Resources · Glossary

The Word Nobody Has Explained to You

One hundred sixty-eight technical terms, clearly defined, with no other abbreviations in the definitions.

A quote, an audit, a meeting minutes: the vocabulary of business IT is full of abbreviations, and no one dares to ask what they mean. That’s what this glossary is for. It explains what each term means, how it affects you, and when a product has changed its name since the document you’re looking at.

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Workstations andTerminal Management: 27Terms

Everything related to your employees' computers and phones: how to distribute them, how to keep them up to date, and how to retrieve them when someone leaves.

UEMUnified Endpoint Management: A single console to manage all of the company’s devices, regardless of their operating system: computers Windows, Macs, phones, and tablets. This is the state of the art today; the following three terms represent the historical milestones.

MDMMobile Device Management: Managing the device itself: you register it, assign it a passcode, encrypt it, and can remotely wipe it if it's lost.

EMMEnterprise Mobility Management: One level up: the device, as well as the apps and work documents it contains.

MAMMobile Application Management: Managing only business applications, without affecting the rest of the device. This is what makes it possible to allow an employee to use their personal phone: the company protects its email system without seeing any family photos.

MCMMobile Content Management: Controlling corporate documents on a mobile device: where they can be opened, copied, or sent.

MTDMobile Threat DefenseFormerMTM: Antivirus and anti-phishing protection for a work phone. We used to see the term MTM, the term “Mobile Threat Management”was used; the acronym in use today is MTD.

TEMTelecom Expense Management: Tracking the costs of telephone and mobile service plans for a fleet. Not to be confused with Technology Expense Management, which covers all IT expenses.

BYODBring Your Own Device: Employees use their own devices for work. This means less equipment to purchase, but it also requires drawing a very clear line between what belongs to the company and what belongs to the individual.

COPECorporate-Owned, Personally-Enabled: The opposite of the previous scenario: the device belongs to the company, which allows for reasonable personal use. This is the most common arrangement in Switzerland.

CYODChoose Your Own Device: The company makes the purchases but allows employees to choose from a limited catalog. It maintains control over the equipment fleet without imposing a single model.

IntuneMicrosoft IntuneFormerMEM: The Microsoft tool for managing workstations and mobile devices, in the cloud. It enrolls the device, installs apps, enforces security policies, and verifies compliance. Here’s how we do it with Intune.

MEMMicrosoft Endpoint ManagerName removed: Trade name used between 2019 and 2022 for the entire Intune + Configuration Manager. Microsoft has discontinued it: if a document mentions MEM, it is referring toIntune. Note that the same three letters also refer to Mobile Email Management in older mobile literature.

Configuration Managerex SCCM, then MECMRenamed twice: The long-standing tool for deploying systems and software to the installed base on your premises. It was originally called SMS, then SCCM, then MECM; its current name is simply Configuration Manager. It remains relevant for workstations that are never connected to the Internet.

Co-managementjoint management: A single workstation operated simultaneously by Configuration Manager and Intune, with each tool handling a portion of the configuration. This is the standard approach for transitioning away from local management without causing a major disruption on Monday morning. How we set it up.

AutopilotWindows Autopilot: The device is shipped directly from the supplier to the employee in its original box. All you need to do is log in: the device configures itself according to company policies, without any IT staff having to touch it. The page Autopilot.

OOBEOut-of-the-Box Experience: The few screens that appear when you first turn on a new device. That’s the exact moment when Autopilot takes over.

ADEAutomated Device Enrollment (Apple)FormerlyDEP: The Apple equivalent of “Autopilot ”: An iPhone or Mac purchased by the company is automatically registered in its management console. It used to say DEP, for Device Enrollment Program.

Apps and BooksApple Business ManagerEx-VPP: The mechanism that allows a company to purchase Apple apps in bulk and assign them to its employees, then reclaim them when an employee leaves. Formerly VPP, Volume Purchase Program.

