# The Business Glossary

> 35 terms from the Workplace & Collaboration book's The Business part, each defined in a line and linked to the chapter that explains it.

- **Account:** A person's identity (one email, one login), either personal or managed by an organization ([The Workplace Software Business](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/workplace-business#the-core-data-model)).
- **Add-on:** A separately priced capability attached to a plan, such as an AI assistant or customer-managed keys ([Plans, Pricing & Seats](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/plans-pricing-and-seats#how-to-build-it)).
- **AI credits:** A per-seat or pooled allowance of AI usage included in a plan, consumed by members and paid for by the organization ([Business Models & Unit Economics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/business-models#usage-and-ai-credits)).
- **Annual recurring revenue (ARR):** The annualized run rate of a customer's active recurring contracts at a point in time ([Business Models & Unit Economics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/business-models#per-seat-saas)).
- **Best-of-breed:** A standalone product chosen as the best in one category, run beside a suite ([The Collaboration Landscape](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/workplace-landscape#suites-against-best-of-breed)).
- **Bottom-up adoption:** Growth in which end users adopt a product first and the organization buys later ([Business Models & Unit Economics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/business-models#bottom-up-and-top-down)).
- **CAC payback:** The months of a customer's gross margin needed to repay the cost of acquiring it ([Business Models & Unit Economics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/business-models#bottom-up-and-top-down)).
- **Commitments (EU):** Remedies a company offers to close a Commission antitrust case, made binding without a finding of infringement ([Suites, Bundling & Antitrust](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/suites-bundling-and-antitrust#the-commitments)).
- **Container:** A place content lives (channel, space, project, board, folder, drive, canvas, meeting series) that carries visibility and policy ([The Workplace Software Business](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/workplace-business#the-core-data-model)).
- **Controller and processor:** The customer organization decides how its content is used (controller); the vendor processes it on the customer's instructions (processor) ([The Workplace Software Business](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/workplace-business#the-inversion)).
- **Discount symmetry:** The Teams commitment that discounts on suites with Teams can't exceed those on suites without it ([Suites, Bundling & Antitrust](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/suites-bundling-and-antitrust#the-commitments)).
- **Fair billing:** Slack's policy of billing only members active in the last 28 days and crediting the rest by the day ([Plans, Pricing & Seats](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/plans-pricing-and-seats#what-counts-as-a-seat)).
- **Feature gate:** A plan entitlement that turns a limit, feature or admin control on or off by tier ([Plans, Pricing & Seats](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/plans-pricing-and-seats#tier-ladders-and-feature-gates)).
- **Freemium:** A free plan with limits designed to be outgrown, as the first step of product-led growth ([Business Models & Unit Economics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/business-models#freemium-and-product-led-growth)).
- **Gross retention:** Net retention with expansion capped at zero, isolating churn and contraction ([Business Models & Unit Economics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/business-models#retention-and-expansion)).
- **Inversion of duties:** The workplace pattern in which the customer organization, not the vendor, moderates, retains, holds and answers legal requests ([The Workplace Software Business](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/workplace-business#the-inversion)).
- **Item:** One piece of content of any kind (message, page, file, work item, comment, design, recording) ([The Workplace Software Business](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/workplace-business#the-core-data-model)).
- **Land and expand:** Selling a small first deal to one team, then growing seats, products and editions inside the customer ([Business Models & Unit Economics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/business-models#freemium-and-product-led-growth)).
- **Listed Providers:** The clouds (Microsoft, Alibaba, Amazon, Google) on which Microsoft licenses without mobility rights can't be redeployed ([Suites, Bundling & Antitrust](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/suites-bundling-and-antitrust#licensing-restrictions-on-clouds)).
- **Member:** An account inside one workspace, with a kind (full, guest, external, bot, service), a role and a status ([The Workplace Software Business](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/workplace-business#the-core-data-model)).
- **Net dollar retention (NDR):** A cohort's recurring revenue now divided by the same customers' revenue a year earlier, including expansion, contraction and churn ([Business Models & Unit Economics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/business-models#retention-and-expansion)).
- **New commerce experience (NCE):** Microsoft's CSP purchasing platform with monthly, annual and three-year terms and a seven-day reduction window ([Plans, Pricing & Seats](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/plans-pricing-and-seats#what-counts-as-a-seat)).
- **Organization:** The customer: the billing entity that owns domains, contracts and org-wide policy ([The Workplace Software Business](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/workplace-business#the-core-data-model)).
- **Product retirement:** A dated end of sale or end of life with notice, read-only, deletion and export dates ([The Collaboration Landscape](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/workplace-landscape#how-to-build-it)).
- **Product-led growth (PLG):** A go-to-market in which the product, not a salesperson, makes the first sale ([Business Models & Unit Economics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/business-models#freemium-and-product-led-growth)).
- **Remaining performance obligations (RPO):** Contracted revenue not yet recognized ([Business Models & Unit Economics](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/business-models#per-seat-saas)).
- **Seat:** A license for one user for one period, defined differently by each vendor ([Plans, Pricing & Seats](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/plans-pricing-and-seats#what-counts-as-a-seat)).
- **Seat type:** A per-role seat price on the same plan, such as Figma's Full, Dev and Collab seats ([Plans, Pricing & Seats](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/plans-pricing-and-seats#what-counts-as-a-seat)).
- **SMS (strategic market status):** The UK CMA's designation under the DMCC Act 2024 that allows conduct requirements on a firm ([Suites, Bundling & Antitrust](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/suites-bundling-and-antitrust#the-uk-case-business-software-and-copilot)).
- **SSO tax:** The price difference between a base paid tier and the tier that includes single sign-on ([Plans, Pricing & Seats](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/plans-pricing-and-seats#the-sso-tax)).
- **Suite:** Many products sold under one contract, identity, admin console and price ([Suites, Bundling & Antitrust](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/suites-bundling-and-antitrust#why-suites-win-procurement)).
- **Switch window:** A dated opportunity for a customer to move to a suite without a product, required by the Teams commitments ([Suites, Bundling & Antitrust](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/suites-bundling-and-antitrust#how-to-build-it)).
- **Tying:** Making one product available only with another, an abuse when the seller is dominant ([Suites, Bundling & Antitrust](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/suites-bundling-and-antitrust#the-teams-case)).
- **User tier:** Atlassian's annual pricing band by number of users, fixed for the term ([Plans, Pricing & Seats](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/plans-pricing-and-seats#what-counts-as-a-seat)).
- **Workspace:** A tenant unit inside an organization (Slack workspace, Atlassian site, Notion workspace), where region and most settings live ([The Workplace Software Business](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/workplace-business#the-core-data-model)).

---

Canonical URL: https://www.syntaqx.com/books/workplace-and-collaboration/glossary/the-business