An accounting practice that calculates how the value of a loan or intangible asset is lowered over time. For instance, amortization of a loan calculates how the principal and interest of that loan are paid down by installment payments. Similarly, amortization of an intangible asset typically calculates the costs of capital expenses related to that asset in incremental amounts spread over the course of its useful life.
An acronym that stands for "Assets Under Management." It refers to the amount of client money that a private equity firm or other financial institution is holding, managing, and/or investing.
Similar to “Vendor Lock,” in data management, this refers to information that’s deliberately blocked from the information’s owner as a means of obtaining leverage by a third party.
The Private Equity practice of buying a top-performing platform company as a core business, and then using that company’s strengths to grow and build the platform through additional mergers and acquisitions.
An aggregated method of payment to healthcare providers where an insurer pays a fixed annual fee per covered patient that's intended to reimburse providers for all services rendered. This method is typically used in place of the conventional "fee-for-service" reimbursement structure.
A key metric in a SaaS business, churn represents the percentage rate at which customers cancel their software subscriptions within a certain time period. Churn is used primarily to forecast future losses in a SaaS subscriber base.
A data visualization tool that aggregates and displays KPIs (key performance indicators) and other data all in one place. Microsoft Power BI is the primary Dashboard tool used by the engineers at Blue Margin Inc.
A business strategy in which decisions are informed and influenced primarily by analysis of key, factual data points rather than by intuition or personal opinion.
A system for organizing data structures and relationship within a given database or data warehouse that shows how information is stored, processed, and accessed. In Microsoft Power BI this indicates a map of the data’s organization presented in table format.
A strategy for improving the performance of a database by putting certain data sets in groups or by including duplicate copies of data sets in the database architecture.
A technology engineer who designs and builds reporting dashboards for image-based representations of data, for instance, information presented in charts, pictures, diagrams, and more.
A centralized management system for organizing, storing, and retrieving data from disparate sources. Blue Margin uses Microsoft Azure SQL for building data warehouses.
A term used to refer to inaccurate, or unusable data files. This can include data that is duplicated, that is incomplete, that is erroneous in some way, that is incorrectly formatted, that is not integrated or mis-integrated into a data management system, that violates business rule functionality, and so on.
An acronym that stands for “Enterprise Resource Planning.” It typically refers to a software service that facilitates management of complex business functions within a larger company.
ESG stands for “environmental, social, and governance.” It’s is a standard rating model that investors use to make an at-a-glance assessment a company’s performance in areas of social impact, such as carbon footprints, labor policies, BIPOC representation, and so on.
An acronym that stands for “Extract, Transform, and Load” It’s the Power BI process of taking data from a source, transforming it into a shape that’s useful for reporting, and using it to generate data-driven Tooltips.
An acronym that stands for "Free Cash Flow to Firm." It refers to money generated by a company that's potentially available for distribution to investors (equity and debt) after certain expenses and operating costs are deducted. It's also called "Unlevered Free Cash Flow."
A common method of payment to healthcare providers where each individual service provided is billed and paid for as it occurs. This method is typically used instead of a capitation reimbursement structure.
In the Legal Services industry, GC is an acronym that stands for "General Counsel." This is the lead lawyer for a specific company or governmental department.
When referring to data, governance is the process of managing the accessibility, accuracy, consistency, and security of data in the way that it’s used within a system.
An acronym in private equity that stands for "General Partner." It refers to the PE firm's leaders who manage their investment funds and portfolio companies.
An acronym that stands for “Identify, Discuss, Solve.” Part of the EOS management system created by Gino Wickham and discussed in his business management book, Traction.
A “top-down” approach to the organization and management of data. Originated by Bill Inmon, it generates multivariate reports generated from a centralized data warehouse that’s created first.
Refers to a company’s attempts to bring previously-outsourced tasks in house, using its internal resources and employees to accomplish the tasks instead.
A designation for a business asset that’s not a physical asset. For instance, this would include intellectual property (IP), trademarks, copyrights, brand awareness, customer goodwill.
An acronym that stands for “Internal Rate of Return.” It’s the net percentage rate of return earned by a limited partner in a Private Equity fund over a particular period of time.
An acronym that stands for "Job-Integrated Access." It's a corporate transparency metric for measuring how effective a company’s internal communication vehicles are at reaching employees in specific job functions.
A manufacturing strategy designed to increase cash flow that works to align the timeliness of supply orders, parts, and inventory so they are delivered only when they’re needed rather than stockpiling such inventory in advance.
A “bottom-up” approach to the organization and management of data. Originated by Ralph Kimball, this method creates reporting and analytics first, then combines them to build the data warehouse.
In hospital administration, this refers to how many days a patient is cared for within a hospital’s premises. As such, Length of Stay is a critical metric used to determine the efficiency of a healthcare facility.
A strategic plan created by Blue Margin Inc. in consultation with a client that identifies and articulates key goals and processes for a company’s data architecture and reporting success.
A Power BI construct that integrates data at any scale, from various sources, and can quickly produce data visualization dashboards, reports, and advanced analytics.
An acronym that stands for “Multiple On Invested Capital.” It’s a means used by Private Equity for assessing the cash return on investment. MOIC is calculated as the cash return divided by the invested capital.
An acronym, that stands for, "Mean Time Between Failure." Used primarily in the manufacturing industry, it refers to the predicted amount of time lost due to mechanical failures that are typical in machinery use.
In the Fintech industry, P2P is an abbreviation that refers to "person-to-person" or "peer-to-peer" payments. For instance, when one individual transfers money electronically to another through a service like PayPal, or directly from one bank account to another.
A management process in healthcare which tracks all administrative and clinical functions of patient billing cycles from beginning to end. This includes billable events such as appointments, admissions, tests administered, treatments, and payments.
An acronym that stands for “Selling, General, and Administrative” expenses of a business. It’s all selling-related costs along with the management expenses of a company.
The amount of materials (such as data or parts or other products) that pass through a system or machine in a specified time period. Throughput is a particularly important measure in manufacturing and in computer technology.
Databases that track a company’s ongoing transactions, such as CRM (customer relationship management), HRM (human resources management), and ERP (enterprise resource planning).
In Information Technology (IT), this refers to a user’s ability to successfully access and use meaningfully an IT system designed to achieve key results.
Also known as “Value-Based Healthcare” and “Pay for Performance (P4P),” this is a system in which an insurer requires a healthcare provider to meet specific performance standards in order to receive payment.
Similar to “Black Box,” in data management, this refers to information that’s deliberately blocked from the information’s owner as a means of obtaining leverage by a third party.
A situation where the same file or software app is obscured by the use of different, incompatible versions, usually as a result of previous version obsolescence.
A verb derived from the last name of Bill Watterson, creator of the popular Calvin & Hobbes cartoon strip. A watterson refers to the imaginative reinvention of otherwise common data elements.
When referring to data warehousing, this is a “placeholder” model to help stakeholders visualize, edit, and manage how data will be represented and displayed in dashboard reporting.
