Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

On Saturday 16th May, the Jola cycling team took on the SkegVegas 100 challenge once again, riding in support of two charities: Derbyshire Children's Holiday Centre and Derby Kids' Camp.

The team has raised£16,772 so far and there are firm plans to double that total.

The Charities

Both charities have a long history of giving Derbyshire children the chance of a holiday they would not otherwise have, and Adrian, Jola's CEO, has supported their work over a number of years.

Derbyshire Children's Holiday Centre — Skegness

For over 130 years, the Derbyshire Children's Holiday Centre has provided holidays, opportunities and experiences for children across Derbyshire.

A week at the Skegness Centre can make a lasting difference, boosting confidence, broadening horizons and creating lifelong memories. In a safe and structured environment, children are able to relax, make new friends and enjoy being children.

2026 will see the return of holidays at DCHC, continuing the work the charity has carried out for more than a century.

Derby Kids' Camp — Peak District

Established52 years ago, this entirely volunteer-run charity provides free holidays for over 300 of Derbyshire's children each year, with children nominated by their schools. Across five weeks of summer camp, the team delivers high-quality experiences for children who need a break.

The children who attend Derby Kids' Camp face significant challenges in their day-to-day lives, from poverty and bereavement to social interaction difficulties and the demands placed on young carers. Their week at camp gives them the chance to try new activities, explore new surroundings, make new friends and, importantly, simply enjoy being a child.

Why this matters

Both charities do something straightforward and important: they give children a week that resembles the kind of week every child should have. For many of those children, it is the only holiday they will have all year. Every pound raised by Team Jola goes directly towards making those weeks possible.

Help us double the total

With £16,772 already raised, Team Jola has set itself the goal of doubling that figure in the coming weeks. The JustGiving page remains open, and contributions of any size will be put to direct use by the two charities ahead of the summer holiday programme.

Donate to Team Jola on JustGiving

Thank you to everyone who has supported Team Jola, DCHC and Derby Kids' Camp so far. The team is grateful for every donation and every share.

Sales Journeys

Sales journeys have fundamentally shifted with demand and customer behaviour. Buyers are more informed, more independent, and much further along in their decision-making before they engage with a supplier.

What that means in practice is that first impressions now happen digitally through your messaging, your website, your content, and your brand. By the time a salesperson is involved, the customer already has expectations around credibility, expertise, and value.

It’s no longer a straight funnel. It’s a fluid journey where marketing, sales, and customer experience all play a role from the very beginning across multiple touch points.

Key Challenges

One of the biggest challenges is differentiation. In a competitive market, many solutions can appear interchangeable, so it’s harder to stand out and price pressures compound this.

At the same time, customers expect a much more joined-up experience. They don’t see “marketing,” “sales,” and “support” as separate functions they see one brand.

Sales teams are also under pressure to be more consultative, more responsive, and more aligned with customer outcomes, all while navigating longer and more complex buying cycles.

Collaboration

It starts with alignment. Sales and marketing need to work together to create consistent, compelling messaging that resonates throughout the process.

Salespeople should be using digital touchpoints whether that’s content, insights, or case studies to reinforce their conversations. Equally, personalisation is key. Generic outreach doesn’t land. Customers expect you to understand their business, their challenges, and their sector from the outset, and this takes time and effort to build.

Key Skills

The role has evolved into one that blends commercial awareness with credibility from strong existing case studies.

Salespeople need to be able to:

• Articulate value clearly and quickly
• Connect solutions to real business outcomes
• Use insight and content to support conversations
• Build trust in a primarily digital environment
• Maintain consistent engagement across longer journeys

It’s about creating confidence at every touchpoint, not just closing a deal.

Simplification

Simplification comes from clarity and consistency as much as it does from technology.

Platforms and automation are important particularly when they give partners real-time visibility and control, but they need to be supported by clear propositions, strong messaging, and a seamless partner experience.

From a CMO perspective, it’s about removing friction across the entire journey. That means making it easy for partners to understand what you do, communicate it to their customers, and deliver it with confidence clearly differentiated.

The Market

The UK Physical Security System Services market consists of 2,203 businesses, employing over ten thousand employees, generating £1.4bn in revenue and with an annual growth of 11.8%.

The Compelling Event

The impending ISDN/PSTN switch-off is an especially compelling event in this sector because it effects almost every monitored device in the UK. Anyone involved in physical security is planning to upgrade to IP, either via a fixed connection or mobile data. Mobile data features disproportionately in this sector because for millions of devices an upgrade to a fixed connection represents a significant increase in cost.

The Opportunity

Thousands of resellers and MSPs still don’t have a mobile data proposition and are therefore unable to offer a one-stop solution to their customers in the security sector, amongst others. Early-movers who have partnered with a mobile data aggregator have been surprised at the margins achievable. This is because independent channel-only aggregators are able to provide differentiated products, like un-steered multi network SIMs and preconfigured specialist hardware, that the MNOs don’t offer. They have also found the products relatively easy to sell, deliver and support and, with book-to-bill times of only a few days sometimes, revenues flow quickly.

There is high demand for mobile data from customers in the security sector. For resellers it is an easy product to sell, provision, support and bill and if you get it right, you will quickly generate high-margin recurring revenue. Financial markets attribute higher EBITDA multiples to IoT/M2M so including it in your portfolio, increases the overall value of your enterprise. Jola partners have beaten the MNOs directly to win very large SIM deals from well-known logos in the security market. We have unique solutions with both network and device security built-in, protecting users from both DDOS attacks and hackers.

