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Europe's leading website for smarter
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Glossary of Flexible Working
Essential vocabulary for managers |
The following
is a list of words, including numerous technical ones, which
frequently crop up when you read about flexible working and the
technologies which enable it.
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| A |
ACD - Automatic call
distributor - ACDs are used in call centres to allocate calls
to appropriately skilled/available agents.ADSL - Asymmetric
Digital Subscriber Line - ADSL and its spin-off standards (xDSL etc.) represents
a standard for providing high bandwidth digital services over
the local loop to the telephone exchange.
ADSL is being rolled out to provide high speed connectivity to the internet.
Analogue - The traditional means of communicating over a
distance, via broadcast transmission or telephone wires. Now being replaced by digital broadcast and telephony, which can pack in
much more information.
Annualised hours -
A form of flexible time contract where the numbers of hours to be worked
are specified over a year, rather than per day or week. It is
typically used in roles where there are variable or seasonal peaks and
troughs of demand.
Application – Computer program or system
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Bandwidth – this
has slightly differing meanings depending on the technical context in which it is used. In
computing and networking, bandwidth is used to indicate the digital capacity of a particular link per second
– typical measures being bits per second, kilobits per second,
megabits per second etc.
In other areas of telecommunications bandwidth refers to the amount of electromagnetic
spectrum which a signal occupies and is expressed in Hertz (Hz) or KiloHertz (kHz)Binary – The binary number system is a system where each digit
can have one of two possible values, 0 or 1. Thus the number 5 would be expressed as 101
in binary notation (i.e. 1x4 + 0x2 + 1x1)
Bit – (from binary digit)
- the smallest quantum of digital information. A bit can be one of two values –
usually expressed as 0 and 1. Bits are usually grouped into "bytes",
which in turn may be grouped into "words".
Bluetooth - a Scandinavian-friendly branding for a
technology standard enabling low-cost short-range radio links between mobile devices
such as laptop computers, mobile phones etc. Such devices can be brought together in
a wireless PAN (Personal Area Network) or Piconet.
See also WiFi.
BPR - Business Process Re-engineering - buzz phrase for
management consultancies in the 1990s, BPR takes a process oriented view of all work,
and attempts to apply benefits from a more holistic viewpoint. The jury is divided on
whether this represents an improved, universally applicable methodology or simply a common
sense approach combined with a bit of marketing spin.
bps, b/s - bits per second, that is, the number of bits transmitted
per second over wired or wireless networks, as in Kbps (kilobits per second)
or Mbps (Megabits per second)
Broadband - this refers to higher bandwidths,
generally referring to data transmission speeds in excess of 1 Mbps (Megabits
per second). The higher
capacity of broadband is essential for sending video etc "down the
wire" and for coping with large amounts of electronic traffic.
Browser - this is the piece of software through which you
are looking at this page now! Most commonly this is Microsoft
Internet Explorer. The versions are
numbered, with the most recent being version 8.
Byte – a group of 8 bits –
bytes, Kilobytes, megabytes and Gigabytes are common measures of file size, memory and
disk capacity.
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Call centre - a place
where telephony activities are centralised, with the aim of cutting costs and improving
marketing and/or customer services. It needn't be one physical place: organisations such
as BA have a distributed call centre based in several locations in 2 continents. Some companies
(like the AA, BT) have some "virtual" call centres using
workers based at home or local centres but linked by common IT and automatic
call distribution.Client - in the context of a computer network this is a PC
or other terminal which is connected to a server
[q.v.].
Compression – Computer programs, word processor
documents, digital sound and image files, digital video streams and other pieces of digital data usually contain "redundant"
data, in that the same information can be represented in fewer bytes.
Compression algorithms take advantage of this to reduce file size or bandwidth
requirements.
Convergence - the integration of computers,
telephones, recording and broadcast technologies in all-digital environments. This enables
novel uses of data, new services and products as well as faster and more flexible
communications.
Cookie – A cookie is a small file, stored on a
web-user's computer. Web servers use the data in the file to identify the user, enabling
them to present personalised information, and avoiding repeated entry of standard
information such as e-mail addresses, telephone numbers etc.
CTI – Computer Telephony Integration: CTI is a blanket
term applied to a range of technologies which have arisen as computers have developed the
ability to interface with switchboards and telecoms networks. CTI is usually seen either
at the desktop (e.g. PC initiated dialling) or at the server/switchboard (e.g. an incoming call is
identified by its line number, and automatically brings up the appropriate account
information from a central database on a call
centre operator’s screen)
Cybercafé - This is a café which provides a service
to allow patrons to use computers and access the Internet.
As well as being found in high streets they are increasingly found in companies as an
alternative to providing access to the Internet from every desktop, and/or as training
facilities.
