Glossary
Software glossary, in plain English
No jargon. Clear definitions of the terms you'll meet when commissioning custom software.
- Bespoke software
- Software designed and built specifically for one business's processes and objectives, rather than a generic product sold to everyone.
- Off-the-shelf software
- Pre-built, packaged software sold to many customers. Fast and cheap to start, but you adapt your process to fit it.
- Customer portal
- A secure, login-protected area where customers self-serve - viewing documents, booking, checking status or paying - without contacting your team.
- Workflow automation
- Replacing manual, repetitive steps in a business process with software that performs or routes them automatically.
- Audit trail
- A tamper-evident record of who did what and when, used to demonstrate compliance and investigate issues.
- Discovery sprint
- A short, fixed-price first phase that maps a business's processes and produces a costed plan before any build commitment.
- SaaS
- Software as a Service - software delivered over the web on a subscription, rather than installed and owned outright.
- Special-category data
- Sensitive personal data under UK GDPR (e.g. health information) that requires extra legal and security safeguards.
- Serverless
- A hosting model where code runs on managed infrastructure that scales automatically, keeping running costs very low for small businesses.
- Support retainer
- An optional monthly agreement covering hosting, maintenance, security updates and minor enhancements after launch.