9Spokes, a well-funded New Zealand startup that has shaken up the accounting profession, moved from to public beta in early September. The platform first broke cover in July as the core component behind a revolutionary in-house online accounting service, Deloitte Private Connect.
“9Spokes gives SMEs the kind of number crunching power and global oversight you used to need a corporate ERP system to achieve, for a fraction of the cost,” the company claimed on its recently revealed website.
9Spokes consists of three combined services: a marketplace for online business software that shortlists the top applications by category and industry; a single sign-on tool which provides one bill and one password for all apps provided through 9Spokes; and a dashboard that shows data from connected online software in a series of customisable widgets.
The marketplace shows only a fraction of the business software available to the Australian and New Zealand market. The company has decided to curate the apps selected according to their popularity and robustness, as tested by an independent software testing facility.
The platform connects to certain desktop software that can connect to online systems as well as online business software. 9Spokes says it connects to accounting software from MYOB and Reckon.
As demonstrated in the Deloitte Private Connect service, 9Spokes can centralise data from multiple accounting programs. However, Xero, which is part of Deloitte Private Connect, is not listed in the public beta. “We’re keen to get Xero on board and are in discussions with them, but until the discussions have concluded I can’t provide any further detail,” said Brendan Roberts, 9Spokes’ chief marketing officer.
The live dashboard in Deloitte Private Connect which shows a one-shot overview of a company’s performance is a rebranded 9Spokes dashboard. The widgets on the dashboard can show metrics from one app or a combination of apps, and can show historical information or forecasts.
Companies using online software already can transfer it to 9Spokes to take advantage of the single-password access and one billing relationship, with 9Spokes.
