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MEANINGS

1) What is a Process? - CONVERTING INPUT INTO OUTPUT

A Process is defined as a sequence of events that uses inputs to produce outputs.

From a business perspective, a Process is a coordinated and standardized flow of

activities performed by people or machines, which can traverse functional or
departmental boundaries to achieve a business objective and creates value for
internal or external customers.

2) Business Process Automation (BPA) is the technology-enabled automation of

activities or services that accomplish a specific function and can be implemented for
many different functions of company activities, including sales, management,
operations, supply chain, human resources, information technology, etc.

3) Control is defined as policies, procedures, practices and organization structure

that are designed to provide reasonable assurance that business objectives are
achieved and undesired events are- Prevented, Detected and Corrected

3PO+PDC

4) Accounting or Book keeping cycle covers the business processes involved in

recording and processing accounting events of a company. It begins when a
transaction or financial event occurs and ends with its inclusion in the financial
statements. A typical life cycle of an accounting transaction may include the following
transactions
(a) Source Document: A document that captures data from transactions and
events.
(b) Journal: Transactions are recorded into journals from the source document.
(c) Ledger: Entries are posted to the ledger from the journal.
(d) Trial Balance: Unadjusted trial balance containing totals from all account
heads is prepared.
(e) Adjustments: Appropriate adjustment entries are passed.
(f) Adjusted Trial balance: The trial balance is finalized post adjustments.
(g) Closing Entries: Appropriate entries are passed to transfer accounts to
financial
statements.
(h) Financial statement: The accounts are organized into the financial statements.

5) “Data” means a (RAW FACTS & FIGURES) representation of information,

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knowledge, facts, concepts or instructions which are being prepared or have been
prepared in a formalized manner, and is intended to be processed, is being
processed or has been processed in a computer system or computer network;

6) What is a system? - IPO

System means
“a set of principles or procedures per which something is done; an organized
scheme or method”or “a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or
an interconnecting network; a complex whole”

The word “system” can be explained in a simple way as, “a set of detailed methods,
procedures and routines created to carry out a specific activity, perform a duty, or
solve a problem”. It is an organized, purposeful structure that consists of interrelated
and interdependent elements (components, entities, factors, members, parts etc.

7) Customer Relationship Management – (VILFREDO PARETO) PARETO ANALYSIS –

80:20 ANALYSIS RULE
CRM is a term applied to processes implemented by a company to handle its
contact with its customers.
CRM software is used to support these processes, storing information on current
and prospective customers.
The rationale behind this approach is to improve services provided directly to
customers and to use the information in the system for targeted marketing.

8) Role-Based-Access-Control (RBAC) VS (RAC) RULE BASED ACCESS CONTROL

Role-Based-Access-Control (RBAC) is a policy neutral access control mechanism
defined around roles and privileges. The components of RBAC such as role-
permissions, user-role and role-role relationships make it simple to perform user
assignments. RBAC can be used to facilitate administration of security in large
organizations with hundreds of users and thousands of permissions.
Roles for staff are defined in organization and access to the system can be given
according to the role assigned. E.g. a junior accountant in accounting department is
assigned a role of recording basic accounting transactions, an executive in human
resource department is assigned a role of gathering data for salary calculations on
monthly basis, etc.

9) MIS – CHAPTER 4 – ( TPS – OAS -KMS – MIS- DSS – EIS )

An MIS report is a tool that managers use to evaluate business processes and
operations. It also includes discussion of how to visually present different kinds of
information.

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10) Business Intelligence (BI)

Business Intelligence (BI) is a technology-driven process for analyzing data and
presenting actionable information to help corporate executives, business managers
and other end users make more informed business decisions.

BI encompasses a wide variety of tools, applications and methodologies that

enable organizations to collect data from internal systems and external sources,
prepare it for analysis, develop and run queries against the following:

BI TOOLS
1. data and create reports,
2. dashboards and
3. data visualizations to make the analytical results available to corporate decision
makers as well as operational workers.
4. Scorecards
5. Data mining & Statistical analysis
6. Simple report & Querying

11) Information System (IS) is a combination of- HW+ SW+NW+DB + USER

 People
 Hardware
 Software
 Communication devices
 Network and
 Data resources,

12) Hardware is the part of Information Systems that can be touched which is the physical
components of technology. Computers, keyboards, hard drives, iPads and flash drives
are all examples of Information.

