems and information feedback analysis.

Business Intelligence Platform		A foundation of enabling tools and technologies necessary for the development and deployment of business intelligence and business performance management applications.

Business Intelligence Service Provider (BISP)		A natural extension of the ASP, application of data warehousing and business intelligence (BI) methodologies and technologies to the ASP model. BISPs tie into information systems behind a corporation's firewall, providing traditional data warehouse and analytic application capabilities for Internet-based e-businesses, especially e-commerce Web sites and are hosted off site.

Business Intelligence Software		A category of software that enables companies to access, analyze and share information to understand how the business is performing and to improve decision making.

Business Intelligence Tools		The tools and technologies used to access and analyze business information. They include online analytical processing (OLAP) technologies, data mining and advanced analytics; end-user tools for ad hoc query and analysis, enterprise class query, analysis and reporting including dashboards for performance monitoring; and production reporting against all enterprise data sources.

Business Model		A view of the business at any given point in time. The view can be from a process, data, event or resource perspective, and can be the past, present or future state of the business.

Business Performance Intelligence (BPI)		A subset of the BI market and involves planning and budgeting, Balanced Scorecard performance management and activity-based costing.

Business Performance Management (BPM)		Applications that help direct modeling or scenario exploration activities. Rather than simply exploring what happened and why, the application can help the user consider the implications of alternative courses of action before they become operational. Performance management suggests an explicit relationship to action, and modeling is the key link to do this.

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C

Call Center		The part of an organization that handles inbound/outboundcommunications with customers.

Campaign Management		Detailed tracking, reporting and analysis that provides precise measurements regarding current marketing campaigns, how they are performing and the types of leads they attract.

Catalog		A component of a data dictionary that contains a directory of its DBMS objects as well as attributes of each object.

Cell		Data point defined by one member of each dimension of a multidimensional structure. Often, potential cells in multidimensional structures are empty, leading to 'sparse' storage.

Central Warehouse		A database created from operational extracts that adheres to a single, consistent, enterprise data model to ensure consistency of decision-support data across the corporation. A style of computing where all the information systems are located and managed from a single physical location.

Change Data Capture		The process of capturing changes made to a production data source. Change data capture is typically performed by reading the source DBMS log. It consolidates units of work, ensures data is synchronized with the original source, and reduces data volume in a data warehousing environment.

Churn		Describes customer attrition. A high churn rate implies high customer disloyalty.

Client		A software program used to contact and obtain data from a server software program on another computer. Each client program is designed to work with one or more specific kinds of server programs, and each server requires a specific kid of client.

Client/Server		A distributed technology approach where the processing is divided by function. The server performs shared functions -- managing communications, providing database services, etc. The client performs individual user functions -- providing customized interfaces, performing screen to screen navigation, offering help functions, etc.

Client/Server Architecture		A networked environment where a smaller system such as a PC interacts with a larger, faster system. This allows the processing to be performed on the larger system which frees the user's PC. The larger system is able to connect and disconnect from the clients in order to more efficiently process the data.

Clustering		Clustering is a process of partitioning a set of data into subsets or clusters such that a data element belonging to a cluster is more similar to data elements belonging to the same cluster than the data elements belonging to other clusters.

Collection		A set of data that resulted from a DBMS query.

Consumer		An individual, group or application that accesses data/information in a data warehouse.

Consumer Profile		Identification of an individual, group or application and a profile of the data they request and use: the kinds of warehouse data, physical relational tables needed, and the required location and frequency of the data (when, where, and in what form it is to be delivered).

Content Management		The processes and workflows involved in organizing, categorizing, and structuring information resources so that they can be stored, published, and reused in multiple ways. A content management system (CMS) is used to collect, manage and publish content, storing the content either as components or whole documents, while maintaining the links between components. It may also provides for content revision control.

Control Data		Data that guides a process. For example, indicators, flags, counters and parameters.

CRM		Customer Relationship Management

Crosstab		A process or function that combines and/or summarizes data from one or more sources into a concise format for analysis or reporting.

Cube		A data cube is a multidimensional structure that contains an aggregate value at each point, i.e., the result of applying an aggregate function to an underlying relation. Data cubes are used to implement online analytical processing (OLAP).