KMEKnox Mobile Enrollment (Samsung): The same automatic registration process applies to Samsung devices: the device is added to the management console as soon as it is turned on for the first time.

Endpoint Analyticsex Desktop AnalyticsReplaced: Measuring what your users' experience is really like: startup time, apps that crash, and machines that are too slow. Desktop Analytics was discontinued by Microsoft in late 2022; its successor is Endpoint Analytics.

WUfBWindows Update for Business: Managing updates Windows in groups and waves, rather than all at once. This prevents a single update from bringing the entire company to a standstill on the very same morning.

LAPSLocal Administrator Password Solution: Each workstation is assigned a different administrator password, which is changed automatically and stored in a secure location. Without this, a single password would grant access to all workstations in the company, which remains one of the most common security flaws we encounter.

VDIVirtual Desktop Infrastructure: The user's desktop does not run on the user's machine but on a server; the screen merely displays an image. This is useful in situations where data must never leave the data center.

AVDAzure Virtual Desktop: Microsoft's version of the virtual desktop, hosted in the cloud Azure. You pay for usage rather than purchasing servers upfront.

Windows 365Cloud PC: A Windows , in the cloud, billed per user per month. It’s easier to understand and budget for thanAVD, and less of a hassle to set up.

DaaSDesktop as a Service: A workstation sold as a subscription, including hardware and management. Our offer.

Modern Managementmodern workforce management: The transition from a fleet managed from your servers to a fleet managed from the cloud, accessible from anywhere. It’s not a product—it’s a way to manage a fleet: hands-free deployment, continuous updates, and compliance that’s constantly verified.

Telephony, Unified Communications, andContact Centers: 35Terms

This is the area of the business with the most acronyms, and the one where a misunderstanding is the most costly: you don't change your phone number twice.

UCUnified Communications: The integration of voice, video, instant messaging, and presence into a single tool. In practice: one place to reach someone, no matter how you choose to contact them.

UCCUnified Communications and Collaboration: The same scope, plus the ability to collaborate on the same documents. That's what Microsoft does: Teams.

UMUnified Messaging: Voicemail delivered to the inbox, right next to emails. A long-standing feature ofExchange, now incorporated into voicemail cloud.

VoIPVoice over IP: Voice traffic carried over a computer network instead of a dedicated telephone line. This has been the foundation of all business telephony for the past twenty years.

ToIPTelephony over IP: The entire telephone service provided by this network: numbers, call forwarding, call groups, billing. VoIP is the transport; ToIP is the service.

PBXPrivate Branch Exchange: The company's telephone switchboard: the equipment that routes calls between internal extensions and external lines. In French: the automatic telephone exchange.

IPBXIP-based telephone system: The same equipment, but operating on the computer network. This is what Teams Phone, and similar solutions are replacing today. Our PBX migrations.

PSTN · RTCswitched telephone network: The public telephone network—the one that carries the numbers that can be reached from any phone in the world. Every enterprise solution must connect to it in one way or another: this is precisely what the following five terms describe.

SIPSession Initiation Protocol: The common language that two telephone devices use to agree on establishing a call. If two systems use SIP, they can, in principle, connect to each other.

SIP TrunkSIP trunk: The connection between your phone service and your carrier, which replaces the old physical lines. You purchase a number of simultaneous calls rather than a number of lines.

SBCSession Border Controller: The equipment located at the boundary between your network and the carrier’s network. It translates between incompatible SIP protocols, encrypts calls, and acts as a firewall for voice traffic. It’s the component that’s often overlooked in budgets and that determines whether a telephony project succeeds or fails.

SBASurvivable Branch Appliance: A small device installed at a remote location to ensure that the phone continues to work if the connection to headquarters is lost. These are installed in places where we cannot afford to lose the line: factories, clinics, and isolated locations.

Direct Routingdirect connection: Connecting Microsoft Teams to the carrier of your choice using a SBC connection that you control. The most flexible option—and the only one that allows you to keep your existing equipment. Telephony in Teams.

