Software applications

Definitions related to software applications, including tech terms about software programs for vertical industries and words and phrases about software development, use and management.

Microsoft Store - The Microsoft Store -- formerly called the Windows Store -- is an online marketplace for consumers to buy and download a variety of items.
Microsoft System Center - Microsoft System Center is a suite of software products designed to simplify the deployment, configuration and management of IT infrastructure and virtualized software-defined data centers.
MicroStrategy - MicroStrategy is an enterprise business intelligence (BI) application and software vendor.
mission-critical application - A mission-critical application is a software program or suite of related programs that must function continuously for a business or business segment to be successful.
mobile app - A mobile app (or mobile application) is a software application developed specifically for use on small, wireless computing devices, such as smartphones and tablets, rather than desktop or laptop computers.
mobile application development platform (MADP) - A mobile application development platform (MADP) is a type of software that allows a business to rapidly build, test and deploy mobile apps for smartphones or tablets.
mobile browser - A mobile browser is one that is optimized for the small display screen and limited resources of a handheld computing device such as a smart phone.
Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) - Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) software is meant to protect organizations and individual users from security threats on mobile platforms.
mobile UI (mobile user interface) - A mobile UI (mobile user interface) is the graphical and usually touch-sensitive display on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet, that allows the user to interact with the device's apps, features, content and functions.
Multiple Document Interface (MDI) - Multiple Document Interface (MDI) is a Microsoft Windows programming interface for creating an application that enables users to work with multiple documents simultaneously.
mySAP - MySAP, a product of the German software company SAP, is an e-business software integration tool that delivers content to a user based on his or her role in an enterprise.
Nagios - Nagios is an open source IT system monitoring tool.
national provider identifier (NPI) - A national provider identifier (NPI) is a unique ten-digit identification number required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) for covered healthcare providers in the United States.
native app - A native application is a software program developers build for use on a particular platform or device.
NoOps (no operations) - NoOps (no operations) is a concept that an IT environment can become so automated and abstracted from the underlying infrastructure that there's no need for a dedicated team to manage software in-house.
OLAP (online analytical processing) - OLAP (online analytical processing) is a computing method that enables users to easily and selectively extract and query data in order to analyze it from different points of view.
ONC (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology) - The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, abbreviated ONC, is an entity within the U.
open core model (open core software) - The open core model is an approach to software development that combines attributes of both the open source and closed source models.
Open Document Format (ODF) - The Open Document Format (ODF) is a zip-compressed, Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based, open source file format for saving and exchanging text, spreadsheets, charts, graphics and presentations.
Oracle Cloud - Oracle Cloud is a subscription-based public cloud services offering from database company Oracle.
Oracle E-Business Suite - Oracle E-Business Suite is one of Oracle Corporation's major product lines.
Oracle Unlimited License Agreement (ULA) - An Oracle Unlimited License Agreement (ULA) is an arrangement in which an enterprise pays a single up-front fee to get as many licenses as they want for a specified set of Oracle products over a fixed time frame.
Outlook Anywhere - Microsoft Outlook Anywhere is a software feature that lets clients using Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007, or Outlook 2003 connect to the Microsoft Exchange server and access their email from outside the corporate domain without having to use a virtual private network (VPN).
pagination - Pagination is the process of separating print or digital content into discrete pages.
Parallels - Parallels is a software company best-known for its software that allows users to run Microsoft Windows systems on Apple Macintosh computers.
partner relationship management (PRM) - Partner relationship management (PRM) is a combination of the software, processes and strategies companies use to streamline business processes with partners that sell their products.
Patch Tuesday - Patch Tuesday is the unofficial name of Microsoft's monthly scheduled release of security fixes for the Windows operating system (OS) and other Microsoft software.
perpetual software license - A perpetual software license is a type of software license that authorizes an individual to use a program indefinitely.
personal health record (PHR) - A personal health record (PHR) is an electronic summary of health information that a patient maintains control of themselves, as opposed to their healthcare provider.
pharmaceutical detailing - Pharmaceutical detailing is a 1:1 marketing technique pharmaceutical companies use to educate a physician about a vendor's products, hoping that the physician will prescribe the company's products more often.
Photoshop - Photoshop is an image creation, graphic design and photo editing software developed by Adobe.
point of care (POC) testing - Point of care testing (POC testing or POCT) is medical testing performed with the patient, outside of a laboratory setting.
polygenic risk score (PRS) - A polygenic risk score (PRS) is an expression of someone's likelihood of having or developing a particular medical condition.