Currency Date		The date the data is considered effective. It is also known as the "as of" date or temporal currency.

Customer Data Integration (CDI)		Customer data integration (CDI) is comprised of process and technology solutions for recognizing a customer at any touchpoint - while aggregating accurate, up-to-date knowledge about that customer and delivering it in an actionable form "just in time" to touchpoints.

Customer Relationship Management		The idea of establishing relationships with customers on an individual basis, then using that information to treat different customers differently. Customer buying profiles and churn analysis are examples of decision support activities that can affect the success of customer relationships.

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D

Dashboard		A dashboard is a reporting tool that consolidates, aggregates and arrranges measurements, metrics (measurements compared to a goal) and sometimes scorecards on a single screen so information can be monitored at a glance. Dashboards differ from scorecards in being tailored to monitor a specific role or generate metrics reflecting a particular point of view; typically they do not conform to a specific management methodology.

Data		Items representing facts, text, graphics, bit-mapped images, sound, analog or digital live-video segments. Data is the raw material of a system supplied by data producers and is used by information consumers to create information.

Data Access Tools		An end-user oriented tool that allows users to build SQL queries by pointing and clicking on a list of tables and fields in the data warehouse.

Data Acquisition		Identification, selection and mapping of source data to target data. Detection of source data changes, data extraction techniques, timing of data extracts, data transformation techniques, frequency of database loads and levels of data summary are among the difficult data acquisition challenges.

Data Analysis & Presentation Tools		Software that provides a logical view of data in a warehouse. Some create simple aliases for table and column names; others create data that identify the contents and location of data in the warehouse.

Data Appliance		A combination of hardware, software, DBMSs and storage, all under one umbrella. A black box that yields high performance in both speed and storage, making the BI environment simpler and more useful to the users.

Data Consumer		An individual, group, or application that receives data in the form of a collection. The data is used for query, analysis, and reporting.

Data Custodian		The individual assigned the responsibility of operating systems, data centers, data warehouses, operational databases, and business operations in conformance with the policies and practices prescribed by the data owner.

Data Dictionary		A database about data and database structures. A catalog of all data elements, containing their names, structures, and information about their usage. A central location for metadata. Normally, data dictionaries are designed to store a limited set of available metadata, concentrating on the information relating to the data elements, databases, files and programs of implemented systems.

Data Element		The most elementary unit of data that can be identified and described in a dictionary or repository which cannot be subdivided.

Data Extraction Software		Software that reads one or more sources of data and creates a new image of the data.

Data Flow Diagram		A diagram that shows the normal flow of data between services as well as the flow of data between data stores and services.

Data Governance		Data governance is the practice of organizing and implementing policies, procedures and standards for the effective use of an organization's structured/unstructured information assets.

Data Loading		The process of populating the data warehouse. Data loading is provided by DBMS-specific load processes, DBMS insert processes, and independent fastload processes.

Data Management		Controlling, protecting, and facilitating access to data in order to provide information consumers with timely access to the data they need. The functions provided by a database management system.

Data Management Software		Software that converts data into a unified format by taking derived data to create new fields, merging files, summarizing and filtering data; the process of reading data from operational systems. Data Management Software is also known as data extraction software.

Data Mart		A subset of the data resource, usually oriented to a specific purpose or major data subject, that may be distributed to support business needs.

Data Migration		Data migration is the process of transferring data from repository to another.

Data Model		A logical map that represents the inherent properties of the data independent of software, hardware or machine performance considerations. The model shows data elements grouped into records, as well as the association around those records.

Data Modeling		A method used to define and analyze data requirements needed to support the business functions of an enterprise. These data requirements are recorded as a conceptual data model with associated data definitions. Data modeling defines the relationships between data elements and structures.

Data Replication		The process of copying a portion of a database from one environment to another and keeping the subsequent copies of the data in sync with the original source. Changes made to the original source are propagated to the copies of the data in other environments.

Data Scrubbing		The process of filtering, merging, decoding, and translating source data to create validated data for the data warehouse.

