Software provider to small and medium sized businesses MYOB will start offering its customers web hosting, domain name registration and email hosting.
The move comes after MYOB acquired web hosting company Ilisys for an undisclosed sum in March.
MYOB managing director Tim Reed says the expansion has been prompted by customer research, which revealed MYOB customers are looking to expand their online presence as they see large competitors increasing online operations. “We’ve noticed a real difference with attitudes towards the web in the last 12 months. Small businesses need to work with a partner that can help them make the moves that large corporations are making,” Reed says.
He says the move into web hosting was particularly inspired by a number of MYOB clients that had custom-built retailing websites that were integrated with MYOB’s back-end accounting systems. “It really has been a customer-driven thing,” he says.
Reed admits that the web hosting sector is extremely fragmented and competitive, but he thinks MYOB can stand out by offering SMEs products in a jargon-free way.
MYOB’s other big advantage, of course, will be a customer base of more than 700,000 SMEs that it can flog its new web hosting service to. “We’re quite optimistic this will become a significant part of our business,” Reed says.
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