Essay Undergraduate 2,418 words

E-Business and Enterprise Systems for Small Business Growth

~13 min read 5 sections Technology · Ecommerce

Abstract

This paper examines the e-business and enterprise business system requirements needed to support the growth of a small tire store. It recommends agile, SaaS-based platforms for e-commerce and accounting, and outlines a four-step justification process that includes strategic planning, process mapping, project rollout, and pre-implementation benchmarking. The paper also identifies key implementation challenges—including employee resistance to change and systems integration complexity—and addresses privacy and security concerns such as role-based access control, dual-administrator logins, 128-bit encryption, and external threat analysis. Together, these recommendations provide a practical roadmap for small businesses seeking to leverage digital systems for competitive advantage.

Key Takeaways

Recommended E-Business and Enterprise Systems: SaaS and ERP platform recommendations for tire store
Justifying the Recommendations: Key Activities: Four-step planning and benchmarking justification process
Implementation Challenges: Resistance to change and integration complexity barriers
Privacy, Security Concerns, and Protective Technologies: Encryption, access controls, and external threat mitigation
Conclusion: Customer-centric design as unifying system principle

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What makes this paper effective

The paper follows a clear question-and-answer structure that makes each recommendation easy to locate and evaluate independently.
It grounds abstract technology concepts—such as ERP integration and SaaS deployment—in a specific, relatable business context (a small tire store), which helps illustrate practical trade-offs.
The security section demonstrates layered thinking, moving from internal access controls and role-based permissions to external threats and periodic audits.

Key academic technique demonstrated

The paper uses applied problem-solution reasoning supported by peer-reviewed citations. Each recommendation is paired with a rationale drawn from academic sources, showing how real-world business decisions can be informed by scholarly research. The use of a balanced scorecard (BSC) framework to pre-measure performance before system deployment is a particularly strong example of evidence-based planning.

Structure breakdown

The paper is organized around four explicit prompts: system recommendations, justification activities, implementation challenges, and security concerns. Each section builds on the previous one, moving from strategic planning through operational execution to risk management. The conclusion synthesizes the customer-centric design philosophy that ties all four sections together. This structure mirrors a professional technology recommendation report.

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Essay 2,418 words

Recommended E-Business and Enterprise Systems

Any proposed e-business system and its related Enterprise Business System needs to be agile and flexible enough to meet the unique process needs (Carayannopoulos, 2009) and role needs of the tire store. The e-business system specifically needs to be flexible enough to allow for rapid updates to pricing, inventory, product definitions in catalogs, and the use of online sales promotions (Elmore, 2005). The e-business side of the system needs to be attuned to the marketing, selling, and service needs of the small store. As a result, there need to be applications available on a 24/7 basis so that customers can check, for example, whether a specific tire is in stock. For larger vehicles including SUVs, there are also wheel balancing and safety checks of wheel installation, including testing of shocks to ensure they are safe and functioning properly.

The e-business system must also be flexible enough to be changed quickly as the store's needs evolve. Using template-based development tools for the e-commerce site, for example, the store could quickly have an online store up and running. Assuming that inventory is available in automated system feeds, the store could work with a software integration specialist to display real-time price and availability on the site whenever a customer requests it. A segment of the website also needs to be dedicated to escalating service calls and requests for quotes on fleet programs from larger companies. This would be a specialized application the company could develop over time.

Supporting the e-business platform, the Enterprise Business Systems would include Accounts Payable (A/P), Accounts Receivable (A/R), General Ledger, Financial Reporting, Analytics, and Online Payroll (Collins, 2006). These are the core financial accounting systems of the company and are critically important for managing it to profitability. In many small businesses, these Enterprise Business Systems grow over time into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as they integrate with inbound suppliers, inventory, pricing, stock balancing, and service costs and programs. What begins as an accounting system often evolves into an ERP system in small businesses that grow rapidly (Jackson, 2009).

Having financial, supply chain, logistics, and support data across the company can also be used to strengthen the e-business system or website. Using systems integration for pricing and logistics would allow a customer interested in a highly specific and potentially expensive tire to see when it would arrive at the store's warehouse, its price, and when it would be available for purchase. In short, forward-thinking small businesses view their ERP systems as a means to support more effective online selling through their websites and e-commerce initiatives.

As the company has yet to install an e-business system or website and an Enterprise Business System (potentially an ERP system), it is recommended that the initial systems be hosted or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based, meaning they are accessible entirely over the Internet through a browser. This will significantly speed up the customization of both the e-business and enterprise business systems, in addition to accelerating the learning curve. Hosted or SaaS-based applications are pervasive for e-commerce, with Yahoo, GoDaddy.com, and others being well-known examples. NetSuite offers an online accounting and ERP system that is also exceptionally easy to work with and could increase the probability of a successful implementation.

4 Sections Hidden · 1,070 words

Justifying the Recommendations: Key Activities380 words

The store first needs to define which objectives it wants to accomplish using both the e-business or e-commerce site and the Enterprise Business Systems. In effect, a strategic plan needs to be produced first, which…

Implementation Challenges320 words

There are going to be many challenges to implementing the recommended e-business or e-commerce application and enterprise business systems. First and most significant, there is going to be widespread resistance…

Privacy, Security Concerns, and Protective Technologies310 words

Because the e-commerce or e-business system will handle pricing, tire availability, and associated costs, it is critically important that there be 128-bit encryption of the application itself and the development of security levels within the application. The majority of companies accomplish this through the use of role-based…

Conclusion60 words

All of these considerations taken together increase the odds of the e-business or e-commerce site and the enterprise business system being able to stay secure over the long term. By combining agile SaaS-based deployment, structured implementation planning, proactive performance benchmarking,…

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References

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Key Concepts in This Paper

E-Business Systems ERP Integration SaaS Platforms Balanced Scorecard Role-Based Security Process Mapping Supply Chain Visibility Change Management 128-Bit Encryption E-Commerce Strategy