Welcome to the Mclowd Newsletter, our monthly communication to Trustee Users, Marketplace Professionals and Partners.
Introduction
A few days ago my wife went to the Northland Shopping Centre in Melbourne to buy a jumpsuit for a friend that had just given birth. The outfit she purchased had been marked down to $3.50 (75% less than the original asking price).
One of the reasons the item had been marked down to that extent is that Myer – along with its increasingly savvy customer base – all know that the globally-defined cost of a baby’s jumpsuit is approximately $3.50, and that charging a price that is any higher is not a sustainable business model in an increasingly transparent and globalised world.
I tell this story because Mclowd is about to launch version 1.0 of its services marketplace, and with the launch of the Marketplace will come transparency to a new, globally-defined cost for professional services which is 70-90% below the rates traditionally charged by firms in places like Sydney and Melbourne.
Over the next few years crowdsourcing will drive down the costs of accounting and tax compliance for Australia’s 500,000 self managed super funds by hundreds of millions of dollars, and in the process improve the retirement savings of millions of Australians.
This is the outcome that drove the establishment of Mclowd, and it is the vision that will continue to guide its evolution.
The Platform
Hundreds of Trustees have now signed up to use Mclowd’s free SMSF accounting platform, with more joining every day.
Release of version 1.1 has been delayed until mid-May, as we have decided to include additional functionality to improve the year-end migration process. A separate notice will go out to the User Community (including release notes) once the new functionality has gone live.
The Advisory Board
Mclowd has welcomed two new members to the Advisory Board in recent weeks and the composition of the Board now accurately reflects the growing strength of the Mclowd Community.
Craig Stonehouse – Trustee Representative
Craig is a Senior Database Administrator with 10 years’ experience in applications development, report writing and database management. More importantly Craig recently established a Self Managed Super Fund for himself and several family members.
As such Craig represents the new face of SMSF, one where empowerment rather than a specific minimum balance is the key criteria for improving retirement outcomes.
Geetha Srikant – Marketplace Representative
Based in India, Geetha has more than 10 years’ experience in providing administration and accounting support to Australia’s SMSF community. Geetha will represent the interests of the growing community of service providers in the Marketplace.
Geetha also represents the future of professional services in Australia – individuals with the requisite qualifications, technical skills and experience, operating in a highly transparent, global services marketplace where consistent performance is the primary criteria for success.
The Marketplace
As mentioned version 1.0 of the Mclowd Marketplace is scheduled to go live in late May. The Marketplace will be similar to other services marketplaces such as elance, freelancer and odesk, but will be focused on the global funds management industry.
Like the Platform, the Marketplace has been built by a global team of design and development resources, without any office environment or full time staff, providing further evidence of the power of cloud computing and crowdsourcing to disrupt existing business models.
Thanks again for your continued support of our efforts to improve net returns for SMSF investors.
Kind Regards
Ashley Porter
Managing Director
Mclowd Pty Ltd