13) Input Devices are devices through which we interact with the systems and include
devices like Keyboard, Mouse and other pointing devices, Scanners & Bar Code,
MICR readers, Webcams, Microphone and Stylus/ Touch Screen.

14) Processing devices

Processing Devices include computer chips that contain the Central Processing Unit
and main memory.
The Central Processing Unit (CPU or microprocessor) is the actual hardware that
interprets and executes the program (software) instructions and coordinates how all the
other hardware devices work together.
The processor or CPU is like the brain of the computer. The main function of CPU is to
execute programs stored in memory.
It has 3 functional units
1. Control unit (CU)

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2. Arithmetic & Logic unit (ALU)
3. Registers

15) Internal memory = Processor registers + Cache memory

16) Primary memory:

These are devices in which any location can be accessed by the computer’s processor
in any order (in contrast with sequential order). These are primarily of two types
 Random access memory (RAM)
 Read only memory (ROM)

17) RAM – Random Access Memory

 Volatile in nature means Information is lost as soon as power is turned off.
 This is Read Write memory whose main purpose is to hold program and data
while they are in use. Information can be read as well as modified.
 It is responsible for storing the instructions and data that the computer is using
at that present moment.

18) ROM – Read Only Memory

o This is non-volatile in nature (contents remain even in absence of power).
o Usually, these are used to store small amount of information for quick
reference by CPU.
o Information can be read not modified.
o Generally used by manufacturers to store data and programs like translators that
is used repeatedly.

19) Cache memory

There is a huge speed difference between Registers and Primary Memory.
To bridge these speed differences, we have cache memory.
Cache memory is a smaller, faster memory, which stores copies of the data
from the most frequently used main memory locations so that Registers can
access it more rapidly than main memory.

20) Virtual memory – OS + HW Support – Imaginary – When RAM runs low – Paging
file
Virtual Memory is in fact not a separate device but an imaginary memory
area supported by some operating systems (for example, Windows) in conjunction
with the hardware.
If a computer lacks the Random-Access Memory (RAM) needed to run a program or
operation, Windows uses virtual memory to compensate. Virtual memory combines
computer’s RAM with temporary space on the hard disk.
When RAM runs low, virtual memory moves data from RAM to a space called a

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paging file.
Moving data to and from the paging file frees up RAM to complete its
work.
Thus, Virtual memory is an allocation of hard disk space to help RAM.

21) Secondary memory

Secondary storage differs from primary storage. It is not directly accessible by the
CPU. The computer usually uses its input/output channels to access secondary
storage and transfers the desired data using intermediate area in primary storage.
Secondary storage does not lose the data when the device is powered down: it is
non-volatile.
The features of secondary memory devices are-
 non-volatility (contents are permanent in nature),
 greater capacity (they are available in large size),
 greater economy (the cost of these is lesser compared to register and
RAMs) and
 slow speed (slower in speed compared to registers or primary storage).
22) Output devices
Computer systems provide output to decision makers at all levels in an enterprise
to solve business problems, the desired output may be in visual, audio or digital
forms. Output devices are devices through which system responds. Some types of
output are textual, graphical, tactile, audio, and video.
Most common examples of output devices are Speakers, Headphones, Screen
(Monitor), Printer, Voice output communication aid, Automotive navigation system,
Video, Plotter, Wireless etc.
23) Software
Software is a set of instructions that tells the hardware what to do. Software is
intangible and cannot be touched.
Examples of operating system software: Microsoft Windows, LINUX, etc. Examples of
application software: Microsoft Excel, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft PowerPoint etc.
Software can be broadly divided into two categories: Operating Systems Software and
Application Software.
Operating systems manage the hardware and create the interface between the
hardware and the user
24) An Operating System (OS) is a set of computer programs that manages computer
hardware resources and acts as an interface with computer applications programs. The
operating system is a vital component of the system software in a computer system.
Application programs usually require an operating system to function that provides a
convenient environment to users for executing their programs. Computer hardware
with operating system can thus be viewed as an extended machine, which is more
powerful and easy to use. Some prominent Operating systems used nowadays are
Windows 7, Windows 8, Linux, UNIX, etc.
All computing devices run an operating system. For personal computers, the most

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popular operating systems are Microsoft’s Windows, Apple’s OS X, and different
versions of Linux. Smart phones and tablets run operating systems as well, such as
Apple’s iOS, Google Android, Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS, and Research in Motion’s
Blackberry OS.