Portable Document Format (PDF) - Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format that has captured all the elements of a printed document as an electronic image that users can view, navigate, print or forward to someone else.
predictive text - Predictive text is an input technology that facilitates typing on a device by suggesting words the user may wish to insert in a text field.
presentation software - Presentation software, also known as graphics presentation applications or presentation graphics programs, is a category of software used to create content where information is often represented in a graphical or visual way.
problem list - A problem list is a document that states the most important health problems facing a patient such as nontransitive illnesses or diseases, injuries suffered by the patient, and anything else that has affected the patient or is currently ongoing with the patient.
product development (new product development) - Product development -- also called new product management -- is a series of steps that includes the conceptualization, design, development and marketing of newly created or rebranded goods and services.
productivity software - Productivity software is a category of application programs that help users produce things such as documents, databases, graphs, spreadsheets and presentations.
Project Nightingale - Project Nightingale is a controversial partnership between Google and Ascension, the second largest health system in the United States.
public domain - Public domain is a designation for content that is not protected by any copyright law or other restriction and may be freely copied, shared, altered and republished by anyone.
push notification - Push notification, also called server push notification, is the delivery of information from a software application to a computing device without a specific request from the client.
R/3 - R/3 is the comprehensive set of integrated business applications from SAP, the German company that states it is the market and technology leader in business application software.
radiology information system (RIS) - A radiology information system (RIS) is a networked software system for managing medical imagery and associated data.
rapid mobile app development (RMAD) - Rapid mobile application development (RMAD) uses low-code/no-code programming tools to expedite the application creation process for mobile platforms.
reactive programming - Reactive programming is a programming paradigm, or model, that centers around the concept of reacting to changes in data and events as opposed to waiting for an event to happen.
real-time application (RTA) - A real-time application is an application program that functions within a time frame that the user senses as immediate or current.
records information management (RIM) - Records information management (RIM) is a corporate area of endeavor involving the administration of all business records through their life cycle.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) - Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is an enterprise Linux operating system (OS) developed by Red Hat for the business market.
Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) - A Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) is a group of organizations within a specific area that share healthcare-related information electronically according to accepted healthcare information technology (HIT) standards.
remote patient monitoring (RPM) - Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is a subcategory of homecare telehealth that allows patients to use mobile medical devices or technology to gather patient-generated health data (PGHD) and send it to healthcare professionals.
replenishment - Replenishment is the controlled and regular movement of inventory from an upstream point on the supply chain to a downstream location that requires sufficient stock to cover demand.
reseller - In information technology, a reseller is a company that typically purchases IT products or services from a product manufacturer, distributor or service provider and then markets them to customers.
Rich Internet Application (RIA) - A rich Internet application (RIA) is a Web application designed to deliver the same features and functions normally associated with deskop applications.
Rich Text Format (RTF) - Rich Text Format (RTF) is a file format that lets you exchange text files between different word processors in different operating systems.
robotic process automation (RPA) - Robotic process automation (RPA) is a technology that mimics the way humans interact with software to perform high-volume, repeatable tasks.
robotic surgery (robot-assisted surgery) - Robotic surgery is the use of computer technologies working in conjunction with robot systems to perform medical procedures.
round robin - A round robin is an arrangement of choosing all elements in a group equally in some rational order, usually from the top to the bottom of a list and then starting again at the top of the list and so on.
sales force automation (SFA) - Sales force automation (SFA) software is programming that streamlines the collection, analysis and distribution of data in a sales pipeline.
SAP Business One - SAP Business One is an ERP software platform specifically intended for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
SAP Integration Server - SAP Integration Server is the central component of SAP XI (Exchange Infrastructure), the company's enterprise application integration (EAI) product.
screen scraping - Screen scraping is a data collection method used to gather information shown on a display to use for another purpose.
security information management (SIM) - Security information management (SIM) is the practice of collecting, monitoring and analyzing security-related data from computer logs and various other data sources.
SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) - SELinux, or Security-Enhanced Linux, is a part of the Linux kernel that acts as a protective agent to the operating system.
seven wastes - The seven wastes are categories of unproductive manufacturing practices identified by Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System (TPS).
SharePoint farm - A SharePoint farm is a collection of servers that work in concert to provide a set of basic SharePoint services to support a single site.
