Sourcing and Procurement 
Glossary

Approved supplier list

A list of suppliers whose basic credentials have been checked. This would normally cover financial stability, compliance with any laws or licences needed to operate, adequate insurance, health and safety policies and the like. There is no contract with the suppliers, but there is some assurance as to their appropriateness for specified categories. This list may restrict what types of order (by category, value or geographical location) can be placed with each of them

Arm's Length Agreements

A transaction in which the buyers and sellers of a product act independently and have no relationship to each other. The concept of an arm's length transaction is to ensure that both parties in the deal are acting in their own self-interest and are not subject to any pressure or duress from the other party.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is the study of man-made computational devices and systems which can be made to act in an "intelligent" way. Agile set of technologies that can be applied to any business process

Asset Specificity

The use of a capital good to a narrow purpose. Asset specificity applies to capital designed to have a single function, or labor trained to perform a single task, and has its limited uses because of some inherent restriction on other possible uses.

Attended RPA

Automated process that runs on the users desktop and interacts with the user. This might also be referred to as human-in-the-loop or Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA)

Auction

The process of buying and selling through the use of competitive bidding.

Arbitration

Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, wherein the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons (the "arbitrators", "arbiters" or "arbitral tribunal"), by whose decision (the "award") they agree to be bound. It is a settlement technique in which a third party reviews the case and imposes a decision that is legally binding for both sides. Other forms of ADR include mediation (a form of settlement negotiation facilitated by a neutral third party) and non-binding resolution by experts. It is more helpful, however, simply to classify arbitration as a form of binding dispute resolution, equivalent to litigation in the courts, and entirely distinct from the other forms of dispute resolution, such as negotiation, mediation, or determinations by experts, which are usually non-binding. Arbitration is most commonly used for the resolution of commercial disputes, particularly in the context of international commercial transactions. It may be binding or non-binding.

Arm’s-length trading relationship

A relationship between two parties who trade with each other in which there is no involvement other than the trade itself

Asset

Items of value, especially what an organization owns.

Assets

The value of everything an organisation owns

Attributes

In the Business Model Mapping template an attribute is defined as a characteristic that is inherent to an organization's business environment. For example, switching cost range from low to high.

Audit

The inspection and examination of something. Can be a process, product, financial result, etc. The purpose of an audit is to ensure compliance to requirements. An audit can apply to an entire organization or may be specific to a function, process or production step.