25) Application software includes all that computer software that cause a computer to
perform useful tasks beyond the running of the computer itself. It is a collection of
programs which address a real-life problem of its end users which may be business or
scientific or any other problem.

26) Database

A database is designed to take data, put the data into context, and provide tools for
aggregation and analysis.

A database is an organized collection of related information. It is called an organized

collection because in a database all data is described and associated with other data.

All information in a database should be related as well; separate databases should be

created to manage unrelated information.

27) Database Management Systems is a software that aids in-

• Organizing,
• Controlling and
• Using the data needed by the organization.

show particular deposit and withdrawal patterns are not good credit risks.
28) Routing
It refers to the process of deciding on how to communicate the data from source to
destination in a network.
29) Bandwidth
It refers to the amount of data which can be sent across a network in given time.
30) Resilience
It refers to the ability of a network to recover from any kind of error like connection
failure, loss of data etc.
31) Contention
It refers to the situation that arises when there is a conflict for some common resource
in a network. For example, network contention could arise when two or more
computer systems try to communicate at the same time.
32) Packet
The fundamental unit of data transmitted over the Internet. When a device intends
to send a message to another device (for example, your PC sends a request to YouTube
to open a video), it breaks the message down into smaller pieces, called packets. Each
packet has the sender’s address, the destination address, a sequence number, and a

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piece of the overall message to be sent.
33) Repeater
A repeater regenerates the signal over the same network before the signal becomes
too weak or corrupted to extend the length to which the signal can be transmitted
over the same network. They do no amplify the signals, however, when the signal
becomes weak, they copy the signal bit by bit and regenerate it at the original
strength.
34) Hub
A simple network device that connects other devices to the network and sends packets
to all the devices connected to it. A hub is basically a multiport repeater that connects
multiple wires coming from different branches. Hubs cannot filter data, so data packets
are sent to all connected devices. As they do not have intelligence to find out best path
for data packets which leads to inefficiencies and wastage.
35) Bridge
Bridge is a communications processor that connects two Local Area Networks
(LANs) working on the same protocol. A bridge is a repeater, with add on functionality
of filtering content by reading the MAC addresses of source and destination.
36) Switch
A network device that connects multiple devices together and filters packets based
on their destination within the connected devices.
37) Router
A device that receives and analyses packets and then routes them towards their
destination. In some cases, a router will send a packet to another router; in other cases,
it will send it directly to its destination.
38) Network Topology
The term ‘Topology’ defines the physical or logical arrangement of links in a
network. It is the geometric representation of the relationship of all the links and
linking devices (usually called Nodes) to each other. Common topologies are Star
Network that involves a central unit with number of terminals tied into it; Bus
Network in which a single length of wire, cable, or optical fiber (called bus) connects
several computers; Ring Network much like a bus network, except the length of wire,
cable, or optical fiber connects to form a loop; and Mesh Network in which each node
is connected by a dedicated point to point link to every node.
39) Transmission Mode
It is used to define the direction of signal flow between two linked devices. There
are three types of transmission modes characterized as per the direction of
the exchanges:
• Simplex (wherein the data flows in only one direction- unidirectional),
• Half-Duplex (where in the data flows in one direction or the other, but
not
both at the same time) and
• Duplex (in which the data flows in both directions simultaneously).
40) Protocol
In computer networking, a protocol is the set of rules that allow two (or more)
devices to exchange information back and forth across the network.

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41) Packet switching
When a packet is sent from one device out over the Internet, it does not follow a
straight path to its destination. Instead, it is passed from one router to another
across the Internet until it is reaches its destination. In fact, sometimes two packets
from the same message will take different routes. Sometimes, packets will arrive at
their destination out of order. When this happens, the receiving device restores
them to their proper order.