Operator Connectoperator integrated into Teams: The operator connects to your Teams directly from the administration console, without any equipment at your location. It's simpler, but limited to Microsoft partner operators.

Calling PlanMicrosoft calling plan: Microsoft itself becomes your phone carrier, offering a plan with a set number of minutes. Available in select countries, and rarely the best price in Switzerland for a large volume.

Teams PhoneMicrosoft's phone service Teams: The license and features that turn Teams into a true business phone system: public phone number, call forwarding, call groups, and an automated switchboard. Manage phone numbers on a daily basis.

E.164International numbering format: The standard that requires you to enter a number with its country code, without spaces: +41218063715. Modern systems only accept this format; business directories almost never do. This is a common reason why calls fail after a migration.

SDA · DIDdirect selection upon arrival: The fact that each employee has their own public phone number, which can be reached without going through the switchboard. The number of SDA lines held determines a large part of the cost of a connection.

QoSQuality of Service: The network setting that prioritizes voice traffic over all other traffic. Without it, a backup that starts at noon is enough to disrupt all of the company's calls.

MOSMean Opinion Score: The call quality rating, on a scale of 1 to 5. If it’s below 3.6, users complain; this is the number to look at when someone says “the phone is crackling.”

Media Bypassvoice over the direct line: The voice signal goes directly from the phone to the operator, without going through the SBC. Less hardware is required, resulting in better quality, but strict network conditions apply.

LBRLocation-Based Routing: Call routing based on the user's physical location. Required by regulations in several countries to prevent the circumvention of interconnection fees.

Emergency Calls112, 117, 144: A telephone system cloud must provide a usable address to emergency services . This is a requirement—and the point that projects most often overlook : an employee working remotely is not located at the company’s headquarters.

DECT · IP-DECTbusiness cordless phones: Wireless solutions for large facilities: warehouses, hospitals, hotels. They cover areas that no mobile phone can serve properly, with handsets that can withstand drops. Our DECT solutions.

Softphonesoftware phone: The phone is an app on a computer or mobile device; it does not require a dedicated device. This is the default mode on Teams.

CTITelephony-IT Integration: The connection between the phone and the business software: the customer's record opens automatically when the customer calls, and the call is logged in the customer's history without anyone having to enter it manually.

SVI · IVRInteractive Voice Response system: The welcome menu: “Press 1 for…”. When well-designed, it saves the caller time; when poorly designed, it is the leading cause of dissatisfaction with a contact center.

ACDAutomatic Call Distribution: Automatic distribution of incoming calls among available agents, based on queuing and priority rules.

Skill-Based Routingskill-based routing: The call is routed to the agent who can best handle it, not to the first available agent: based on language, product, and level of expertise. Our contact centers.

OmnichannelAll channels, one conversation: Phone, email, chat, forms, and social media are all handled in the same tool, with the same history. The key isn’t the number of channels; it’s ensuring that the customer doesn’t have to repeat their issue every time.

WFMWorkforce Management: Forecasting call volume and the resulting agent scheduling. This is what prevents having twelve people on Tuesday morning and two on Thursday at 4:00 p.m.

WFOWorkforce Optimization: The broader picture: planning, record-keeping, quality assessment, staff training. See completed projects.

Recordingrecording and reporting: Retaining conversations, whether for quality or compliance purposes. In Switzerland, this requires notifying individuals and establishing a retention period. Our page on this topic.

SFB · S4BSkype for BusinessEnd of Life: Microsoft's former communications platform, replaced by Teams. The online service has been discontinued since 2021. Only the server version, the Subscription Edition, remains—for businesses that need to keep their telephony systems on-premises. What's left of it.

Automatic switchboardauto-attendant: Automated phone reception without a human operator: announcements, hours of operation, and routing to the appropriate department. This is distinct from an IVR, which asks questions and directs callers based on their responses.

