"do It Yourself (DIY) portalets" for developing e-business solutions for small and medium enterprises

Purpose - To propose and develop a cost-effective approach to developing and implementing customized electronic business solutions in a do-it-yourself (DIY) fashion. Design/methodology/approach - The proposed DIY approach is based on the concept of "portalets" that are used as building blocks to develop e-business solutions with little or varying degree of customization efforts. Portalets form a platform for deriving the software (e-business) product lines. Findings - This paper not only discusses the necessity but also demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed DIY e-business approach. New challenges associated with the approach are highlighted. Research limitations/implications - It is a critical and incremental task to develop portalets building blocks and identify their interfaces and standardize their customization points in terms of backend, middleware and client components. Practical implications - The study identifies a suite of tools and techniques for building and implementing EBS in order for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to significantly reduce the time and effort to an affordable level while capturing the unique business logics into the solutions. Originality/value - The DIY e-business approach represents a unique alternative for SME companies to adopt and implement EBS to best suit their operational characteristics.