SharePoint Online - Microsoft SharePoint Online is a collection of cloud- and web-based technologies that make it easy for organizations to store, share and manage digital information.
shareware - Shareware is software that is distributed free on a trial basis with the understanding that the user may need or want to pay for it later.
shell program - A shell program is software that provides users with an interface for accessing services in the kernel.
sideloading - Sideloading is the installation of an application on a mobile device without using the device's official application distribution method.
single pane of glass - A single pane of glass is a management console that presents data from multiple sources in a unified display.
skeuomorphism - Skeuomorphism is when something is designed with extra ornamentation to make it resemble another object so it is more familiar.
Slack software - Slack software is a cloud-based messaging application that enables the personnel in an organization to connect and collaborate.
smart home app (home automation app) - A smart home app, sometimes referred to as a home automation app or a smart home automation app, is an application used to remotely control and manage connected non-computing devices in the home, typically from a smartphone or tablet.
Snapchat - Snapchat is a mobile app that allows users to send and receive "self-destructing" photos and videos.
SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine -- Clinical Terms) - SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine -- Clinical Terms) is a standardized, multilingual vocabulary of clinical terminology that is used by physicians and other health care providers for the electronic exchange of health information.
social network - A social network is a website or app that lets people connect with each other on a common platform.
soft copy - A soft copy (sometimes spelled 'softcopy') is an electronic copy (or e-copy) of some type of data, such as a file viewed on a computer's display or transmitted as an email attachment.
software - Software is a set of instructions, data or programs used to operate computers and execute specific tasks.
software agent - A software agent is a persistent, goal-oriented computer program that reacts to its environment and runs without continuous direct supervision to perform some function for an end user or another program.
software audit - A software audit is an internal or external review of a software program to check its quality, progress or adherence to plans, standards and regulations.
software package - A software package is a group of programs bundled together into a product suite.
spam filter - A spam filter is a program used to detect unsolicited, unwanted and virus-infected emails and prevent those messages from getting to a user's inbox.
speech analytics - Speech analytics is the process of analyzing voice recordings or live customer calls to contact centers with speech recognition software to find useful information and provide quality assurance.
SQL injection (SQLi) - A SQL injection (SQLi) is a technique that attackers use to gain unauthorized access to a web application database by adding a string of malicious code to a database query.
stack overflow - A stack overflow is a type of buffer overflow error that occurs when a computer program tries to use more memory space in the call stack than has been allocated to that stack.
standard business reporting (SBR) - Standard business reporting (SBR) is a group of frameworks adopted by governments to promote standardization in reporting business data.
state management - Application state management is the process of maintaining knowledge of an application's inputs across multiple related data flows that form a complete business transaction -- or a session -- to understand the condition of the app at any given moment.
stateful app - A stateful app is a program that saves client data from the activities of one session for use in the next session.
stateless app - A stateless app is an application program that does not save client data generated in one session for use in the next session with that client.
static analysis (static code analysis) - Static analysis, also called static code analysis, is a method of computer program debugging that is done by examining the code without executing the program.
storage at the edge - Storage at the edge is the collective methods and technologies that capture and retain digital information at the periphery of the network, as close to the originating source as possible.
supplier relationship management (SRM) - Supplier relationship management (SRM) is a systematic approach to evaluating and partnering with vendors that supply goods, materials and services to an organization, determining each supplier's contribution to success, and developing strategies to improve their performance.
supply chain planning (SCP) - Supply chain planning (SCP) is the process of anticipating the demand for products and planning their materials and components, production, marketing, distribution and sale.
systems integrator - A systems integrator is an individual or business that builds computing systems for clients by combining hardware, software, networking and storage products from multiple vendors.
tape backup - Tape backup is the practice of periodically copying data from a primary storage device to a tape cartridge.
team collaboration tools - Team collaboration tools -- also known as team collaboration software -- is a term used to define the different types of software and online services available to companies and individuals that enable them to feasibly work together on common projects, regardless of their physical location.
Terraform - HashiCorp Terraform is an infrastructure as code (IaC) software tool that allows DevOps teams to automate infrastructure provisioning using reusable, shareable, human-readable configuration files.
test harness - In software development, a test harness is a collection of software and test data used by developers to unit test software models during development.
Testing as a Service (TaaS) - Testing as a service (TaaS) is an outsourcing model in which testing activities associated with some of an organization's business activities are performed by a service provider rather than in-house employees.