Identity andSecurity: 32 Terms

Identity has replaced the firewall as the first line of defense for the company: today, people no longer gain access through the network; they gain access through an account.

ADActive Directory: The directory service installed on your servers, which contains the company’s accounts, groups, and computers. It’s thirty years old and still plays a central role in most corporate networks.

Entra IDex Azure AD, formerly AADRenamed in 2023: The identity directory in cloud : it’s what gives you access to Microsoft 365Teams , and thousands of third-party apps. If a document mentions Azure ,AD , orAAD, it’s referring toEntra ID. What we do with it.

Entra Connectex Azure AD ConnectRenamed: The bridge that synchronizes your local directory with the cloud, so that an employee has only one account and one password. A failure of this bridge is the most visible incident there is: no one can log in anywhere.

SSOSingle Sign-On: A single sign-on grants access to all authorized applications. Fewer passwords written down on paper, and just one place to revoke access when someone leaves.

MFAMulti-Factor Authentication: In addition to the login, there is a second form of authentication: a mobile app, a physical token, or a fingerprint. This measure blocks the vast majority of intrusions involving stolen passwords, and it is the least expensive of all. Our page: MFA.

FIDO2 · passkeypasswordless authentication: A physical key or the phone completely replaces the password. Nothing to remember, nothing to steal through phishing: the authentication key never leaves the device.

Conditional AccessConditional Access: The rule that determines whether to authorize a connection based on the context: who, from which device, from which country, and to which application. This is where the security of a Microsoft 365 environment is truly determined. How we write it.

Zero Trustzero trust: The principle that no connection is trustworthy simply because it comes from inside the network. Every access attempt is verified, every single time. This isn’t a product you can buy—it’s a way to configure the ones you already have.

Less privilegeleast privilege: Everyone is granted exactly the permissions they need to do their job—and nothing more. This rule is the simplest to state but the hardest to follow over the long term.

RBACRole-Based Access Control: Rights are tied to a role, and people are assigned a role. When someone changes jobs, their role is updated: there’s no need to review two hundred authorizations.

PIMPrivileged Identity Management: Administrator privileges are no longer permanent: they are activated for a limited period, with justification and traceability. An administrator account stolen overnight is therefore useless.

PAMPrivileged Access Management: The broader discipline that governs all access to privileges: password vault, session logging, and pre-escalation validation. Our solution for the workstation.

SAMLSecurity Assertion Markup Language: The legacy protocol that allows an application to rely on your directory to authenticate a user. Still widely used in line-of-business software.

OAuth 2.0 · OIDCOpenID Connect: The equivalent modern protocols—the ones that display the “Sign in with…” button. OAuth handles authorization, while OpenID Connect adds the user’s identity.

SCIMautomatic account funding: Creating, updating, and—most importantly—automatically closing accounts in applications, directly from the directory. This ensures that an employee’s departure is effective everywhere on the same day.

PKIPublic Key Infrastructure: The system that issues and manages the company's digital certificates: this enables the encryption, signing, and verification of the identity of a server or a person. Our page: PKI.

AC · CAcertifying authority: The entity that issues certificates and on which everything else depends. Its key is the best-kept secret in an infrastructure: whoever holds it can impersonate anyone.

TLSTransport Layer Security: The encryption that protects data exchanged over the network: it's the padlock icon in the browser. It has replaced SSL, although the term is still used out of habit.

HSMHardware Security Module: A specialized device that stores encryption keys and uses them without ever disclosing them. Essential whenever compliance requirements mandate proving that a key could not have been copied.

DLPData Loss Prevention: Rules that prevent sensitive information from being leaked: a credit card number in an email, a customer file copied to a USB drive. They alert you, block the data, or both. Visit our page at DLP.

EDREndpoint Detection and Response: The successor to antivirus software: It doesn't scan for known files; instead, it detects abnormal behavior on the computer and allows the machine to be quarantined remotely.