Data Staging Area		A data staging area is a system that stands between the legacy systems and the analytics system, usually a data warehouse and sometimes an ODS. The data staging area is considered the "back room" portion of the data warehouse environment. The data staging area is where the extract, transform and load(ETL) takes place and is out of bounds for end users.

Data Steward		The data steward acts as the conduit between information technology (IT) and the business portion of a company with both decision support and operational help. The data steward has the challenge of guaranteeing that the corporation's data is used to its fullest capacity.

Data Store		A place where data is stored; data at rest. A generic term that includes databases and flat files.

Data Surfing		Data Mining.

Data Transfer		The process of moving data from one environment to another environment. An environment may be an application system or operating environment. See Data Transport.

Data Transformation		Creating "information" from data. This includes decoding production data and merging of records from multiple DBMS formats. It is also known as data scrubbing or data cleansing.

Data Visualization		Techniques for turning data into information by using the high capacity of the human brain to visually recognize patterns and trends. There are many specialized techniques designed to make particular kinds of visualization easy.

Data Warehouse		An implementation of an informational database used to store sharable data sourced from an operational database-of-record. It is typically a subject database that allows users to tap into a company's vast store of operational data to track and respond to business trends and facilitate forecasting and planning efforts.

Data Warehouse Architecture		An integrated set of products that enable the extraction and transformation of operational data to be loaded into a database for end-user analysis and reporting.

Data Warehouse Architecture Development		A Software service program that provides an architecture for a data warehouse that is aligned with the needs of the business. This program identifies and designs a warehouse implementation increment and ensures the required infrastructure, skill sets, and other data warehouse foundational aspects are in place for a Data Warehouse Incremental Delivery.

Data Warehouse Engines		Relational databases (RDBMS) and Multi-dimensional databases (MDBMS). Data warehouse engines require strong query capabilities, fast load mechanisms, and large storage requirements.

Database		A large collection of data organized for rapid search and retrieval by a computer.

Database Auditing		Database auditing is the ability to continuously monitor, record, analyze and report on all user-level database activity.

Database Marketing		Methods for creating successful marketing strategies and testing them.

Database Schema		The logical and physical definition of a database structure.

Datadupitis (dā-tə-düp-ī-təs)		The process of inadvertently duplicating data, thereby creating excessive database customer records. (Example: A customer record listed as John Q. Smith also appears as John Smith, Jon Q. Smith, and John Q. Smithe. Mr. Smith’s records contain the same fields (i.e., address, company, phone number); however, datadupitis incorrectly labels Mr. Smith’s records as separate individuals.)

DBA		Database Administrator.

Desktop Applications		Query and analysis tools that access the source database or data warehouse across a network using an appropriate database interface. An application that manages the human interface for data producers and information consumers.

Dimension		A dimension is a structural attribute of a cube that is a list of members, all of which are of a similar type in the user's perception of the data. For example, all months, quarters, years, etc., make up a time dimension; likewise all cities, regions, countries, etc., make up a geography dimension. A dimension acts as an index for identifying values within a multi-dimensional array. If one member of the dimension is selected, then the remaining dimensions in which a range of members (or all members) are selected defines a sub-cube. If all but two dimensions have a single member selected, the remaining two dimensions define a spreadsheet (or a "slice" or a "page"). If all dimensions have a single member selected, then a single cell is defined. Dimensions offer a very concise, intuitive way of organizing and selecting data for retrieval, exploration and analysis.

Dimension Outrigger		A dimension ourigger is a second-level dimension table that further defines and gives meaning to the model.

Dirty Data		Inconsistent, missing, incomplete, or erroneous data. Source data often contains a high percentage of "dirty" data.

Disaster Recovery		A protocol and associated execution to recover lost computing-system usage (applications), data and data transactions committed up to the moment of system loss.

Dynamic Dictionary		A data dictionary that an application program accesses at run time.

Dynamic Queries		Dynamically constructed SQL that is usually constructed by desktop-resident query tools. Queries that are not pre-processed and are prepared and executed at run time.

