The SOA platform for small businesses: a conceptual framework

Michael W. Totaro, Sonya H.Y. Hsu and Zhiwei Zhu

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2011, vol. 5, issue 1, 22-34

Abstract: The ever expanding service economy presents small businesses with unique challenges as well as new opportunities. Due to high development and maintenance costs, a sophisticated IT infrastructure is difficult to attain by small businesses. Through assessment of real-world use-cases, we have identified managerial and informational challenges facing small businesses. Moreover, from a synthesis of a single use-case, we propose an on-demand delivery of IT services to small businesses, the nature of which transcends both organisational and geographical boundaries. Our proposed on-demand IT services system involves a service-oriented architecture (SOA), which is structured to align business processes and information technology/systems. Moreover, our proposed SOA approach is supported by two underlying technologies: virtualisation and application service provider (ASP). The net result of our approach is one that offers small businesses access to a sophisticated IT infrastructure that might otherwise be unattainable. We conclude this paper with managerial implications and future research.

Keywords: SOA; service-oriented architecture; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; business development; ASPs; application service provider; SaaS; software as a service; virtualisation; information systems; conceptual frameworks; service economy; opportunities; ICT; information technology; communications technology; infrastructures; managerial challenges; informational challenges; organisational boundaries; geographical boundaries; on-demand services; business processes alignment; managerial implications; USA; United States; CPA firms; certified accounting; public accounting; systems research. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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