WAIS

See Wide Area Information Servers.

WALLCLOCK THROUGHPUT

The actual number of items or transactions that can be completed in a specific time period. It includes the time an operator has to deal with jams, emptying pockets and loading more transactions. This is the throughput that is most critical in determining the number of units or FTE's that are required.

WAN

Wide Area Network.

WAN (WIDE AREA NETWORK)

A WAN is a network whose elements may be separated by distances great enough to require telephone communications. The WAN supports communications between such elements.

WAND (LIGHT PEN)

A barcode or OCR contact scanning device held in the operator's hand and moved across the symbol. Wands are contact or near-contact devices.

WATERMARKS

A faint marking on the back of some photographic papers indicating that the picture was taken by a professional photographer.

WAVE SHAPE

A MICR character's unique magnetic footprint composed of the peaks and valleys of the magnetic waveform produced when a magnetic reading head scans the character. It is the basis for electronic recognition of MICR characters.

WEB

Internet-initiated Entry. In ACH processing, an ACH format for one-time or recurring debits that are initiated pursuant to an authorization secured by way of an Internet exchange. For common definition see World Wide Web.

WEB PAGE

The basic unit written in HTML and located at a web site, which is accessed by a browser to present information to the screen.

WEB SERVER

The physical device where Web information is stored and accessed.

WEB SITE

A server or computer-based location known to the World Wide Web, which stores information, that is accessible via the Internet or related technology.

WHOIS

The name of the nickname database that contains full name, postal address, telephone number and network mailbox for registered users. Also the name of the local command to access this database and the name of the protocol used by this command (RFC-954) that is now an elective draft standard.

WHOLESALE LOCKBOX

A low volume, (but usually high dollar) lockbox operation.

WIDE AREA INFORMATION SERVERS (WAIS)

WAIS allows users to search and access different types of information from a single interface. The WAIS protocol is an extension of the ANSI Z39.50 information retrieval protocol.

WIDE AREA NETWORK (WAN)

A communications network that interconnects geographical locations.

WINDOW

A transparent panel on an envelope allowing a printed address to show through. The time period during which a financial institution may send items to an ACH operator for processing and delivery to the RDFI by a specific deadline. A rectangular area on a display screen in which part of an image or file is displayed. The window can be any size up to that of the screen and more than one window can be displayed at once.

WINDOWS

A Microsoft operating environment, not an operating system. It features multiple screens and GUls.

WINDOWS NT

Microsoft's Windows NT is a 32-bit, preemptive, multitasking operating system with built-in networking capabilities and security services. Windows NT is designed to be portable, and runs on CISC (complex instruction set computing), RISC (reduced instruction set computing), and symmetric multiprocessor computer architectures. Windows NT's modular design makes it easier to extend by adding new modules, and also easier to port to other machines by isolating hardware-dependent elements in separate modules.

WORD

The number of bits processed as a single unit is a computer operation. In an eight-bit microcomputer, a word is equivalent to a byte. In a 16-bit or 32-bit microcomputer, a word equals 2 bytes or 4 bytes, respectively.

WORD PROCESSOR

A program used to enter or edit text information in personal computers, often used to create a file before it is uploaded to a network; may also be used to process text after it has been downloaded.

WORK SPACE

Disk space made available to the system to provide temporary storage space for files too large to fit within a user's permanent disk storage quota or for files not needed beyond a single run of a program or set of programs.

WORKFLOW

The identification of the work and the work processes in a business application. When identified, the work processes are automated using hardware and software IT enablers. The goal of the workflow analysis is to satisfy the user requirements: reduce cost; increase productivity; improve timeliness. To be effective, all document, forms, and item processing systems require workflow. Orderly sets of procedures for handling business processes. Workflow is generally defined by a set of rules and uses electronic images to route work through the business processes.