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E

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)		EDI is the computer-to-computer exchange of normal business transactions including payments, information exchange and purchase order requests. The most basic EDI line consists of a computer-to-computer link. The second level incorporates an application-to-application design where individual companies links a minimum of one of their in- house systems to the EDI interface. The most elaborate version of EDI actually transform the way business procedures are executed to gain optimal productivity. These involve trend-institutions that evolve into a centralized EDI based functions.

End User Data		Data formatted for end-user query processing; data created by end users; data provided by a data warehouse.

Enterprise		A complete business consisting of functions, divisions, or other components used to accomplish specific objectives and defined goals.

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)		EAI allows data sharing between unrelated systems in the organization, provides a single point of interface to which all applications and databases connect, resolves differences between systems, triggers processes and delivers data in the proper format to the proper destination.

Enterprise Architecture		Enterprise architecture is a comprehensive framework used to manage and align an organization's business processes, information technology (IT) software and hardware, local and wide area networks, people, operations and projects with the organization's overall strategy.

Enterprise Data Warehouse		An enterprise data warehouse is a centralized warehouse that services the entire enterprise.

Enterprise Information Integration (EII)		A collection of technologies and best practices for providing custom views into multiple data sources as a way of integrating data and content for real-time read and write access by applications.

Enterprise Information Management (EIM)		The processes, technologies and tools needed to turn data into information, information into knowledge and knowledge into plans that drive profitable business action.

Enterprise Modeling		The development of a common consistent view and understanding of data elements and their relationships across the enterprise.

Enterprise Resource		ERP systems are comprised of software programs which tie together all of an enterprise's various functions -- such as finance, manufacturing, sales and human resources. This software also provides for the analysis of the data from these areas to plan production, forecast sales and analyze quality. Today many organizations are realizing that to maximize the value of the information stored in their ERP systems, it is necessary to extend the ERP architectures to include more advanced reporting, analytical and decision support capabilities. This is best accomplished through the application of data warehousing tools and techniques.

Environment		In the computer technology context, it refers to the conditions surrounding data, such as databases, data formats, servers, network and any other components that impact the data.

ERP		Enterprise Resource Planning

ETL		ETL (extract, transform, load) software does just that, it extracts records/fields from one data source, converts the data to new formats and provides the ability to load the data to other target destinations, in other words data handling and processing that precedes final storage in the repository.

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F

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)		A service that allows you to transfer files to and from other computers on the Internet. Anyone who has access to ftp can transfer publicly available files to his or her computer. Files retrieved from outside sources can contain viruses. All files retrieved from the Internet should be check with a virus protection program.

Financial Integrity		Refers to compliant and reliable financial data achieved through quality integrated systems and processes, strong internal control, validations to ensure accuracy and conformance with accounting and reporting standards.

Firewall		A combination of specialized hardware and software set up to monitor traffic between an internal network and an external network (i.e. the Internet). Its primary purpose if for security and is designed to keep unauthorized outsiders from tampering with or accessing information on a networked computer system.

Forecasting		Provide baseline metrics to support, track and measure the performance of an initiative.

Foreign Key		A foreign key is the primary key of one data structure that is placed into a related data structure to represent a relationship among those structures. Foreign keys resolve relationships, and support navigation among data structures.

Fraud Detection Application		The process of detecting patterns, trends or correlations in consumer or corporate behavior that might indicate that fraudulent activity is taking place; e.g., identifying potential or existing fraud through analysis and comparison of standard and aberrant behaviors.

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G

GUI		Graphical User Interface.
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H

Hierarchical Relationships		Any dimension's members may be organized based on parent- child relationships, typically where a parent member represents the consolidation of the members which are its children. The result is a hierarchy, and the parent/child relationships are hierarchical relationships.

Historical Database		A database that provides an historical perspective on the data.

HOLAP (Hybrid OLAP)		A product that can provide multidimensional analysis simultaneously of data stored in a multidimensional database and in an RDBMS. Becoming a popular architecture for server OLAP.

Householding		A methodology of consolidating names and addresses. Today, householding refers to any grouping of information about a given person, family, household or company.