XDRExtended Detection and Response: The same principle applied across the entire environment: workstations, email, identities, cloud, and network—all integrated into a single console.

SIEMSecurity Information and Event Management: The collector that gathers logs from all systems and flags anything out of the ordinary. Without it, an intrusion is discovered, on average, months later.

SOCSecurity Operations Center: The team that monitors these alerts and takes action, either during the day or around the clock. The technology detects; the SOC makes the decision.

MDRManaged Detection and Response: This same service, outsourced to a vendor. This is the approach chosen by most medium-sized companies, for whom maintaining an in-house team 24 hours a day doesn't make sense.

NGFWNext-Generation FirewallOften poorly designed: A firewall that does more than just open or close ports: it recognizes applications and users, and inspects encrypted content. The first word is "Next," not "New "—this is a common mistake. Our firewalls.

VPNVirtual Private Network: An encrypted tunnel that connects a remote employee or site to the company's network. It's effective, but it often grants access to much more than is necessary.

ZTNAZero Trust Network Access: VPN 's replacement: we grant access to a specific application for a specific person, not to the entire network.

Phishingphishing: An email or message that impersonates a trusted contact to obtain a password or a money transfer. This remains the main entry point for the majority of incidents, and no technology can completely close it off.

GDPRGeneral Data Protection Regulation: The European General Data Protection Regulation. It applies to Swiss companies whenever they process data belonging to residents of the European Union.

nLPDNew Federal Data Protection ActSwitzerland, since 2023: The equivalent Swiss law, which has been in effect since September¹, 2023. It requires, among other things, the maintenance of a record of processing activities, the reporting of data breaches, and the incorporation of data protection by design from the outset of a project.

3-2-1 BackupThe Survival Rule: Three copies of the data, on two different storage media, one of which is off-site and offline. That is the only thing that distinguishes an incident from a successful ransomware attack: a backup accessible from the network will be encrypted along with the rest.

Datacenter, cloud andinfrastructure—25 terms

The machines that power everything else, whether they’re in your basement or in a data center in Zurich. This is also where the two figures that determine the budget for disaster recovery come into play.

IaaSInfrastructure as a Service: You rent servers, storage, and network resources, and you remain responsible for the systems installed on them. The most direct equivalent of an existing server room .

PaaSPlatform as a Service: You rent a platform that’s ready to host your application: database, application server, and updates included. You no longer have to manage an operating system.

SaaSSoftware as a Service: You rent the finished software on a per-user, per-month basis. Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 are examples of this: you no longer have to manage anything other than your settings and your data.

Cloud publicshared resources: Resources shared among many customers, billed on a pay-as-you-go basis, from a provider such as Microsoft Azure. Our migrations Azure.

Cloud privatededicated infrastructure: The same principles of flexibility and billing, but on hardware reserved for a single company. Often chosen for reasons of compliance or data localization. Our offering.

Cloud hybridboth at the same time: Part of it is at your facility, part of it is at the supplier’s, with clear rules about what goes where. This is the reality for virtually all companies, and it’s rarely just a temporary phase. Our support.

TenantYour Microsoft Account: Your own space at Microsoft: your users, your data, your settings, separate from those of other customers. A company typically has only one; mergers often result in two.

Tenant-to-tenantmigration between two tenants: Migrating mailboxes, files, and identities from one Microsoft environment to another. The standard process involved in a merger, acquisition, or spin-off. How we handle it.

Landing zonelanding zone: The structure prepared in the cloud before adding anything to it: accounts, networks, permissions, naming conventions, and budgets. Skipping this step saves three weeks but ends up costing six months down the road.

HypervisorHyper-V, VMware ESXi: The software layer that runs multiple virtual servers on a single physical machine. It has been the foundation of every data center for the past twenty years.

