Like every industry and speciality, business processes and business systems come with their own lingo or jargon. Listed below are some of the many abbreviations and acronyms you are likely to come across when browsing through articles and material on this subject. (roll/hover over the descriptions for more details)
Where an abbreviation has more than one meaning, the one that is most relevant to the subject matter of business management systems has been defined.

Business Methodology and Systems
ABDP – [tippy title="Attribute-Based Demand Planning" header="on"]
A software system drawing on lean inventory management methods to determine what stock requirements are needed and when they are needed, to ensure fulfillment of customer requirements.[/tippy]
ALM – [tippy title="Asset Lifecycle Management" header="on"]
Management of an organisation’s assets from acquisition through implementation, maintenance and disposal, with the objective of maximising the return on the investment in the asset.[/tippy]
ATO – [tippy title="Assemble To Order" header="on"]
A manufacturing strategy where parts and sub-assemblies are stocked and the final assembly of products is delayed until customer orders have been received. Also known as Made To Order (MTO).[/tippy]
BAM – [tippy title="Business Activity Monitoring" header="on"]
Real-time or near real-time monitoring of KPIs.[/tippy]
BCM – [tippy title="Business Continuity Management" header="on"]
A management process to help minimise the impact that potential business risks or disasters may have on the organisation’s ability to meet its strategic goals.[/tippy]
BI – [tippy title="Business Intelligence" header="on"]
Software applications that provide analysis of relevant business operational data, often in line with previously established KPIs.[/tippy]
BPI – [tippy title="Business Process Improvement" header="on"]
A methodology designed for making significant improvements to business administrative and support processes.[/tippy]
BPM – [tippy title="Business Process Management" header="on"]
A management discipline that aligns strategic goals with operational goals utilising process improvement methodologies and information technology systems.[/tippy]
BPO – [tippy title="Business Process Outsourcing" header="on"]
The outsourcing of one or more business activities through a contact with a third party. BPO can be used to describe a very wide range of outsourced activities – eg. computer services (IT), human resources (HR), manufacturing, etc.[/tippy]
Business Agility – [tippy title="Business Agility" header="on"]
The ability of an organisation to respond to changing business needs in order to capitalise on emerging business opportunities.[/tippy]
CMMS – [tippy title="Computerised (Computerized) Maintenance Management Systems" header="on"]
Also referred to as Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), is a software database application for tracking and managing maintenance programs of equipment used within an organisation. Typical objectives of implementing such a system include meeting performance, safety and/or quality requirements, along with tracking capital equipment assets from a financial perspective.[/tippy]
CMS – [tippy title="Content Management System" header="on"]
A software system utilising a database for storage, maintenance and retrieval of electronic files with the aim of facilitating file distribution (and potentially contribution) across multiple authorised users.[/tippy]
CPI – [tippy title="Continuous Process Improvement" header="on"]
A management methodology for instilling a culture of ongoing, incremental improvements to quality and productivity across an organisation.[/tippy]
CRM – [tippy title="Customer Relationship Management" header="on"]
A software system that facilitates customer service and support. It may also extend to the anlaysis of interations with an organisation’s customer base.[/tippy]
CRP – [tippy title="Capacity Requirements Planning" header="on"]
Planning production capacity to meet product demand.[/tippy]
CTO – [tippy title="Configure To Order" header="on"]
A manufacturing strategy where product requirements are customised at the time of ordering and then produced accordingly.[/tippy]
DFSS – [tippy title="Design For Six Sigma" header="on"]
Places greater customer focus up front, on system design with the aim of avoiding process problems.[/tippy]
DM – [tippy title="Demand Management" header="on"]
A management methodology linking sales forecasting, customer service and manufacturing to ensure that both manufacturing capacity and manufacturing resources are available to satisfy expected sales.