Hyper Text Markup (HTML)		HTML, or Hyper Text Markup Language, a subset of SGML, provides a tag set used to create an HTML document. The tags or elements tell the browser how to display the information. The tags are used to "mark," in a hierarchical format, the different components of the document. If you are going to create your own Web pages, you will need to gain an understanding of the workings of HTML.

Hypercube		An OLAP product that stores all data in a single cube which has all the application dimensions applied to it.
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I

Information		Data that has been processed in such a way that it can increase the knowledge of the person who receives it. Information is the output, or finished goods," of information systems. Information is also what individuals start with before it is fed into a Data Capture transaction processing system.

Information System		An organized collection, processing, transmission and dissemination of information in accordance with defined procedures, whether automated or manual. Information systems are used to support high-level business decision making (typically ETL and BI systems involving a data warehouse).

Information Systems Architecture		The authoritative definition of the business rules, systems structure, technical framework and product backbone for business information systems. An information systems architecture consists of four layers: business architecture, systems architecture, technical architecture and product architecture.

Interoperability		The ability of various types of computers and programs to work together.

Intranet		The subset of the Internet used internally by a company or organization. Unlike the Internet, intranets are private and accessible only from within the organization.

IT		Information Technology
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K

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)		A business calculation that allows macro level insights into the business process to manage profitability.
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M

Market Segmentation		Segmentation is the process of partitioning markets into groups of potential customers with similar needs and/or characteristics who are likely to exhibit similar purchase behavior.

Market Share		A company's sales expressed as a percentage of the sales for the total industry.

Marketing Resource Management		Marketing resource management (MRM) refers to software that helps with the upfront planning of a marketing function and the coordination and collaboration of marketing resources.

Master Data		Master data represents the parties to the transactions that record the operations of an enterprise. Two examples are customer and product.

Master Data Management		Master data management (MDM) is business context data that contains details (definitions and identifiers) of internal and external objects involved in business transactions (e.g., customer, product, reporting unit, NPS, market share). It explains the context within which you do business and holds the business rules. Master data management is a series of processes put in place to ensure that reference data is kept up to date and coordinated across an enterprise. Master data management is the organization, management and distribution of corporately adjudicated information with widespread use in the organization.

Meta Data		Meta data is data that expresses the context or relativity of data. Examples of meta data include data element descriptions, data type descriptions, attribute/property descriptions, range/domain descriptions and process/method descriptions. The repository environment encompasses all corporate meta data resources: database catalogs, data dictionaries and navigation services. Meta data includes name, length, valid values and description of a data element. Meta data is stored in a data dictionary and repository. It insulates the data warehouse from changes in the schema of operational systems.

Meta Data Synchronization		The process of consolidating, relating and synchronizing data elements with the same or similar meaning from different systems. Meta data synchronization joins these differing elements in the data warehouse to allow for easier access.

Meta Muck		An environment created when meta data exists in multiple products and repositories (DBMS catalogs, DBMS dictionaries, CASE tools warehouse databases, end-user tools and repositories).

Methodology		A system of principles, practices, and procedures applied to a specific branch of knowledge.
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N

Niche Marketing		A marketing segmentation strategy in which the firm focuses on serving one segment of the market. Similar to segmented marketing, but a niche is a small distinguishable segment that can be uniquely served.

Normallization		The process of reducing a complex data structure into its simplest, most stable structure. In general, the process entails the removal of redundant attributes, keys, and relationships from a conceptual data model.
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O

Object		A person, place, thing, or concept that has characteristics of interest to an environment. In terms of an object-oriented system, an object is an entity that combines descriptions of data and behavior.

OLAP Client		End user applications that can request slices from OLAP servers and provide two- dimensional or multi-dimensional displays, user modifications, selections, ranking, calculations, etc., for visualization and navigation purposes. OLAP clients may be as simple as a spreadsheet program retrieving a slice for further work by a spreadsheet- literate user or as high-functioned as a financial modeling or sales analysis application.

OLTP		Online transaction processing. OLTP describes the requirements for a system that is used in an operational environment.

One-to-One Marketing		One of the foundation principles of CRM treating each customer as an individual.
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P

Performance Management		A process for setting, measuring, achieving and exceeding organization program objectives.

