MYOB has laid out bold transformation plans for the small business economy across Australia and New Zealand, revealing a range of new cloud accounting solutions at the opening of the MYOB Roadshow in Melbourne today.
Addressing a jam-packed Melbourne crowd, MYOB CEO Tim Reed celebrated the company’s ability to serve every business size through the cloud, during the past three years.
“I am extremely proud of where MYOB is today and what has been achieved in a relatively short period,” says Reed, kicking off the first of the company’s MYOB Roadshow series.
“Three years ago we had not yet taken our flagship SME solution AccountRight into the cloud. Now we are in the cloud across all areas of our business.”
According to Reed, the company’s overriding message remains unchanged in the battle to remain relevant; “MYOB recognises that one product does not fit every business size.”
“This is why we offer a range of Cloud accounting solutions to cater for every stage of the growth cycle,” Reed adds.
“As a new business is created; as it employs its first employees; as it grows in capability to over 500 staff members; MYOB is there.
“From micro-businesses using Cloud-based cash ledger Essentials Cashbook, to SMEs needing feature-rich solutions with payroll capability in AccountRight, through to larger businesses requiring the cloud-ERP enterprise solution MYOB Advanced.”
At present the company, which has been widely challenged in the market by Kiwi accounting firm Xero in recent times, has 1.2 million business customers across the region actively using MYOB, driven by a “rapid uptake” of Cloud solutions.
As reported by Computerworld New Zealand, by the end of last year the company had 500,000 paying clients on its books, 116,000 of which were using cloud accounting solutions.
“Cloud accounting now makes up 67 per cent of our new registrations, up from 48 per cent the same time a year ago and 24 per cent the year before,” Reed adds.
“At MYOB our goal is to eliminate data entry from bookkeeping work altogether. This will not only give back more time to clients and their accountants and bookkeepers, it will dramatically improve the quality of that data.”
Cloud solutions
Reed says there is continuous value being added to MYOB’s Cloud accounting solutions, with the latest being the introduction of the smart bills feature to all its SME solutions.
“This new feature provides SMEs with the ability to capture key data fields from invoices and enter it into the software,” Reed adds.
“This is another impressive step forward in accounting automation for businesses and is a first for the Australian and New Zealand accounting software industry.”
MYOB is now re-imagining its practice solutions Accountants Enterprise (AE) and Accountants Office (AO) in the Cloud and with a market share in revenue of between 60-70% in both Australia and New Zealand, Reed believes this will have a “significant impact” on the accounting industry in both countries.
“We have demonstrated we can deliver Cloud accounting solutions that make business life easier for business operators,” he adds.
“Now it’s time for us to deliver cloud to our practice solutions. Moving practice solutions online means that we can leverage even greater productivity benefits for our practice users whose customers use our SME solutions.
“At the core of MYOB’s vision is collaboration. We believe that taking AE and AO into the cloud will open up new levels of communication, efficiency and visibility between accountants and bookkeepers and their SME clients.”
2015 plans
In Q1 of 2015, Reed says MYOB will release MYOB Portal, an online collaboration tool for the accounting industry, designed to enable accountants to transfer documents securely with their clients.
But for Reed, the MYOB Portal is just one of many “exciting developments” in store for MYOB’s valued partner network of over 40,000 accountants and bookkeepers in Australia and New Zealand with further innovation in the coming months.
“With over $100 million invested in R&D in the last three years alone, and all of it focused on the Australian and New Zealand markets, we have plenty in store to make business life easier for our clients and partners,” he adds.
More updates to follow…