42) Preventive control

These controls prevent errors, omissions, or security incidents from occurring.
Examples include simple data-entry edits that block alphabetic characters from
being entered in numeric fields, access controls that protect sensitive data/
system resources from unauthorized people, and complex and dynamic technical
controls such as antivirus software, firewalls, and intrusion prevention systems.
In other words, Preventive Controls are those inputs, which are designed to
prevent an error, omission or malicious act occurring.
43) Detective control
These controls are designed to detect errors, omissions or malicious acts that occur
and report the occurrence. In other words, Detective Controls detect errors or
incidents that elude preventive controls. For example, a detective control may identify
account numbers of inactive accounts or accounts that have been flagged for
monitoring of suspicious activities. Detective controls can also include monitoring
and analysis to uncover activities or events that exceed authorized limits or violate
known patterns in data that may indicate improper manipulation. For sensitive
electronic communications, detective controls can indicate that a message has been
corrupted or the sender’s secure identification cannot be authenticated.
44) Corrective control
It is desirable to correct errors, omissions, or incidents once they have been
detected. They vary from simple correction of data-entry errors, to identifying and
removing unauthorized users or software from systems or networks, to recovery
from incidents, disruptions, or disasters. Generally, it is most efficient to prevent
errors or detect them as close as possible to their source to simplify correction.
These corrective processes also should be subject to preventive and detective
controls, because they represent another opportunity for errors, omissions, or
falsification.

45) Firewall
It is a system that enforces access control between two networks. All traffic between the
external network and the organization’s intranet must pass through the firewall that
allows only authorized traffic between the organization and the outside to pass
through it. It must be immune to penetrate from both outside and inside the
organization.

46) Encryption
It is the conversion of data into a secret code for storage in databases & transmission
over networks. The sender uses an encryption algorithm with a key to convert the
original message called the Clear text into Cipher text.

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This is decrypted at the receiving end. Two general approaches are used for encryption
viz. pvt. key and public key encryption.

47) E-Commerce
E-Commerce is the process of doing business electronically. It refers to the use of
technology to enhance the processing of commercial transactions between a
company, its customers and its business partners. It involves the automation of a
variety of Business-To-Business (B2B) and Business-To-Consumer (B2C) transactions
through reliable and secure connections.

48) Architecture
Architecture is a term to define the
 style of design and
 method of construction,
used generally for buildings and other physical structures.
In e-commerce, it denotes the way network architectures are build.

There are two types of architecture in the telecommunication network.

1. Two tier architecture
2. Three tier architecture

49) Two – tier architecture

Two-tier network, client (user) sends request to Server and the Server responds to the
request by fetching the data from it. The Two-tier architecture is divided into two
tiers- Presentation Tier and Database Tier.

50) Three Tier Architecture

Three - Tier architecture is a software design pattern and well-established software
architecture. Its three tiers are the Presentation Tier, Application Tier and Data Tier.
Three-tier architecture is a client-server architecture in which the functional process
logic, data access, computer data storage and user interface are developed and
maintained as independent modules on separate platforms. The three-tier
architecture are as follows:
Presentation Tier: Occupies the top level and displays information related to services
available on a website. This tier communicates with other tiers by sending results to
the browser and other tiers in the network.

Application Tier: Also, called the Middle Tier, Logic Tier, or Business Logic; this tier is
pulled from the presentation tier. It controls application functionality by performing
detailed processing. In computer software, business logic or domain logic is the part
of the program that encodes the real-world business rules that determine how data
can be created, displayed, stored, and changed.
Database Tier: This tier houses the database servers where information is stored and
retrieved. Data in this tier is kept independent of application servers or business logic.
The data tier includes the data persistence mechanisms (database server and file

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shares etc.) data access layer that encapsulates the persistence mechanisms and
exposes the data. The data access layer should provide an Application Programming
Interface (API) to the application tier that exposes methods of managing the stored
data without exposing or creating dependencies on the data storage mechanisms.
Avoiding dependencies on the storage mechanisms allows for updates or changes
without the application tier clients being affected by or even aware of the change.

Client(s)Presentation Tier

DesktopLaptopWorkstation

Application Tier

Server

DatabaseTier
Database Database

51) M-commerce
M-commerce (mobile commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services
through wireless handheld devices such as cellular telephone and Personal Digital
Assistants (PDAs). M-commerce enables users to access the Internet without
needing to find a place to plug in.