Platform		Any base of technologies on which other technologies or processes are built and operated to provide interoperability, simplify implementation, streamline deployment and promote maintenance of solutions.

Predictive Analytics		Methods of directed and undirected knowledge discovery, relying on statistical algorithms, neural networks and optimization research to prescribe (recommend) and predict (future) actions based on discovering, verifying and applying patterns in data to predict the behavior of customers, products, services, market dynamics and other critical business transactions.

Predictive Customer Relationship Management (CRM)		The discipline of getting to know your customers by performing complex analysis on data about them.

Primary Key		A column or combination of columns whose values uniquely identify a row or record in the table. The primary key(s) will have a unique value for each record or row in the table.

Protocol		A set of conventions that govern the communications between processes. Protocol specifies the format and content of messages to be exchanged.
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Q

Quality Assurance		The process of ensuring a correct result.

Query		A (usually) complex SELECT statement for decision support. See Ad-Hoc Query or Ad-Hoc Query Software.

Query Tools		Software that allows a user to create and direct specific questions to a data base. These tools provide the means for pulling the desired information from a database. They are typically SQL-based tools and allow a user to define data in end-user language.
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R

RDBMS		Relational Database Management System.

RDBMS Concurrence		Overlapping, concurrent execution of code segments.

Real Time		Refers to the utmost level of timeliness regarding the use of information.

Real-Time Data		Up-to-the-second, detailed data used to run the business and accessed in read/write mode, usually through predefined transactions.

Redundancy		The storage of multiple copies of identical data.

Regulatory Compliance		The act of complying with government legislation and mandates requiring public companies to provide specific financial reporting and disclosure. Regulators include the SEC, tax authorities and banking authorities, such as the FDIC in the U.S. Various international versions of such mandates also are in place. There are three areas of compliance generally considered of greatest impact today. In the U.S., Sarbanes-Oxley strengthens rules regarding public audit, corporate responsibility, financial disclosures and brokerage practices, and specifies penalties for noncompliance. In Europe, IAS 2005 refers to the 15 countries in Europe moving to one accounting standard mandated by the International Accounting Standards Board, and adopted by the European Union. Basel II is focused specifically on global banks and financial institutions. Basel II ensures liquidity of those institutions for the protection of public trust.

Relational Database		A collection of data items organized as a set of formally described tables from which data can be accessed or reassembled in many different ways without the need to reorganize the database tables.

Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)		Database technology that was designed to support high volume transaction processing (OLTP) and is typically the foundation for a data warehouse.

Reliability		A condition often related to computer hardware or subsystems whereby a single component (server, application, database, etc.) or group of components demonstrates the ability to perform its physical function.

Reporting		An automated business process or related functionality that provides a detailed, formal account of relevant or requested information.

Return on Investment (ROI)		The time it takes improvements in revenue or cost savings directly related to a company's particular investment to exceed the total cost of that investment

ROLAP (Relational OLAP)		A product that provides multidimensional analysis of data, aggregates and metadata stored in an RDBMS. The multidimensional processing may be done within the RDBMS, a mid-tier server or the client. A 'merchant' ROLAP is one from an independent vendor which can work with any standard RDBMS.

Roll Up Queries		Queries that summarize data at a level higher than the previous level of detail.

Rollback		Rollback and undo mean essentially the same: To rollback or undo a transaction prior to a commit of that transaction. (RDB term)

Rolling Forecast		This is a term that describes a forecasting method that shifts planning away from historic budgeting and forecasting and moves it toward a continuous predictive modeling method. It requires access to relevant information from multiple data sources as well as business processes throughout the enterprise. Rolling forecasts can be updated continuously throughout the year thus potentially improving accountability.
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S

SaaS		Software as a service

Sarbanes-Oxley		On July 30, 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Public Law 104-204) went into effect, and changed the corporate landscape in the United States in regard to financial reporting and auditing for publicly traded companies. The law establishes stringent financial reporting requirements for companies doing business in the United States. It was designed to make the executives of publicly traded companies more responsible and accountable for oversight of their companies.

Scalability		The ability to scale to support larger or smaller volumes of data and more or