Welcome to the Mclowd Community Newsletter.
Mr Siebel describes GE as “a 19th century conglomerate [with a] 20th century vision of how to build software”, investing billions and hiring thousands of people to develop its products. “It doesn’t work like that,” he says. “You build great software products with 10 or 20 or 30 people.”
The internet of things: industry’s digital revolution FT.com June 27th
Introduction
The marginal cost of a product or service must inevitably reflect the capital cost associated with its development.
Even if – in all other respects – the marginal cost is precisely zero, the opportunity cost of that capital must be serviced over time. (The only alternative to servicing that capital is to write off its nominal value – which is a very difficult discussion to have with any stakeholder).
As the above article illustrates, French energy giant Engie recently selected Silicon Valley startup C3 IOT as its Internet of Things technology partner, in preference to incumbent vendor General Electric.
In the world that GE – and so many other incumbents – inhabit, product development processes involve large numbers of people and even larger amounts of capital.
In August 2017 that is not the world we now live in.
Every one of the thousands of people reading this Newsletter lives in a world where the cost of developing, deploying and maintaining software (as well as numerous other technologies) is in freefall.
(Anyone who would like to understand how the process of digitisation leads – inevitably – to demonetisation might like to watch this short video).
SMSF Accounting Update
Version 6.0 of the Mclowd SMSF accounting software is now live, including direct bank data integration from Macquarie CMA and via DDH Graham.
Given the proportion of Funds for which these feeds are applicable, this is by far and away the most significant release in the history of the Mclowd Community.
Reinforcing the value of these data sources, a number of other improvements have been deployed in relation to the allocations process. This reflects the fact that our Product Roadmap is centred on the needs of high-volume users.
Apart from the Team itself, Mclowd is now being driven forward by a number of key practitioner clients who currently use BGL Desktop, but are progressively migrating to Mclowd from FY18 onwards.
As flagged in the last Newsletter, these same firms are now working with us to design and develop a centralised transactions screen, which will become the centrepiece of a practitioner-centric interface. (Trustee users will continue to have access to the existing environment, as their workflow needs are fundamentally different).
The process that Engie went through in selecting C3 IOT is exactly the same process these firms are now going through in selecting Mclowd as their technology partner, and for exactly the same reasons.
Introductory Webinar
For the benefit of new users and those considering migration, a free Introductory Webinar will be held at 12:30pm AEST on Thursday 24th August.
Postscript
Other than the opportunity cost of capital, the marginal cost of the data flowing from Macquarie Bank through Mclowd (and ultimately to the ATO) is precisely zero.
At this point the opportunity cost of capital represents an existential threat to any incumbent.
Deploy too much capital, and you can never drive price towards this new, globally-defined marginal cost.
And as GE has just found out, your customers will eventually realise this.
Regards
Ashley Porter
Managing Director
Mclowd Pty Ltd