HCIHyper-Converged Infrastructure: Computing, storage, and networking are all integrated into the same servers and managed from a single location. Capacity can be scaled by adding a node, without having to redesign the architecture. Azure HCI Stack.

SANStorage Area Network: A centralized storage system connected to the servers via a dedicated, high-speed network. The traditional model for enterprise storage.

NASNetwork-Attached Storage: Shared storage accessible via the standard network, in the form of folders. Simpler and less expensive than a SAN, but also slower.

SDSSoftware-Defined Storage: Storage is no longer specialized hardware but software distributed across standard servers. That is what makes hyperconvergence possible.

SCVMMSystem Center Virtual Machine Manager: The Microsoft console for managing a fleet of virtual servers: creation, migration, templates, quotas. Our SCVMM page.

SCOMSystem Center Operations Manager: Monitoring the status and performance of servers and applications. It alerts you before a failure occurs, rather than after.

Azure ArcUnified Administration: Servers located on your premises or with another provider are displayed and managed from the console Azure. A convenient solution for a network spread across three locations.

ExpressRouteprivate connection to Azure: A dedicated connection between your network and the cloud, without going through the Internet. We use it for consistent throughput and compliance, not for raw speed.

IoTInternet of Things: Sensors and machines that transmit measurements and can be controlled remotely: manufacturing, construction, logistics. IoTAzure .

IaCInfrastructure as Code: The infrastructure is described in version-controlled files and recreated exactly as specified by a command. The same environment, twice, without depending on what someone clicked on a Thursday.

High Availabilitycluster: Several machines provide the same service: if one goes down, another takes over without the user even noticing. This protects against hardware failure, but not against human error or ransomware.

RTORecovery Time Objective: How long the company is willing to tolerate downtime. Four hours and four days do not come at the same cost: it is this figure—determined by management, not the IT department—that dictates the entire architecture.

RPORecovery Point Objective: How much work is the company willing to lose? A nightly backup means that an entire day’s worth of data entry could be lost. If that is not acceptable, it must be stated before the incident occurs.

PRA · DRPdisaster recovery plan: The document and resources that enable the IT system to be restored after a disaster. A plan that has never been tested is not a plan—it is merely an intention.

PCA · BCPBusiness Continuity Plan: Broader in scope than the previous one: how the company continues to operate during the incident, even without IT systems. It applies to business functions as well as technical operations.

Business Applications, Data, andArtificial Intelligence: 29Terms

Vocabulary related to customer relations, internal processes, and tools that we write for you. This is the newest aspect of the field, and the one where words change the fastest.

CRMCustomer Relationship Management: The system that contains your clients, your contacts, your ongoing projects, and a history of your communications. Its value doesn’t come from the software itself, but from consistent data entry: a half-filled- CRM is worth less than a well- maintained spreadsheet. The Dynamics 365 suite.

ERPEnterprise Resource Planning: The management system: purchasing, inventory, production, billing, accounting. While the “ CRM ” focuses on the customer, the “ERP ” focuses on the inner workings of the company.

Dynamics 365Microsoft's suite of applications: A suite of business applications that share the same data: sales, customer service, contact center, field operations, projects, and marketing. You can use one, then another, without having to start from scratch. Our Business Solutions department.

Dataversethe shared database: The one-stop place where Dynamics 365 and the apps at Power Apps store their data, along with permissions and history. This is what ensures that information entered once is available everywhere, instead of having to be re-entered into three different tools.

Power Platformthe Microsoft Toolkit: The combination of Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI , and Copilot Studio, hosted at Dataverse . It is used to create what no other software on the market can do exactly the way you do.

Power Appscustom business applications: Everything you need to build an enterprise application without starting from scratch. Two approaches: canvas, a freely designed interface, often for mobile devices; and model-driven, an application generated from a data model, for structured processes. Our website: Power Apps.

Power Automateprocess automation: What’s still done manually between the two software programs: a validation, a reminder, and a file to upload every Friday. It runs automatically at the scheduled time.

