Web Hosting Interview - MYOB Australia at HostSearch.com

HOSTSEARCH: Mr. Reed � thanks for seeing us today. After the launch of your web and email hosting services we know you must be busy so we won�t talk up too much of your time� Perhaps you could start by giving us an overview of MYOB and your role in the organization.

TIM REED: MYOB develops and delivers award-winning software, services and support for more than 700,000 businesses and accounting practices.

Owner-operated businesses are the most dynamic force in the world economy and yet they are universally challenged by limited resources and a lack of scale. MYOB uses its knowledge, expertise and scale to help them build better businesses. We�re really focussed on helping lift the burden of day to administration from business owners and empowering them to achieve their vision.

In my role as Managing Director of MYOB Australia and Group Product Executive, I�m responsible for our teams that develop and support client relationships here in Australia, and also for the products and services that we take to market internationally.

HOSTSEARCH: I think one question people who don�t know your company would ask is � what does MYOB mean?

TIM REED: MYOB is an acronym for Mind Your Own Business � it�s a bit tongue in cheek but really speaks strongly toward our aims of empowering business owners.

HOSTSEARCH: Have you been with the organization from the start?

TIM REED: MYOB has been working to improve the lives of small business owners for 20 years, and I am proud to be part of the team for the past 5 years.

HOSTSEARCH: What exactly can your software can do for a small- to medium-sized business?

TIM REED: MYOB has a range of business management solutions for micro, small and medium sized businesses, from accounting and payroll solutions to full retail and hospitality, point of sale solutions, and now domain registration, email hosting and web hosting.

In different areas of a business, each of these solutions helps streamline internal processes and create visibility into business performance. In short this drives up efficiency (which can be translated into profit or free time) and improves decision making by providing the business owner with up to date, accurate business information.

In a nutshell, MYOB can liberate business owners from the burden of administration activities and help them establish business processes that will foster success.

HOSTSEARCH: How many countries do you operate in?

TIM REED: MYOB operates in five countries in the Asia-Pacific region and has distributors covering USA and Europe.

HOSTSEARCH: So, let me ask something of an obvious question � why web hosting?

TIM REED: 20 years ago we saw the opportunity to help small businesses make the most of their potential, through the provision of reliable, business management solutions, supported by high quality customer service. At that point in time accounting and payroll took a lot of effort and didn�t enable dynamic business decisions � today these processes are more efficient and support a better outcome.

Today we see the same opportunity, but this time it�s to help businesses move online � to help them make the most of the web and all it has to offer. We see this as a natural evolution of our business and we�re excited about our new cornerstone offerings, however we�re more excited about the vision and potential that we have, where we can take these things in the future.

We believe that small businesses are looking for a single, trusted provider to provide online services to them. Over the last 10 years the internet has become an important communications medium, we believe over the next 10 it will become an important commercial medium for small business and we really want to be there for our clients as that transition happens.

HOSTSEARCH: Given how heavily fragmented the web hosting market is, how will MYOB stand out from its competitors?

TIM REED: Yes, it is a fragmented market, you�re absolutely right. It�s a real challenge for small business today to work out who the right business is to partner with in these areas. We believe, through taking the customer centric approach that we�ve taken on all of our products, which really means making sure our offerings are the most relevant to small business owners, and by offering that business grade quality, that we will differentiate ourselves from everyone else in the market.

HOSTSEARCH: So, go ahead � we are your platform� give yourself a plug. Why should people use your web and email hosting services? I understand there are no set server or bandwidth caps?

TIM REED: You�re right, when you look at the offerings most competitors are providing today they look like they�ve been designed by technologists for technologists. From day one we�ve wanted to differentiate by offering a business quality solution that is easy to understand. Specifically we have simplified website and email hosting for small businesses by not having a set cap on server space and bandwidth as such. We offer all the space they need to host a typical small business website. And we back it up with service that�s optimised for businesses that are increasingly dependent on their web and mail servers. Our vision, however, goes a lot further than that.

Big corporations are spending tens of millions of dollars on building an online interface to their business. 24 / 7 customer self-service is becoming a preferred way for customers to interact with a business. Customers are going to expect this capability of every business � big and small. MYOB aims to enable micro, small and medium businesses to offer these same capabilities at a more affordable price.

SME�s are constantly evolving in the way they do business. They are just starting to embrace the web and are looking for a complete set of web solutions from a trusted partner to help them establish and maintain a professional online presence, a partner that offers high levels of service, reliability and a fair price. We�ve built our reputation on being a reliable business partner, making sure we are there for small businesses, day in, day out, 365 days of the year. With MYOB now offering domain registration, email hosting and web hosting, it makes it significantly easier for businesses to continue to succeed in a changing world.

