Welcome to the Mclowd Newsletter, our monthly communication to Trustee Users, Marketplace Professionals and Partners.
Introduction
Mclowd continues to see strong rates of adoption of its free SMSF accounting software, with hundreds of Trustees having registered and tens of millions of $$ in assets now being managed (at an MER of 0.00%).
Over time the direct ownership of assets (which the Mclowd Platform is facilitating) will drive down costs across the funds management value chain, and in the process increase the retirement savings of millions of Australians.
The level of engagement we are seeing from the Mclowd Community is also triggering ongoing investment in the Platform, leading to a virtuous circle of development and adoption.
Launch Event Presentations
All of the presentations which were made at the official launch of Mclowd in March were recorded and are progressively being released via a dedicated page of the website.
My introductory comments on the catalyst for Mclowd and the economics of cloud computing and crowdsourcing can be viewed here.
The presentations from Advisory Board Chair Mike McKay and Product Manager Graeme McGuire will be released shortly, along with the Q&A session.
The Platform
Version 1.1 is now live and the Release Notes can be viewed on the website.
Under the guidance of the Advisory Board work has already commenced on version 1.2, which is scheduled for release in late July (details on the What’s Coming Soon page). Data feeds, a channel model for accounting and financial planning firms, ATO integration and analytics are all in the pipeline for FY14, so please keep your suggestions and questions coming.
With the end of financial year fast approaching we will also be publishing Case Studies of Trustees who have already successfully migrated to Mclowd, as we are keen to get as many new Users as possible moving across as at 30 June.
The Marketplace
This week also marks the release of a substantial upgrade to the Marketplace, providing Trustees with the ability to post projects and engage with crowdsourced resources in a manner not supported by the previous environment.
The Future of Work looks very different from the past, and Trustees and service providers alike are encouraged to register to take advantage of the opportunities a global marketplace like Mclowd provides.
The release of the Marketplace 1.0 is also a significant milestone because it will provide the revenue model necessary to support ongoing investments in the Platform.
The Mclowd business model is very simple: replicate incumbent intellectual property and provide this free of charge in order to drive demand into the Marketplace (from which Mclowd derives a % fee from each transaction).
As the Marketplace grows we will be able to steadily deploy more capital to the ongoing development of the Platform.
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