52) Virtualization
Virtualization means to create a virtual version of a device or resource, such as a
server, storage device, network or even an operating system where the framework
divides the resource into one or more execution environments. Virtualization refers to
technologies designed to provide a layer of abstraction between computer hardware
systems and the software running on them. By providing a logical view of computing
resources, rather than a physical view; virtualization allows its users to manipulate
their systems’ operating systems into thinking that a group of servers is a single pool
of computing resources and conversely, allows its users to run multiple operating
systems simultaneously on a single machine.

53) Grid Computing

Grid Computing is a computer network in which each computer’s resources are
shared with every other computer in the system. It is a distributed architecture of
large numbers of computers connected to solve a complex problem. In the grid
computing model, servers or personal computers run independent tasks and are
loosely linked by the Internet or low-speed networks.

54) Cloud computing

Cloud computing, simply means the use of computing resources as a service through

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networks, typically the Internet. The Internet is commonly visualized as clouds; hence
the term “cloud computing” for computation done through the Internet. With Cloud
Computing, users can access database resources via the Internet from anywhere, for
as long as they need, without worrying about any maintenance or management of
actual resources. Besides these, databases in cloud may be highly dynamic and
scalable. In fact, it is a very independent platform in terms of computing.

55) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): IaaS, a hardware-level service, provides

computing resources such as processing power, memory, storage, and networks for
cloud users to run their application on-demand. This allows users to maximize the
utilization of computing capacities without having to own and manage their own
resources. The end-users or IT architects will use the infrastructure resources in the
form of Virtual machines (VMs) and design virtual infrastructure, network load
balancers etc., based on their needs. The IT architects need not maintain the physical
servers as it is maintained by the service providers. Examples of IaaS providers
include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Compute Engine, OpenStack and
Eucalyptus.
56) Platform as a Service (PaaS): PaaS provides the users the ability to develop and
deploy an application on the development platform provided by the service provider.
In traditional application development, the application will be developed locally and
will be hosted in the central location. In stand-alone application development, the
application will be developed by traditional development platforms result in licensing
- based software, whereas PaaS changes the application development from local
machine to online. For example- Google AppEngine, Windows Azure Compute etc.
Typical PaaS providers may provide programming languages, application frameworks,
databases, and testing tools apart from some build tools, deployment tools and
software load balancers as a service in some cases..

57) Software as a Service (SaaS): SaaS provides ability to the end users to access an
application over the Internet that is hosted and managed by the service provider.
Thus, the end users are exempted from managing or controlling an application the
development platform, and the underlying infrastructure. SaaS changes the way the
software is delivered to the customers. SaaS provides users to access large variety of
applications over internets that are hosted on service provider’s infrastructure. For
example, one can make his/her own word document in Google docs online, s/he can
edit a photo online on pixlr.com so s/he need not install the photo editing software
on his/her system - thus Google is provisioning software as a service.

58) Mobile Computing

Mobile Computing refers to the technology that allows transmission of data via a
computer without having to be connected to a fixed physical link. Mobile voice
communication is widely established throughout the world and has had a very rapid
increase in the number of subscribers to the various cellular networks over the last
few years. An extension of this technology is the ability to send and receive data
across these cellular networks. This is the fundamental principle of mobile computing.
It allows users to transmit data from remote locations to other remote or fixed
locations. This proves to be the solution of the biggest problem of business people
on the move i.e. mobility.

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59) Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Intelligence, as defined in Chambers dictionary- “The ability to use memory,
knowledge, experience, understanding, reasoning, imagination and judgments to
solve problems and adapt to new situations”. The ability described above when
exhibited by machines is called as Artificial intelligence (AI). It is intelligence exhibited
by machines. For example:
 This technology is being used in autonomous vehicles, the google car.
 Apple online assistant Siri is supposed to use it.

60) CBS- Core Banking Solution

CBS involves banking services provided by a group of networked bank branches. As
they are networked, customers can access their accounts and perform certain
transactions from any of the bank’s branches. The customer is no longer a customer
of the branch but is a customer of the bank. CBS is a combination of an application
software and network devices. There is a Central Data Centre which is a Data Centre
which has a large data housing infrastructure providing high band width access to its
clients.

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