The latest MYOB Business Monitor Digital Nation Report states that 41 per cent of New Zealand SMEs now operate a business website – up from 34 per cent in March 2013. A further 7 per cent operate a social media site, while 16 per cent have both a website and a social media site.
Inland Revenue is beginning work to explore allowing online third-party accounting software to integrate with the GST returns system.
TechnologyOne has been granted permission by the Inland Revenue Department to store data for its New Zealand customers in Australia on the TechnologyOne Cloud as a third party provider. The IRD’s approval exempts TechnologyOne customers from data sovereignty rules requiring financial records to be stored in New Zealand.
MYOB's API program has grown from 65 developers to more than 800 and the number of add-ons has risen to 70 across 20 categories in the last 12 months.
Technology sales to small and medium businesses (SMBs) in Wellington have taken off, says Enprise Solutions Mark Loveys.
At its roadshow in Auckland today, business software provider MYOB announced products that it will be launching into the market in 2014. This is in keeping with the re-branding of the suite as MYOB BankLink, MYOB Essentials and MYOB AccountRight, come April this year.
Only 9 per cent of local businesses have a website with e-commerce capability and, while another 9 per cent have a website, they are yet to enable e-commerce functionality.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that use social media are 56 per cent more likely to increase their revenue, according to research by MYOB.
Westpac and MYOB have launched an initiative to get New Zealand small businesses online, and using their services, by providing them with a free website, hosting, and domain registration.
Research carried out by MYOB with Colmar Brunton shows 80 percent of New Zealanders look online to research products or services before purchasing them, but only 32 percent of New Zealand businesses have websites.
Enprise Solutions has signed an agreement with MYOB to take over service and support for 270 customers of MYOB’s Employer Services software across Australia.
Your hand-picked five-minute wrap up of the biggest Australian IT stories of the week.
Financial and business software vendor, MYOB, is set to hire 27 new staff following its acquisition by Hong Kong-based software investor, Bain Capital, from a consortium including Archer Capital and investment company, HarbourVest Partners, for $1.2 billion.
Bain Capital's purchase was announced earlier this week, and the sale to Bain scotched recent rumours that global accounting software specialist Sage was the buyer.
MYOB A/NZ corporate affairs general manager Julian Smith told Computerworld Australia that no job cuts were envisaged and it was “business as usual” following news of the acquisition.
“We’re actually in the process of increasing our team across Australian and New Zealand by a further 27 people who will be partner evangelists supporting our accountant clients and introducing them to our next generation of cloud solutions,” Smith said.
The company currently has 800 staff in A/NZ.
Bain Capital managing director Walid Sarkis said in a statement that the growth potential for MYOB was "very strong", with a trend for entrepreneurs starting up their own business and that with Archer Capital, the company had met the needs of customers through Cloud-based capabilities.
The acquisition was completed on August 21 after UK rival Sage Group dropped out of the bidding war due to tough times on the overseas markets.
MYOB chief executive Tim Reed said the company was entering the era of the connected business and was now focused on cloud-based services.
"Bain Capital is an ideal partner to take us forward given its proven successes in leading similar to higher ground in other parts of the world," he said.
"Its portfolio group of management consultants can provide the expertise to take us through our next phase of growth."
Last year, MYOB announced its move into the Cloud arena with the launch of online accounting offering LiveAccounts. At the time, Reed said the move into the cloud was about providing the company’s customers with choice and would initially complement, rather than replace, its on-premise software business.
“We’re not standing in the marketplace having to peddle a story about cloud as the only way to go ... we are saying there are different products for different parts of the market," Reed told Computerworld Australia.
Bain Capital has been involved with the Australian market for 15 years and has invested in companies such as drinks company, Frucor, and electronics manufacturer, Startronics.
According to The Australian, the Archer Captial-HarbourVest Partners consortium paid A$450 million for MYOB in 2008, meaning it has nearly tripled its origuinal investment on the A$1.2 billion sale to Bain Capital.
- Additional reporting by David Watson
Sage has confirmed it is bidding for MYOB, which was put up for sale recently by its owners, private equity firms Archer Capital and HarbourVest Partners.
Legal and taxation publication provider CCH has acquired Mt Maunganui-based accounting software specialist Business Fitness NZ, in what is one of several pieces of merger and acquisition activity in the financial software market this week.
An online accounting package called LiveAccounts designed for small businesses that need to raise invoices, track expenses and manage income will be available from MYOB in June.
MYOB CEO Tim Reed says the offering was developed in response to an independent survey of over 950 local businesses which found business owners are looking for online tools and functionality, but prefer to run their business from the desktop.