This is it!

This week 2Shakes goes live!

After 3 months on MBIEs R9 Accelerator, then 2 months of due diligence funding, then 3 months of software development we are ready to launch our first version of 2Shakes this week!

We have been a little quieter than usual over the past month.  But that’s just because we have been very busy.  We presented our progress to our key sponsors ACC and MBIE who have confirmed they are on-board to continue to sponsor 2Shakes.  We also got deep into the wiring of our system, finishing off the last bits and pieces of functionality, doing lots of testing and then moving everything into a secure production environment.

2Shakes sits on a secure environment on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Azure provides us a managed Platform-as-a-Service, which means we utilise the full expertise of Microsoft resources to look after our servers and databases.  Microsoft look after patching, backups, replication, geo-redundancy, etc – letting us focus on the 2Shakes application, not the infrastructure it sits on.  Leveraging Microsoft’s cloud platform has also significantly reduced the time to market for our application, while maintain robust, secure infrastructure.  Microsoft are one of our sponsors and their support has really helped to get 2Shakes to where we are.

2Shakes has also had a full legal review.  Thank you to Chapmann Tripp who have provided outstanding legal advice to 2Shakes over the last few months to enable us to launch. They have done a screen by screen review to make sure that everything is ship shape.

Of course, we want to thank all our supporters from the R9 Programme, Creative HQ, Data Futures Partnership. Last (but definitely not least) NZBAI have, as always, have been amazing!  (Seriously – you rock – thank you!)

Get started with 2Shakes

Many of our early adopters have asked for a demonstration to get you going.  We will be in touch soon to go through our system and what you need to know.  We are aiming to get to touch with all 60-odd of our early adopters by the end of this month.  But if you are keen to get started sooner rather than later please just call or email (if you haven’t already done so).
If you would like to find out a bit more about our system we have a support page on our website.   www.2shakes.co.nz/support/.  We’re adding step by step instructions, short videos, frequently asked questions and a contact page.  Our last update gives a good overview of what 2Shakes does, www.2shakes.co.nz/coming-first-release-2shakes-update/.

Anti Money Laundering Legislation – Phase 2 is coming

AML CFT phase 2 legislation is planned for next year.  Phase 1 targeted banks.  Phase 2 will target Accountants, Bookkeepers, Lawyers, Real Estate Agents and High value traders.

If you are a bookkeeper, accountant or lawyer it is likely that you will need to comply with AML in Phase 2.  At 2Shakes we are investigating how we can make AML compliance as easy as possible for you, and how we can automate AML compliance within the 2Shakes solution.

Expanding – Bookkeepers, Accountants & Financial Advisors

2Shakes makes it easy and efficient to set up clients and be recognised with authority to act for them across government.  Bookkeepers work with many of the same organisations and use similar systems to accountants. So as well as helping bookkeepers, we’ll be working in the coming months to roll 2Shakes to accountants too, saving them time, effort and administration.  In fact, we already have several accountants who have heard about us who have asked if they can use our product.

As well as accountants, 2Shakes has started working with insurance brokers and advisors to help them get set up for their clients with ACC and other insurance organisations.  In many ways financial advisors are similar to bookkeepers, who often don’t get the same professional recognition as accountants and lawyers, making authority setup more difficult.  So we’re looking forward to helping financial advisors sign up their clients and get to work quickly too.

Plus, as we add functionality to suit accountants and insurance brokers we will also enrich the value and benefit 2Shakes provides to bookkeepers.

So if you know any accountants or financials advisors, we would appreciate it if you could refer us to them. We are keen to help them too.  Thanks!