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DAB (Digital Audio
Broadcasting) - Coming to a (currently expensive) radio near you now, DAB provides
interference-free CD-quality sound, plus extra digital information
to supplement radio programmes.Database –
Specialised software system used for managing highly structured data. Databases range from
simple desktop systems to huge, multi-machine implementations.
DECT - Digital Enhanced Cordless
Telephony. DECT is an international standard closely related to GSM. Its most common
applications are in the home (domestic cordless telephones) and in corporate scenarios
(multiple cordless handsets sharing multiple base stations allowing roaming over a large
site). DECT also has applications for telecommunications providers – providing the
"local loop" from the exchange to
the home/office in many emerging telecoms markets
Digital - A digital signal is made up of a sequence of
digital numbers. Digital numbers can only have certain, discrete values (compared with
analogue signals which can range over a continuity of values). Analogue signals can be
represented by digital ones, incurring quantisation noise (due to the difference between
the nearest digital value and the actual analogue value). However, this usually is more
than compensated for by more accurate transmission and reproduction, as digital signals
suffer far less from noise and distortion effects
Domain name - Usually means the first part of a web
address – e.g. www.flexibility.co.uk. Domains also
include private networks and e-mail servers.
Download - Accessing files over networks involves
"downloading" then to your PC, disc drive or a part of your network. Web pages
and the images or other files they contain are downloaded to your browser over the Internet or intranet,
where they can be viewed as temporary files or saved.
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e- At one time the buzz prefix
was "tele-". This is now being superceded by "e-", which has nothing
to do with clubland but stands for "electronic". Hence email,
ebusiness, ecommerce, etc.Ecommerce
- Electronic commerce is a shorthand for any
kind of commercial transaction carried out over electronic networks. The concept is also
loosely used in relation to marketing online. Rapidly growing, its success depends on
developing secure systems for payment online, and probably also the growth of
"ecash" (i.e. currency or credits only operating in the online world)
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) - this happens when
organisations, or departments within them, share information electronically across
organisational boundaries. This can save re-keying information, paper production, etc
Email - Electronic mail is now a familiar feature in most
companies, allowing in theory paperless and swift communications. A remarkable number of
people using it just use email for memos, and do not use it to facilitate collaborative
work, or for external communications
Extranet - a kind of halfway house between the Internet and an intranet. In essence an extranet is a secure
shared network using Internet technologies. So
it extends an information network beyond an organisation's boundaries, but only to agreed
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Firewall - A software, hardware or combined software/hardware system used to guard
interconnect points between private networks and public networks. Firewalls monitor data
traffic and can prevent potential security breaches, whilst allowing trusted or harmless
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GIS - Geographical
Information System - Used to store and manipulate spatial data such as geometry and
topology - the connections between geometries. This is usually stored in the form of
vectors and then often overlayed onto data such as maps. Some of the most common
uses are network management and analysis for utilities and communication companies but
they are also used for geo/demographic analysis by businesses like supermarkets
GPRS - General Packet Radio Service -
a non-voice service that allows data to be transferred over the (GSM)
mobile phone network at reasonable speeds. Seen by many as a halfway house towards
Third Generation mobile communications.
GPS – Global Positioning System – GPS is based on a network
of US military satellites. Commercially available handsets and consoles can identify their
current location to high accuracies, especially when combined with additional ground
reference beacons (so called differential GPS).
GSM - Global System for Mobile or Groupe Systeme Mobile: The
European standard for digital cellular phones. It has been adopted
by many countries around the world. As a result users can use their handsets abroad. |
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Hardware - The physical
parts of a computer or computer system – e.g. the disk drive, the memory chips, the
network hubs etc. c.f. softwareHotdesking - more
productive use of office space often involves, to a greater or lesser extent, eliminating
personal ownership of desks. It is a method of sharing desks, with workers who are usually
working elsewhere booking space to work.
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ICT (Information and
Communication Technologies) – a key phrase to indicate the dynamism that can be
achieved with the convergence of computing and telecommunications. Putting the
"C" in the middle of the IT is important to emphasise that it is not just about
"techie" matters but is relevant to everyone whose job involves communication.
ICT makes possible the fast and worldwide exchange of information, and has the capacity to
revolutionise work processes, service delivery, etc.
Interactive
TV - In the Digital Age we will have not
only more channels than you can shake a stick at, but also interactive or
"enhanced" TV, using the extra digital broadcast capacity to carry supplementary
information to our TV screens, and a limited ability to send messages back. It's not
compulsory to use the enhanced capabilities, but in principle it gives the user more
control and choice in their viewing.
