Following its acquisition of Australian web hosting provider Ilisys in March, it was speculated MYOB would be moving into the software as a services market. Although Tim Reed, MYOB's managing director, suggests that this is a goal for the future, it seems MYOB has decided to move into the web hosting and domain registration space for now.

The company sees this move as a "natural evolution of MYOB's business," and says the expansion was prompted by customer research.

Reed says customers can sign up for web hosting services from $29.95 per month, email hosting services for $14.95 per month and domain registration for $35 for two years.

Sharing the news through a not-so-common "video press release," Reed says the new web focus will give MYOB customers the opportunity to complete a "range of business transactions online."

The company says it also sees this as a stepping stone to integrating MYOB's back office business management systems with small business websites, to help them increase sales, streamline internal processes and offer high levels of customer service.

"Big corporations are spending tens of millions of dollars on building an online interface to their business," says Reed in the video announcement. "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."

MYOB says it provides accounting software, payroll software and real-time business management tools to more than 700,000 businesses and 10,000 accounting practices worldwide.