Category: News
May 10, 2021
The world of business and technology is full of acronyms but here, at Futurum Consulting, we pride ourselves on talking to our clients in plain English and without throwing acronyms at them that they don’t understand.
However, we know that there are many IT vendors, business coaches, management consultants etc who don’t work in the same way as we do and they’ll happily try and bamboozle their clients and prospects with jargon and acronyms.
So, with that in mind, we have decided to publish the Futurum Consulting Guide to Business & Technology Acronyms. We will continue to add to these over time but we thought we’d start with some of the most common ones.
That means that next time you’re being spoken to by a vendor, coach or consultant that doesn’t work to the same standards as Futurum, perhaps you’ll stand a better chance of understanding what on earth they’re saying. You’re welcome!
If you have any acronyms that you’d like to see included in our guide, or any that you’ve heard and often wondered what it means but have been too afraid to ask, why not let us know by contacting us.
Business Acronyms
| Acronym | What it stands for | Meaning |
| FIFO | First In, First Out | Method of processing stock items so that the first to arrive into stock is the first one to leave |
| LIFO | Last In, First Out | Method of processing stock items so that the last to arrive into stock is the first one to leave |
| NPV | Net Present Value | The current value of an asset after it’s been depreciated in the accounts |
| POC | Proof of Concept | Evidence from an experiment or pilot project to prove that a solution, process or proposal works |
| RFI | Request for Information | A request to find out how a vendor might solve a problem or provide a product/service (used largely in contract tendering) |
| RFP | Request for Proposal | A request for detailed costings etc from a vendor that will help the requestor compare answers from other vendors (used largely in contract tendering) |
| ROI | Return on Investment | The length of time that a project or solution will take for the money spent on it to be recouped through savings or increased revenues |
| SME | Small or Medium Sized Enterprise | Definition of a size of organisation |
| TCO | Total Cost of Ownership | The total cost of a product throughout it’s lifetime, not just the initial purchase price. Includes operating and maintenance costs |
| WIP | Work in Progress | Pieces of work that have been started but not finished (often used in manufacturing) |
Technology Acronyms
| Acronym | What it stands for | Meaning |
| API | Application Program Interface | A way for software to push data to or pull data from another system |
| CMS | Content Management System | The backend system of a website that allows you to manage the content of the site |
| CRM | Customer Relationship Management | A type of business system that allows you to capture information about customers, prospects and leads and manage the process of communication with them |
| ERP | Enterprise Resource Planning | A type of business system (typically used in manufacturing businesses) that covers every aspect of the operations from finance to purchasing, from sales to manaufacturing, from stock to labour tracking |
| GUI | Graphical User Interface | The way software appears to the user and how the user interacts with it |
| HTML | HyperText Markup Language | The language/coding that is used to generate web pages |
| SaaS | Software as a Service | A method of deploying software via the internet without the end user having to install the software on their computer or having to install in on a local server. Allows users to access the software from multiple device types, remotely, from the office, whilst travelling etc. “Cloud-based software” is another term used to describe this. |
| SSL | Secure Sockets Layer | A type of security protocol used in internet traffic to ensure that data is protected when being transmitted/transferred |
| UAT | User Acceptance Testing | A phase of software development or implementation projects when the users carry out testing to confirm they are happy with the way the solution works |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network | A method of creating a secure connection for computers to communicate over the public networks (internet) |