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610 Glossary

decisional roles Mintzberg’s classification for managerial roles domestic exporter Form of business organization characterized by
where managers initiate activities, handle disturbances, allocate heavy centralization of corporate activities in the home county of
resources, and negotiate conflicts. origin.
decision-support systems (DSS) Information systems at the downtime Period of time in which an information system is not
organization’s management level that combine data and operational.
sophisticated analytical models or data analysis tools to support drill down The ability to move from summary data to lower and
semistructured and unstructured decision making. lower levels of detail.
deep packet inspection (DPI) Technology for managing drive-by download Malware that comes with a downloaded file a
network traffic by examining data packets, sorting out low- user intentionally or unintentionally requests.
priority data from higher priority business-critical data, and due process A process in which laws are well-known and
sending packets in order of priority. understood and there is an ability to appeal to higher authorities
demand planning Determining how much product a business to ensure that laws are applied correctly.
needs to make to satisfy all its customers’ demands. dynamic pricing Pricing of items based on real-time interactions
denial of service (DoS) attack Flooding a network server or Web between buyers and sellers that determine what a item is worth
server with false communications or requests for services in at any particular moment.
order to crash the network.
Descartes’ rule of change A principle that states that if an action e-government Use of the Internet and related technologies to
cannot be taken repeatedly, then it is not right to be taken at any digitally enable government and public sector agencies’
time. relationships with citizens, businesses, and other arms of
design Simon’s second stage of decision making, when the government.
individual conceives of possible alternative solutions to a efficient customer response system System that directly links
problem. consumer behavior back to distribution, production, and supply
digital asset management systems Classify, store, and distribute chains.
digital objects such as photographs, graphic images, video, and electronic business (e-business) The use of the Internet and
audio content. digital technology to execute all the business processes in the
digital certificate An attachment to an electronic message to enterprise. Includes e-commerce as well as processes for the
verify the identity of the sender and to provide the receiver with internal management of the firm and for coordination with
the means to encode a reply. suppliers and other business partners.
digital dashboard Displays all of a firm’s key performance electronic commerce The process of buying and selling goods and
indicators as graphs and charts on a single screen to provide one- services electronically involving transactions using the Internet,
page overview of all the critical measurements necessary to make networks, and other digital technologies.
key executive decisions. electronic data interchange (EDI) The direct computer-to-
digital divide Large disparities in access to computers and the computer exchange between two organizations of standard
Internet among different social groups and different locations. business transactions, such as orders, shipment instructions, or
digital firm Organization where nearly all significant business payments.
processes and relationships with customers, suppliers, and e-mail The computer-to-computer exchange of messages.
employees are digitally enabled, and key corporate assets are employee relationship management (ERM) Software dealing
managed through digital means. with employee issues that are closely related to CRM, such as
digital goods Goods that can be delivered over a digital network. setting objectives, employee performance management,
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Adjusts copyright performance-based compensation, and employee training.
laws to the Internet Age by making it illegal to make, distribute, encryption The coding and scrambling of messages to prevent
or use devices that circumvent technology-based protections of their being read or accessed without authorization.
copy-righted materials. end-user development The development of information systems
digital subscriber line (DSL) A group of technologies providing by end users with little or no formal assistance from technical
high-capacity transmission over existing copper telephone lines. specialists.
direct cutover A risky conversion approach where the new system end-user interface The part of an information system through
completely replaces the old one on an appointed day. which the end user interacts with the system, such as on-line
disaster recovery planning Planning for the restoration of screens and commands.
computing and communications services after they have been end users Representatives of departments outside the information
disrupted. systems group for whom applications are developed.
disintermediation The removal of organizations or business enterprise applications Systems that can coordinate activities,
process layers responsible for certain intermediary steps in a decisions, and knowledge across many different functions, levels,
value chain. and business units in a firm. Include enterprise systems, supply
disruptive technologies Technologies with disruptive impact on chain management systems, and knowledge management
industries and businesses, rendering existing products, services systems.
and business models obsolete. enterprise content management systems Help organizations
distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack Numerous manage structured and semistructured knowledge, providing
computers inundating and overwhelming a network from corporate repositories of documents, reports, presentations, and
numerous launch points. best practices and capabilities for collecting and organizing e-mail
documentation Descriptions of how an information system works and graphic objects.
from either a technical or end-user standpoint. enterprise software Set of integrated modules for applications
domain name English-like name that corresponds to the unique such as sales and distribution, financial accounting, investment
32-bit numeric Internet Protocol (IP) address for each computer management, materials management, production planning, plant
connected to the Internet maintenance, and human resources that allow data to be used by
Domain Name System (DNS) A hierarchical system of servers multiple functions and business processes.
maintaining a database enabling the conversion of domain names enterprise systems Integrated enterprise-wide information
to their numeric IP addresses. systems that coordinate key internal processes of the firm.

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