Also known as Demand Planning; derived from Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing.[/tippy]
EAI – [tippy title="Enterprise Application Integration" header="on"]
Software solutions to link legacy applications which would otherwise remain as ‘stand-alone’ systems.[/tippy]
EAM – [tippy title="Enterprise Asset Management" header="on"]
The management of capital equipment assets across an organisation with the objective of meeting performance, safety and/or quality requirements, along with tracking capital equipment assets from a financial perspective.[/tippy]
EAS – [tippy title="Enterprise Application Search" header="on"]
Search technology which is integrated into an enterprise application and is typically context sensitive in its implementation.[/tippy]
EDM – [tippy title="Enterprise Decision Management" header="on"]
A rules-based software system used to automate business decisions affecting an organisation’s customer base, suppliers and employees.[/tippy]
EPM – [tippy title="Enterprise Project Management" header="on"]
A software system for controlling and managing multiple projects across multiple project teams within an organisation.[/tippy]
ERP – [tippy title="Enterprise Resource Planning" header="on"]
A software system that integrates business areas such as finance, planning, purchasing, inventory, sales, marketing and human resources.[/tippy]
ETO – [tippy title="Engineer To Order" header="on"]
A manufacturing strategy where product requirements are engineered at the time of ordering and then produced accordingly; differing from MTO given that potentially only a prototype or proof of concept may exist prior to the order being fulfilled.[/tippy]
FMEA – [tippy title="Falure Mode and Effects Analysis" header="on"]
A methodology for improving quality of products or service through analysing potential failure modes within a given process, design or system.[/tippy]
HRMS – [tippy title="Human Resource Management System" header="on"]
(Also know as Human Resource Information System, HRIS)
A software system, typically forming part of an ERP systems, and combining financial database records, to manage the personnel records including personal details, skills, training requirements, payroll history, leave entitlements, etc.[/tippy]
JIT – [tippy title="Just In Time" header="on"]
A management methodology (relating to manufacturing) to reduce inventory (costs), only acquiring or producing stock at the time it can be consumed (sold).[/tippy]
KPI – [tippy title="Key Performance Indicator" header="on"]
Metrics used for measuring progress of key business goals.[/tippy]
LMS – [tippy title="Learning Management System" header="on"]
A software system for creating and managing training within an organisation, typically encompassing both face to face and on line training, with the goals of aligning training with business strategy and certification requirements.[/tippy]
LSS – [tippy title="Lean Six Sigma" header="on"]
[/tippy]
MPS – [tippy title="Master Production Scheduling" header="on"]
[/tippy]
MRP – [tippy title="Material Requirements Planning; also Material Resource Planning" header="on"]
A software system for managing inventory requirements for production and scheduling of manufacturing.[/tippy]
MRP II – [tippy title="Manufacturing Resource Planning" header="on"]
A business system for management of all resources within a manufacturing organisation, integrating strategic company goals through to staff and raw materials management. It notably includes closed-loops through feedback at control points; evolved into ERP.[/tippy]
MTO – [tippy title="Made To Order" header="on"]
A manufacturing strategy where parts and sub-assemblies are stocked and the final assembly of products is delayed until customer orders have been received. Also known as Assemble To Order (ATO).[/tippy]
PDM – [tippy title="Product Data Management" header="on"]
A software system used to consolidate all product information into a single database to facilitate access and retrieval for marketing, product development, sales and production activities. Also known as PIM.[/tippy]
PIM – [tippy title="Product Information Management" header="on"]
A software system used to consolidate all product information into a single database to facilitate access and retrieval for marketing, product development, sales and production activities. Also known as PDM.[/tippy]
PLM – [tippy title="Product Lifecycle Management" header="on"]
The process of managing the steps of conception, development, manufacture/production, packaging, distribution, maintenance (if required) and final disposal of a product. In recent years a greater focus has also been applied to the environmental impact of each of these steps.[/tippy]
POS – [tippy title="Point of Sale" header="on"]
The physical area where customers purchase goods or services.[/tippy]
PPM – [tippy title="Project Portfolio Management" header="on"]
A methodology for evaluating risks and returns, resource requirements, and effective implementation of projects on a combined basis rather than treating each project in isolation.[/tippy]