HOSTSEARCH: So, the next obvious question has already been asked countless times on the Internet � without giving too much away, when will MYOB offer your small business accounting software as a hosted service?

TIM REED: We believe that any product that works well on the desktop today needs to offer the end-user more than what they have to entice them to switch behaviours.  Therefore we�re not planning to simply �move existing solutions online� we�re looking at how we can create a suite of online applications that add more value to our clients than our current desktop solutions.

MYOB recently released an entry level, online invoicing and cashbook system called BusinessBasics Online in New Zealand.  One of the features from this system that will make a difference in how accounting is completed in small businesses is the automated process of creating and coding transactions from daily bank feeds. This will make bank reconciliations a thing of the past and free up valuable admin time to do improved analysis and planning rather than data input.  It also allows for a lot greater ongoing collaboration between the small business and their professional advisors (accountants and bookkeepers) � these types of features provide more value to the business.

We are continuing to add features to this program and anticipate launching BusinessBasics Online in Australia late this year.

In fact we have a number of exciting initiatives coming up and MYOB is looking forward to introducing these to the market.

HOSTSEARCH: You do realize you have created quite a buzz here? People seem to be genuinely looking forward to being able to use your products online.

TIM REED: Yes we do! The buzz within MYOB is just as exhilarating. We are very excited about what the future of MYOB holds and are looking forward to introducing new ways to empower SMEs and provide business management solutions that enable them to operate their businesses more efficiently.

HOSTSEARCH: With so many similar types of services being made available through what many are calling �Cloud Computing�, why didn�t you plumb for an Amazon-type offering? Why offer traditional hosting services?

TIM REED: Our objective is to help our customers build a meaningful online presence. As we develop our services, some of that might happen on local infrastructure and some in the cloud. In either case, it�s our software that will deliver the benefits to business.

HOSTSEARCH: According to the terms and conditions of your web hosting, customers need to be Australian business to get MYOB web hosting. Why have you made this stipulation? Will you eventually cater for a global market?

TIM REED: Providing a real solution to business takes a lot more than software � either in a box or via the cloud. It takes a network of business partners, support services etc. We don�t like making promises to clients where we don�t have this sort of full solution available.

Australian small businesses are important to us and we want to help them get their businesses online without the usual jargon or clutter. Their websites have a certain profile and we�ve built a really simple hosting package that matches their needs. That�s why we don�t impose storage restrictions or download caps.

Australian small businesses haven�t been offered this kind of edge before and it�s exciting to be the provider to do so, however it�ll be some time before we take it worldwide.

HOSTSEARCH: You previously worked with partners as far as hosting was concerned - the MYOB Approved Hosting Provider Program. Will that still exist, or will it wind down?

TIM REED: The MYOB Approved Hosting Provider Program actually addresses a different client need to that of MYOB Business Web Hosting. That program is still in pilot phase and we have no current plans to stop this pilot program.

HOSTSEARCH: How far do you see this all going � the Software as a Service/Cloud Computing scenario? Will we one day just recognize services per se being available through the Internet, disregarding who offers them, or will there always be brands that people attach themselves to � ala Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! etc.?

TIM REED: I have a pretty strong opinion here. Small business owners are time poor. They strongly prefer to work with businesses that they can trust. When you�re dealing with hundreds of thousands of businesses, trust can only be established through a strong brand.

The way in which that brand is formed, the methods through which it expresses itself etc. may vary widely from what has happened in the past. It may be a completely new set of brands that are successful in this future world that you paint, but personally I have no doubt that strong brands will win, and that winners will develop strong brands.

Using unknown services has its risks and when it comes to important business processes and information, this is a risk many small business owners will not want to take.

HOSTSEARCH: So, we always ask this question of everyone that we interview: What�s going to be the next big thing on the Internet and how will it impact people�s lives. Not just as far as hosting is concerned�

TIM REED: The next big thing � wow � there won�t be just one! Two that immediately come to mind are customer self-service and recommendation networks. I believe over the next 10 years businesses will find that over 50% of client interaction will occur online. I�m not sure where it is today, but it will increase radically in the years to come. I also believe that we�ll see far more advanced business recommendation networks. Today the online business directories are very Web 1.0, this will change.

HOSTSEARCH: And yourself � what sort of things do you get up to when you aren�t managing MYOB Australia?

TIM REED: When I�m not at work I�m with my kids.