Dictionary of Procurement Terms

A federal agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce that calculates and reports the gross domestic product (GDP). The Commerce Department also calculates personal income, corporate profits, and current account balance.

A federal agency of the U.S. Labor Department that tracks all aspects of the labor market, such as employment projections, unemployment numbers, employee compensation reports, and a host of other labor-related information.

Any corporation, partnership, individual, sole proprietorship, joint stock company, joint venture, or other private legal entity.

Alternating periods of economic growth and contraction. Sometimes characterized as prosperity, recession, depression, and recovery. (Schiller 2000)

Insurance coverage that replaces the lost income of a business from physical damage or loss, e.g., fire, flooding, natural disaster, epidemic, labor unrest.

A document that describes in detail a business' objectives and its step-bystep plans for achieving them.

Various methodologies used by management that analyze procedures to identify the areas in which accuracy, effectiveness, or efficiency can be redesigned to realize improvements.

To carve out an internal business process such as information technology (IT) or human resources (HR) and outsource those processes to private entities to reduce costs and improve efficiency.