SCM – [tippy title="Supply Chain Management" header="on"]
A methodology for forecasting orders and managing all suppliers in the chain to minimise your own inventory while still maintaining your capacity to ensure timely fulfillment of customer orders.[/tippy]
SFA – [tippy title="Sales Force Automation" header="on"]
A sub-set of customer relationship management (CRM), it relies on a central database of customer information for contact management, sales opportunity funneling / lead tracking and customer service functions.[/tippy]
SIPOC – [tippy title="Suppliers, Inputs, Processes, Outputs, Customers" header="on"]
A Six-Sigma tool used to identify all relevant elements of a process improvement project. A “Requirements” category may be appended to this where appropriate.[/tippy]
SOP – [tippy title="Sales and Operations Planning" header="on"]
A management methodology for controlling the rate of production based on production capacity, sales forcasts and historical sales trends.[/tippy]
SPC – [tippy title="Statistical Process Control" header="on"]
A method of monitoring processes and analysing data at process control points to ensure quality of product or service.[/tippy]
SRM – [tippy title="Supplier Relationship Management" header="on"]
A sub-set of supply chain management (SCM) which focusses on managing the interations an organisation has with its suppiers of goods and services. As software tool, it is often implemented as a module within an ERP system.[/tippy]
TMS – [tippy title="Transport Management System" header="on"]

A software system for the management of freight logistics. It may be a standalone system or implemented as a module within an ERP system.[/tippy]
WMS – [tippy title="Warehouse Management System" header="on"]
A software system for controlling the storage of stock within a warehouse and managing movement of stock through the warehouse by receipt of goods in and picking of stock for outgoing requirements. The automation of such systems usually relies on the use of various scanning devices such as barcode readers or RFID tags, etc.[/tippy]

Software Systems Related
BPEL – [tippy title="Business Process Excecution Language" header="on"]
Also known as WS-BPEL4WS is a standard programming language used for executing business workflow models within BPM applications which incorporate a BPM runtime environment / engine.[/tippy]
BPMN – [tippy title="Business Process Modelling Notation" header="on"]
A flowchart standard for modelling business process workflow. A BPMN flowchart can subsequently be directly executed (run) from a BPM application which utilises a BPMN interpreter (system module). BPMN differs notably from BPEL in that it is a high level notation for use by business analysts for mapping workflow rather than a computer language for programmers writing lines of code.[/tippy]
EAI – [tippy title="Enterprise Application Integration" header="on"]
The sharing of business processes and business data among business software applications.[/tippy]
FOSS – [tippy title="Free and Open Source Software" header="on"]
Most Open Source software is distributed as also being free of restrictions on subsequent distribution, however it is always essential to fully understand the licensing of all software applications you may use.[/tippy]
ISV – [tippy title="Independent Software Vendor" header="on"]
A person or copmany that specialises in the creation of application software as opposed to operating systems or database systems, etc.[/tippy]
ODBC – [tippy title="Open Database Connectivity" header="on"]
A database connector for client/server database systems to link databases to applications through the use of SQL queries.[/tippy]
OLAP – [tippy title="Online Analytical Processing (data cubes)" header="on"]
Software that allows summary reports and analysis of multi-dimensional data. Often used for analysis of statistical or financial data.[/tippy]
SaaS – [tippy title="Software as a Service" header="on"]
Software applications delivered to users of standard internet connections. The application runs remotely and the user accesses it through a web browser interface. The service provider typically allows the user to have remote access to the software application under a license agreement, as opposed to licensing the software to run on your own hardware on your local area network (LAN).[/tippy]
SOA – [tippy title="Service-Oriented Architecture" header="on"]
A modular approach to business processes which breaks processes into re-usable software services (modules) which interact. New applications can then rapidly be developed from these software services at a reduced cost. The variety of applications that can be developed this way is limited only by the availability, selection and customisation of services.[/tippy]
SQL – [tippy title="Structured Query Language" header="on"]
A powerful programming language for retrieving records matching specific criteria from a database. Often used for retrieving data from a relational database.[/tippy]