Welcome to the Mclowd Practitioner Update.
Nick Scali surprised the market with a gruesome trading update, citing store traffic down 10-15%…Profit guidance for the half was downgraded 28%. From a macro viewpoint, its scary stuff.
AFR Rear Window, October 16
Introduction
In recent months practitioners have been signing up to Mclowd on average every 36 hours, notwithstanding the absence of any marketing activity. (More than 600 firms have now signed up with Mclowd, although only a minority of those are active users).
While a significant proportion of this activity is a result of virality, it also reflects the fact that users of incumbent solutions are increasingly aware that the globally-defined marginal cost of accessing those products is approaching zero.
This Zero Marginal Cost reality is driving an inexorable decline in perceived value, notwithstanding the significant investments that continue to be made by those vendors.
Practitioner Survey – Your Thoughts on Mclowd
In response to the number of firms either managing funds on Mclowd – or looking to do so – we have prepared a brief (3 minute) survey.
The survey is anonymous and designed to:
Capture feedback on the current functionality
Gain a better understanding of this critical segment of the Community
Ensure our current priorities map to the needs of active and prospective users
Simply click here to complete the survey:
Current Work-in-progress
We continue to balance development resources across the following streams:
- Responding to feedback from active users
- Scheduled targets
Over the balance of this quarter the focus will be on:
- Gaining greater leverage from managed fund data
- Enabling the ability to split transactions in suspense
Improved support for custom assets
Technical Support
In keeping with the above approach, Practitioners are reminded not to hesitate to reach out to the Support Team should they require assistance with the existing functionality or have feedback regarding improvements.
Simply click on Help > Technical Support and one of the Team will engage accordingly.
(1:1 training sessions can also be scheduled with our Support Manager Rea as required. Simply email us at info@mclowd.com).
Conclusion
As per this month’s Community Newsletter, the reality of low or negative returns will inevitably begin to show up in:
- Fund balances and retirement incomes
- Pressure on the cost structure of the SMSF value chain
Mclowd predicted this new – and harsh – macro environment many years ago (at a time when incumbents were choosing to spend tens of millions of dollars gold-plating their platforms).
Those incumbent investments reflected both:
- Historical (rather than replacement) cost
- A rosy view of the future which bears no relationship to the reality faced by the shareholders of companies such as Nick Scali
In contrast Mclowd has and will continue to collaborate with active (and prospective) Practitioner users in order to:
- Maximise the leverage available from trends such as cloud computing, crowdsourcing, open banking and artificial intelligence
- Match their future technology licensing (and other operating costs) to this new low yield environment
As always please keep the feedback coming.
Regards
Ashley Porter
Managing Director
Mclowd Pty Ltd