WORKFLOW SOFTWARE

Allows businesses to move electronic documents along a user-defined 'routing' path, from one workstation to the next, around a local or wide-area network. Once the document arrives at any given workstation, the receiver can add notations to, or modify, the document as they see fit. An insurance company might use workflow software to route claim forms through their organization. A user at one step might wish to review the forms and add a new document to the electronic 'package' before sending it to the next workstation. The next user might wish to add several notations to the forms before sending it on to the final workstation for approval. The route can be as simple or as complex as a business process requires.

WORKGROUP

A workgroup is a group of individuals who share files, data, and possibly applications. Workgroups are generally defined around an office, a project, or a group of tasks. The individuals who make up a workgroup may change as a project (for example) progresses or as tasks change. Workgroup members can use local-area networks (LANs), electronic-mail (e-mail), or other message-handling services to share information. Some applications (such as database, spreadsheet, and word processing programs) come in special workgroup versions that are specifically designed to allow such collaborative interactions. In other cases, an ordinary application may use an engine program that provides workgroup capabilities for the application.

WORKSTATION

In a PC network, a workstation is a client machine. In general, a workstation is a consumer of network services, although it is not uncommon for a workstation to serve as a special- purpose sewer, such as a server for a printer or backup tape drive. In general, workstations can be viewed as interchangeable units, which need not be particularly powerful unless they are being used for a resource-intensive purpose. In contrast, a file server should be a high-speed, powerful machine that can deal with dozens of requests at once. Each workstation needs a network interface card (NIC) that is compatible with the workstation's hardware and with the NIC used by the network's sewer. A general-purpose computer that is small enough and inexpensive enough to reside at a person's work area for his or her exclusive use. It includes microcomputers such as Macintosh and PCs running DOS, as well as high-performance desktop and deskside computers.

WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW)

An interconnected network of electronic hypermedia documents available on the Internet. WWW documents are marked up in HTML. Cross references or hyperlinks between documents are recorded in the form of URLs. A term frequently used (incorrectly) when referring to "the Internet". The whole constellation of resources that can be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP, telnet, USENET, WAIS and other tools. The universe of hypertext servers, which are the servers that allow text, graphics, sound files, etc. to be mixed together. A hypermedia information retrieval technology that interconnects information around the world. It lets one travel through the information by clicking on hyperlinks that can point to any document anywhere on the Internet. Originated at CERN and collaborated upon by a large, informal and international design and development team, WWW allows links inside and between documents, plus pointers to FTP sites, news, telnet sessions, gopher sites and WAIS databases. The fastest-growing part of the Internet, which allows information to be accessed by subject matter regardless of its location - a real advantage in such a vast and complex network. Using agreed-upon standards such as the use of HTML for web pages, a wide range of data can be stored as text, graphic images or sound modules, for easy retrieval. Users move automatically from one database (or site) to another using hyperlinks. Increasing levels of complexity enable interactive, multimedia facilities to be developed.

WORM

A computer program that replicates itself and is self-propagating. Worms, as opposed to viruses, are meant to spawn in network environments. Network worms were first defined by Shoch & Hupp of Xerox in ACM Communications (March 1982). The Internet worm of November 1988 is perhaps the most famous; it successfully propagated itself on over 6,000 systems across the Internet.

WRAPAROUND

On a CRT display, the continuation of cursor movement from the last position on screen right to the first position on screen left.

WRITE

To record data in a storage device, a data medium or an output display. To save information, especially files, to a disk, to replace old data with new and permit later access from within a software package. The complement of Read.

WRITE HEAD

A device in the Reader/Sorter machine that magnetizes the ink (or toner) printed in the Clear Band area of a check.

WRITE-ONCE, READ-MANY (WORM)

Digital optical disk on which data is recorded by the user once and can be read many times.

WRITE-PROTECT

Protects a disk or tape file from being erased or changed.

WWW

World Wide Web.

WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get. It refers to the ability to output data from computers exactly as it appears on the screen.

WYSIWYG (WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET)

A monitor display screen that visually displays graphics and text exactly as they exist.