Power BIdashboards and analysis: Reporting: consolidated figures from multiple sources, presented in views that a manager can review without having to call anyone.

Low-codeassisted development: An application built primarily through configuration, with code only where it is needed. This shortens development time; however, it does not eliminate the need for a data model, access rules, or testing.

Copilotthe built-in Microsoft assistant: Artificial intelligence built into the tools your teams already use: writing, summarizing a meeting, finding a document, preparing an analysis. Our Copilot page.

Copilot StudioCustomized assistants: Everything you need to build your own assistants, connected to your documents and systems, with rules you set. That’s what sets an assistant that just responds apart from one that comes up with ideas. Our page: Copilot Studio.

Agentassistant who acts: An assistant that doesn’t just respond but takes action: it opens a ticket, updates a record, and triggers an order. The question to be decided is never technical: it’s about what it’s allowed to do without human approval. Our use cases.

LLMLarge Language Model: The language model that generates text. It predicts what comes next; it does not consult any knowledge base on its own: by itself, it knows nothing about your company.

RAGRetrieval-Augmented Generation: The method that corrects this: First, we retrieve the relevant documents from your systems, then we ask the model to generate a response based solely on those documents. This is what makes a response verifiable and citable. Our private RAG page.

Promptinstruction given to the model: The guidelines that define the response: the role, the tone, what is prohibited, and the expected format. In a business assistant, this is a deliverable in its own right, which is reviewed and maintained.

InferenceRun a pre-trained model: Running a pre-trained model to generate a response. This is what consumes computing power on a daily basis, and it determines where the processing takes place: at Microsoft, at your premises, or on-site. Which architecture is right for your project?

Edge AIArtificial Intelligence Right Next to the Machine: Computations performed on-site—in the factory, warehouse, or store—rather than on a datacenter , because the decision must be made in a matter of milliseconds or because a connection is not guaranteed. The camera, sensor, and model are all in the same room. Our Edge AI page.

APIApplication Programming Interface: The interface through which two software programs exchange information without human intervention. When a software vendor says it “has an API ,” it means that its product can be connected to yours.

RESTweb service: The most common form ofAPI today: you query a web address and receive structured data in return. Our developments and integrations.

WebhookOutgoing notification: The opposite of a query-based API : the system notifies you as soon as an event occurs, without you having to check every five minutes.

Connectorready-to-use connection: A pre-existing link to a standard service—one that needs to be configured rather than developed. There are several hundred of these in the Power Platform ; verifying them before estimating the cost of a development project often saves the bulk of the budget.

ETLExtract, Transform, Load: The process of retrieving data from one system, formatting it, and loading it into another. It’s the most underappreciated task in any data project.

Data Importmigration from existing content: Transferring your customers, contacts, and transaction history from the old system. This is almost always the most time-consuming part of an application project, because the original data is incomplete, duplicated, or entered into a field intended for something else.

Single Customer Repositorygolden record: The customer reference record, compiled from all the records that exist in the various systems. It resolves any discrepancies: only one address is considered valid.

Customer InsightsCustomer Data and Journeys: The " Dynamics 365 " app, which aggregates scattered customer data and triggers actions based on that data. Our Customer Insights page.

Segmentationcustomer segmentation: Segmenting customers into groups based on objective criteria, in order to send them a message that is truly relevant to them.

Customer Journeycustomer journey: A series of automated steps triggered by a specific action: a completed form, a purchase, or three months of inactivity.

Lead · Opportunityvocabulary of the CRM: A lead is a contact for whom it is not yet known whether they have a project. An opportunity is an identified deal, with a value and a deadline. Confusing the two skews all the forecast figures.

Field ServiceService Call Management: Scheduling for field technicians: service calls, replacement parts, reports signed on-site. Our Field Service page.

Project OperationsProject and Business Management: Tracking sold projects: quotes, resource planning, time spent, progress-based billing. Our Project Operations page.

