By Grant Shepherd

At the launch event for the new MYOB AccountRight Live cloud software in Sydney on Wednesday, the minister for broadband, communications and the digital economy, Stephen Conroy, warned retailers and businesses that they will not survive in today’s world without an online presence.

“The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that of the 30th of June 2011, only 43 per cent of Australian businesses had a web presence. Your customers are already online in force,” he said.

“The digital economy is changing the very nature of consumption, competition and how markets work. It is driving a significant shift in the balance of power between organisations and individuals.”

Conroy said the amount of shoppers moving online is growing and despite popular belief, Australian retailers are getting the bulk of the traffic.

“Nielson recently reported that 83 per cent of online australians over the age of 16 shopped online in the past 6 months,” he said.

“More than a third of them spent over a thousand dollars and domestic retailers hold about 75 per cent of the Australian market.”

One area of particular interest noted by Conroy is Cloud Computing, which will significantly boost our economy in the coming years.

“KPMG has estimated that NBN enabled cloud computing will boost our economy by $3.3 billion over ten years. And this represents efficiency gains and productivity improvements, particularly for small business,” he said.

“Increasing cloud awareness among SMEs is a priority. The government support for cloud is a key part of our national digital economy strategy. This is a vision of Australia’s future to be a leading digital economy by 2020.”

The new AccountRight Live solution from MYOB is said to make it easier for small businesses to increase the online presence and start working in the cloud.

Fort those that already use MYOB software, it works in the same way, except accounts can be update in real-time in the cloud. It will be available on November 8 with subscriptions starting at $23 per month.

This article first appeared on TTmag.com.au