Internet - the world-wide "network of networks"
used for email, web publishing and increasingly
for broadcast and telephony. See the Internet briefing paper
Intranet - An intranet is a network using Internet
technologies for internal communication and work processes within an organisation. The
great advantage, apart from dynamically sharing information, is that the browser can provide a common interface to all
applications, allowing the linking together of many different systems
IP - Internet Protocol - commonly acknowledged as the key
protocol behind the internet IP is only one of a number of protocols which made the internet viable.
ISP (Internet Service Provider) - an organisation which
provides a user with access to the Internet, in return for a
monthly fee or at no charge, and hosts web sites for other users to access
IST - Information Society Technologies: a term used
extensively by the European Commission, meaning much the same as ICT
ITC - Information Technology & Communications:
another way of referring to ICT
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Java - A
programming language which creates programmes which can run on a range of different
computing platforms via a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
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Kiosk - (Multimedia) kiosks
are being rolled out across the country by commercial and public bodies as a means of access to
networked services, e.g. for access to information, theatre or hotel booking,
form-filling. Also sometimes found within organisations for access to multimedia applications and online services not available at the
desktop.
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LAN - Local Area Network:
LANs connect computers and associated devices in relatively close proximity, allowing them
to share files, applications, etc. at relatively high speed.Local
loop – The connection between a telephone exchange or sub-exchange and the
termination point – i.e. domestic telephone socket, office switchboard etc.
Location independent working -
Probably the most accurate way of referring to teleworking etc - it highlights that what
characterises the workstyle is that it is flexible in terms of location, and can be done
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Mainframe - A very
high-powered computer - used to process large volumes of data or transactions, mainframes
support multiple users at dumb terminals, though they can connect to PCs via
"middleware" or by using a terminal emulator.
Modem - Short for "modulator-demodulator", which
fails to trip off the tongue. This is a device that connects the computer to telephone
networks to access remote computers and online services. It can be external to the
computer, but most modern computers have a modem built in.
Multimedia – now an overused term, broadly meaning
the use of audio, video, animation and graphics alongside more traditional text based
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Optical Fibre –
provides a high bandwidth alternative to
copper wire for transmitting data. Information is translated in light pulses which can be
transmitted over optical fibre with little to no signal loss. A number of optical fibre
technologies exist – cheaper technologies provide high bandwidth over relatively
short distances suitable for LANs, campus networks and so called
Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) while more expensive technologies are used by telecom
network providers, over extremely long distances. Operating
system – The term applied to the software which provides the
majority of services when a computer is running – memory management, input
(keyboard/mouse) handling, output (screen and printer) etc. Examples include
Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac-OS, etc. |
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PABX - Private Automatic
Branch Exchange – sometimes shortened to PBX (the days of the manual switchboard are
all but over) – the term refers to private switchboards, providing internal telephony
services to an organisation, and the interface with external telephone lines. PBXs often
provide extra features, not available on a standard telephone, connected directly to the
public telephone exchange.
PAN - Personal Area Network - a concept
on the lines of LANs and WANs. It's the kind of
network which enables the electronic devices on and around a person to communicate
with each other - e.g. using the Bluetooth standard.
PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) -
originally a hand-held computing device, increasingly they now are linked to or
incorporate a wireless communications device. In the future you might wear one on your
arm, or strapped to your head like a Walkman once effective speech recognition is
developed.
POTS – Plain Old Telephone System refers to traditional
analogue telephone networks. Now being replaced by PANS - Pretty Amazing new Services
Protocol – a set of rules for controlling the flow
of data in a network, as in Internet protocol (IP)
PSTN – Public Switched Telephone Network – a
technical name for the global, standard, voice telephone network. Sometimes referred to as
POTS (plain old telephone service) |
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Remote access -
in essence it refers to
workers being able to access their organisation's network using ICT, from any or from a
designated location
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Satellite - Satellite
communications are becoming increasingly important for conquering distance and enabling location independent working. Digital transmission of data via low-level
satellites is set to increase the importance of satellites for remote and mobile ICT.
Set-top box - Set-top boxes or decoders have been
around for years, acting as gateways to satellite and cable TV
services. A new generation of them is upon us providing gateways to digital television, and Internet services provided through TV sets. It is
expected that in due course they will be incorporated within TV sets, or with plug-in
alternatives for different services/service providers but working to common standards.
Server – A server is an element on the network which
holds information or applications to be accessed by users of the network. A server can be
small, e.g. a "personal web server" running on a PC to enable you to develop web
pages; or massive, e.g. a machine holding corporate data for thousands of users, or a webserver run by a major Internet Service Provider. The main types of server you are
likely to encounter are:
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file servers - where electronic files such as documents, spreadsheets, images, video
files, etc are stored for shared access
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application server - where software programmes (such as Word, etc) are held
to be downloaded by users when they need them, rather than being installed on every PC
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database server - where information is held in a database or databases for shared access
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web server - where web pages for an intranet, extranet or Internet website are
"hosted".