KPIkey performance indicator: The figure we choose to track because a decision depends on it. An indicator that no one looks at isn't really an indicator—it's just a cost of data collection.

Contract andProject Vocabulary:20 Terms

The one that no technical glossary defines, yet which determines who bears the risk. The first three terms are specific to Swiss law.

LSEFederal Law on Employment Services and Labor Leasing: The Swiss law (RS 823.11) that governs the assignment of an employee to another company. It requires official authorization, which not all companies that place engineers hold. We have been authorized since 2018.

Staffing ServicesStaffing Services: An engineer works at your company, under your supervision, for an agreed-upon period. You manage their work; their employer remains the service provider. Our sourcing services.

Managementtime-based billing: We bill for the hours actually worked. This is flexible when the scope changes, but the risk of going over budget remains entirely yours.

Flat-ratefixed price for a defined scope: A fixed amount for a predetermined outcome. The risk falls on the service provider, which requires a precisely defined scope: that is the whole purpose of the scope definition.

Mandatea commitment to do: The service provider takes on a project and is accountable for it. This is distinct from a one-time consultation: in this case, someone is responsible for the outcome and is named in the contract.

Outsourced IT Managementoutsourced operations: The day-to-day operation of all or part of your IT infrastructure is entrusted to a third party: monitoring, patches, support, and upgrades. Our IT outsourcing services.

MSPManaged Service Provider: The international term for a managed services provider: it operates, monitors, and bills for a service, rather than for hours.

SLAService Level Agreement: Quantified service-level commitments: response time, resolution time, and availability. Read the sections on penalties and exclusions: that’s where the true value of the commitment lies.

TMAThird-Party Application Maintenance: Maintenance of an application by a company that did not necessarily develop it: bug fixes, regulatory updates, and minor enhancements.

Run and BuildRun and Build: These are two budgets that are best kept separate: “run” maintains what already exists, while “build” creates something new. When “run” consumes everything, nothing moves forward.

TCOTotal Cost of Ownership: Total cost over the product's lifecycle: purchase, licenses, operation, training, disposal. A solution that is cheaper to purchase is often the most expensive after five years.

ROIReturn on Investment: The return on the project, relative to its cost. Useful only if the previous figure has been measured; otherwise, it is an estimate expressed as a percentage.

RFIRequest for Information: Preliminary research to find out what’s available on the market before drafting a set of specifications.

RFP · Request for ProposalRequest for Proposal: A formal request for proposals that specifies a particular need. The quality of the responses depends almost entirely on the precision of the request.

Scopingthe phase that precedes everything: The process of turning an intention into a scope: what is included, what is not, who decides, by when, and for how much. This is the only time when correcting a mistake costs nothing.

POCProof of Concept: A prototype designed to answer a single question: Does it work for us? It's discarded afterward. A POC that goes into production is a debt incurred without realizing it.

MVPMinimum Viable Product: The first truly usable version, intentionally scaled back, is put into the hands of users to learn from them. Unlike a POC, it is designed to last and grow.

Acceptance Testing · UATUser Acceptance Testing: Verification by your users—not by technicians—that the result meets the requirements. This determines acceptance and, therefore, payment.

Togglego-live, commissioning: The moment when we switch from the old system to the new one. It is prepared with a rehearsal, a time window, and, most importantly, a written procedure for reversing the switch.

Gold PartnerMicrosoft partnership level: A certification awarded by Microsoft based on verified skills and completed projects. It provides access to direct vendor support in the event of a critical issue. Our partners.

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The glossary covers the vocabulary related to the fields in which we work. If the term you’re looking for comes from a quote or report we’ve provided you, please ask us about it: we’ll answer your question, and the term will be added to this glossary.

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A single word is not enough to make a decision

Knowing what a SBC doesn’t tell you whether you need one at your site, or how many. This glossary provides the terminology; the answer, however, depends on your facilities, your constraints, and your deadlines.

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