Business technology glossary
Plain-English definitions of the AI, cybersecurity, data, web and marketing terms business leaders hear most, with links to guides that go deeper.
301 redirect
A permanent redirect from one URL to another. It sends visitors and most search ranking signals to the new address.
Learn more →AEO (answer engine optimisation)
Making a business and its content easy for AI assistants and AI search features, such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Claude, to understand, trust and cite.
Learn more →AI agent
Software that uses an AI model to work towards a goal: it decides which steps to take, uses tools such as a CRM or email to carry them out, and asks a person for approval when needed.
Learn more →AI automation
Using artificial intelligence to complete business tasks that used to need a person, such as reading documents, qualifying leads, answering routine questions or producing reports.
Learn more →API
An application programming interface: a secure, structured way for two software systems to exchange information, so tools can work together without manual copying.
Learn more →Brand guidelines
A document that sets out how a brand is applied consistently: positioning, logo use, colours, typography, imagery and tone of voice.
Learn more →Brand positioning
The place a brand deliberately occupies in its customers' minds relative to competitors: who it's for, what it offers and why it's different.
Learn more →Business email compromise (BEC)
A fraud where criminals impersonate a trusted person, such as a CEO or supplier, to trick staff into sending money or sensitive information.
Learn more →Business intelligence (BI)
Tools and practices for collecting, organising and presenting business data, usually as dashboards and reports, so leaders can see what is happening.
Learn more →Business process automation (BPA)
Using software to carry out a repeatable business process from start to finish, such as approving invoices or onboarding staff, with less manual work.
Learn more →Chatbot
A program that holds a conversation with users, usually to answer questions. AI chatbots understand natural language; on their own they answer rather than complete work.
Learn more →Content management system (CMS)
Software that lets a team create and edit website content without writing code.
Learn more →Conversion rate
The share of visitors who take a desired action, such as sending an enquiry or buying, out of all visitors.
Learn more →Core Web Vitals
Google's measures of real-world page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness) and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability).
Learn more →Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
Total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers won in the same period.
Learn more →Customer lifetime value (CLV)
An estimate of the total gross profit a customer generates over the whole relationship with a business.
Learn more →Cybersecurity risk assessment
A structured review of a business's systems, data, people and processes that identifies threats, rates their likelihood and impact, and produces a prioritised plan.
Learn more →Dashboard
A single screen that shows the key measures of a business or team, ideally updated automatically, with targets and trends.
Learn more →Data controller
The organisation that decides why and how personal data is processed. It carries the main responsibility for complying with data protection law.
Learn more →Data maturity
How effectively an organisation collects, manages, analyses and uses its data to make decisions, often described in stages from scattered to predictive.
Learn more →Data warehouse
A central database that combines data from several business systems in a consistent structure, built for reporting and analysis.
Learn more →ETL
Extract, transform, load: the process of pulling data from source systems, cleaning and reshaping it, and loading it into a warehouse or reporting tool.
Learn more →GEO (generative engine optimisation)
Another name for optimising content and brand information to appear in answers produced by generative AI assistants. Largely the same idea as AEO.
Learn more →Google Business Profile
Google's free business listing that appears in Maps and local search results, with details such as services, hours, photos and reviews.
Learn more →Headless commerce
An ecommerce setup where the storefront that customers see is built separately from the commerce engine that handles products, carts and payments.
Learn more →Human in the loop
A design where a person reviews or approves an automated system's output before it takes effect, used for consequential decisions such as payments or hiring.
Learn more →Incident response plan
A written plan for what to do during a security incident: who to call, how to contain it, how to preserve evidence and who must be notified.
Learn more →Intelligent document processing (IDP)
Using AI to read documents such as invoices, receipts and contracts, extract the important information, check it and send it to the right system.
Learn more →KPI (key performance indicator)
A measure directly tied to a goal and important enough to review regularly, such as gross margin, cash runway or customer retention rate.
Learn more →Large language model (LLM)
An AI model trained on large amounts of text that can read, write, summarise and reason about language. LLMs power most modern chatbots and AI agents.
Learn more →Lead qualification
Deciding whether a new enquiry is a good fit for your business, based on criteria such as need, budget, size and timing, so sales effort goes to the right prospects.
Learn more →Least privilege
The security principle that each person and system should have only the access they need to do their job, and no more.
Learn more →llms.txt
A plain-text file at the root of a website that summarises the business and links to its key pages in a format that's easy for AI systems to read. An emerging convention, not a formal standard.
Learn more →Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
A sign-in method that needs two or more proofs of identity, such as a password plus a code from an app, so a stolen password alone isn't enough.
Learn more →NDPA (Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023)
Nigeria's data protection law. It sets rules for collecting and using personal data, requires security measures, gives people rights over their data and requires breach notification to the NDPC.
Learn more →Penetration test
An authorised, simulated attack on systems or applications to find out whether, and how far, an attacker could get in.
Learn more →Phishing
A deceptive message, usually an email, designed to trick someone into revealing credentials, paying money or installing malware.
Learn more →Predictive analytics
Using historical data and statistical or machine-learning models to forecast what is likely to happen, such as demand, cash flow or customer churn.
Learn more →Ransomware
Malicious software that encrypts or steals an organisation's data and demands payment to restore it or keep it private.
Learn more →Return on ad spend (ROAS)
Revenue generated from advertising divided by the amount spent on that advertising.
Learn more →Robotic process automation (RPA)
Software that repeats fixed, rule-based steps in other applications the way a person would, by clicking and typing. Fast for identical tasks, but it breaks when screens or inputs change.
Learn more →SEO (search engine optimisation)
Improving a website's technical health, content and authority so it ranks higher in search engines for the searches its customers make.
Learn more →SPF, DKIM and DMARC
Three email authentication standards. SPF lists who may send email for a domain, DKIM signs messages, and DMARC tells receivers what to do with email that fails the checks.
Learn more →Structured data (schema markup)
Code added to a web page, usually in the schema.org vocabulary, that describes its content in a machine-readable way for search and AI engines.
Learn more →Workflow automation
Connecting the steps of a task across people and systems so it runs automatically when triggered, for example a form submission that updates the CRM and alerts sales.
Learn more →Zero trust
A security approach that never assumes a user or device is safe because it's on the company network, and verifies every access request.
Learn more →