SMEs - Small and Medium-sized Enterprises:
the usual jargon term used in the public sector to describe
not-big-business. SMEs are businesses having from 0 to 500 employees.
SOHO - or SoHo, short for Small Office-Home Office,
describing a real market in North America and a putative market elsewhere of small
(home-based) offices for location-independent
teleworkers
Sustainability - A key concept for the 1990s,
promoted by the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, and subsequently G7/G8 conferences and governments
at all levels. Essentially it is about living, working and ordering society in ways which
are environmentally "sustainable", encouraging reduction of pollution, re-use of
resources, promoting biodiversity etc. The core idea is that "current generations
should meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs". It is also in some quarters associated with promoting social
justice and a fairer society. |
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Telecommuting -
despite some academic distinctions, this term is used pretty much interchangeably with
teleworking, and is the more common term in the US. The conceptual emphasis is on
replacing the commute journey through electronic access to the workplace.Telecentre - a local wired work centre with a variety of
aliases: telecottage, electronic village hall, telebusiness centre, Oasis, and so on
Teleconferencing - holding a "virtual" conference with participants in different locations,
either via telephone (audioconferencing) or video (videoconferencing)
Telematics – a word much favoured in the EC and academic circles, covering the whole
field of performing actions at a distance using ICT; teleworking,
telelearning, telemedicine, home shopping, home banking, etc.
Teleworking - A catch all term describing any way of
working at a distance using a combination of computers and telecommunications. It is often
associated with home-based working, but includes site-to-site electronic working, mobile
working, etc.
Third Generation (3G) - a term applied to the
next generation of mobile telephony which will offer much higher bandwidth and allow
video, gaming and other multimedia applications. Also known as UMTS.
The first two generations of mobile telephony were Analogue
and GSM.
Transport substitution – a phrase used
to describe the transport effect that can occur with teleworking,
where electronic communication replaces physical journeys, either the commute journey or
in-work travel.
Tunnelling – the creation of an encrpyted/secured link over a public network.
The secured link can support alternate protocols
to the public network, although this is transparent to the user. Tunnelling is also used
in the context of establishing a secure, open link through a corporate Firewall. |
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UMTS - Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System - The European standard for third
generation mobile telephony. Data speeds will range from 114 to 2000 kbps,
allowing a wide range of high bandwidth applications as well as voice telephony.
Unix – A well
established operating system developed
in the 70s by AT&T. Many competing Unix systems are now availalbe from the likes of
Sun, SCO and Hewlett-Packard. Unix’s reliability and speed has ensured that it has
retained a large market share in business critical systems – particularly for web
applications and e-commerce
URL
(Uniform Resource Locator) – otherwise know as an Internet address |
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Videoconferencing
– one method of teleconferencing, the other being
audioconferencing. Videoconferencing is routine in Star Trek and organisations with large
communications budgets that can afford TV quality systems. Its popular base is growing
only slowly, due to expense and the jerky quality of pictures over the average ISDN line. Desktop videoconferencing is growing, and
there are potentially huge savings to be made by using desktop conferencing instead of
travelling to meetings. Increased bandwidth, compression technology, and declining cost of digital cameras will contribute to increases in
uptake.
Virtual - a word used to describe a scenario where
electronic means are used to simulate a traditional (physical) way of doing things, as in:
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Virtual team : where members of a team may be based in variety of locations, in one
or several organisations, rarely meeting but working collaboratively using electronic
networks
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Virtual office : takes the virtual team a stage further, so that the office does not
exist in any particular location, but rather exists in the network.
Voice-over-IP (VoIP) - basically
this is telephony over the Internet. Using your computer and the
IP networks, you can speak to others similarly connected.
The advantage is cost - it's much cheaper, especially for long-distance
calls. The disadvantages are (at the moment) quality, which is less than
plain old telephony, and that you don't have full access to the global
telephony networks. VPN - Virtual Private Network: A private network link, which
is carried on a public network through the use of tunnelling and
encryption methods. |
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WAN – Wide Area Network
- network or individual inks which connect smaller, localised networks and systemsweb - used as a descriptive noun, as in "web page" or
"web-enabled", it refers to Internet publishing technologies as used in the
World Wide Web (see next entry), but not necessarily published on the WWW. A web
page is viewed through a browser. It may be part
of a website accessible to a limited number of people on an intranet, or published to the
world at large on the World Wide Web.
WiFi - wireless fidelity - is the branding given by
the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance to the IEEE 802.11b standard for wireless
interoperability . WiFi enabled devices link together without cables to form wireless
local area networks. This has great significance for flexible work and the office of
the future. See also Bluetooth.
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A sideways look at the
jargon...
If you
prefer a more light-hearted approach to flexible work and ICT
jargon, try out our Jargonbuster series on:
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