Potential Solutions

Many of our security partners offer LTE CCTV and vehicle tracking devices. They stay close to their corporate clients and when they are out of contract with their mobile carriers for data SIMs, they put in a bid.

For CCTV and tracking devices Jola partners propose EE IoT and M2M SIMs with an aggregated data pool for the vehicle tracking devices and a 100GB data pool for the CCTV. End customers like the price and flexibility of the solution, as well as the detailed billing data.

The Process

Jola has a unique process of helping customers successfully sell mobile data. It is called The Mobile-Data Revenue Generator (The MRG). The programme helps partners to identify low-hanging fruit and win their first significant mobile data opportunity. From there they can start to productise mobile data and develop the eco-system required to sell, support and bill it.

The Promotion

Our most successful partners advertise their solutions to companies struggling with the problem. They have case studies on their websites. They post regularly on LinkedIn. They run promotions in their newsletters and advertise themselves in emails, press releases and adverts. They run targeted campaigns and meet with prospects regularly to ask the right questions and see how they can help.

In the annual partner satisfaction survey, Jola achieved a Net Promoter Score of 60. This score is categorised as ‘great’, with 45% of Jola partners rating them 10/10 and 94% rating them 7 or higher. In the comments, Jola partners praised Jola’s wide range of products, competitive commercials, the user-friendly Mobile Manager portal, helpful people and professional service.

Adrian Sunderland, Jola’s CEO, commented, “I’m incredibly pleased with this year’s NPS score and the positive feedback from our partners. With more than 1,600 resellers choosing Jola for their mobile connectivity needs, this is a strong reflection of the value we deliver. We continue to focus on innovative product development, creating unique solutions that help our partners stand out and secure larger opportunities. Our ongoing investment in people, products, platforms and processes remains a priority, and it’s great to see our team’s commitment to supporting partners recognised in the survey.”

Jola has reported record registrations for the first webinar in its new vertical market series, highlighting growing demand from channel partners to expand into specialist sectors.

The opening session, focused on retail, attracted strong interest from MSPs and resellers looking to better position connectivity solutions in a sector undergoing rapid digital transformation.

The webinar explored how partners can support retail customers with resilient connectivity for applications including POS systems, digital signage, CCTV, sensors, payments and inventory management. Jola said the session was designed to help partners identify new revenue opportunities and deliver enhanced customer experiences.

The retail webinar is the first in a three-part series aimed at helping partners target high-growth vertical markets with practical guidance and use cases.

Cherie Howlett, CMO at Jola, said: “The level of registrations for our first vertical market webinar shows a clear appetite from partners to diversify and drive new revenue. Retail is a key market, with increasing demand for reliable, secure connectivity solutions. Our goal is to give partners the insight and tools they need to win more business in retail.”

Jola will continue the series with further sessions focused on additional vertical markets in the coming months.

5G

There has been enormous progress on 5G over the past twelve months. The standout development has been the completion of the Vodafone and Three UK merger in May 2025, creating VodafoneThree – now the UK’s largest mobile operator with around 27 million customers. They’ve committed £11 billion of network investment over the next decade and have already begun deploying MOCN (Multi-Operator Core Network) technology across more than 8,000 mast sites, allowing customers on both networks to automatically connect to whichever signal is strongest. That’s a tangible, immediate improvement for millions of users.

Beyond the merger, 5G Standalone continues to mature across all the major networks, delivering on the full promise of 5G with lower latency, higher speeds, better efficiency and support for massive-scale IoT. The 5G footprint has expanded significantly, and we’re seeing the technology become a genuinely viable primary connectivity option for businesses that would previously have defaulted to a fixed line.

Shared Rural Network

The Shared Rural Network has delivered ahead of schedule on its headline target, with 4G coverage from at least one operator now reaching 95% of the UK’s geography. Over 110 government-funded mast upgrades have been activated across Wales, Scotland and England, and total not-spot work continues through to early 2027.

For the channel, this is significant because it removes one of the lingering objections to mobile-based solutions – that coverage in rural areas isn’t reliable enough. That argument is increasingly difficult to sustain. We’re seeing reseller partners confidently proposing 4G and 5G solutions to customers with sites in locations that would have been a concern even a couple of years ago. Multi-branch businesses – whether that’s retail chains, schools, petrol forecourts or EV charging networks – can now realistically be served with mobile connectivity across virtually all of their estate.

2026

2026 will be a year of acceleration. The VodafoneThree network integration is targeting over 10,000 MOCN sites by March 2026, with 95% of the rollout expected within six years. That will meaningfully improve mobile coverage and capacity across huge parts of the country, eliminating thousands of square kilometres of not-spots.

We also expect continued expansion of 5G Standalone capabilities, which will unlock new use cases around IoT and private networks. 

For our reseller partners, 2026 should bring even more options to solve customer connectivity challenges with speed and flexibility. The toolkit available to the channel has never been stronger.

PSTN Switch-off

The PSTN switch-off deadline was pushed back from December 2025 to January 2027, largely due to challenges around migrating vulnerable customers and telecare devices. But the commercial reality hasn’t changed – if anything, the urgency has increased. Openreach recently warned that over 500,000 business lines still haven’t migrated, and legacy line prices are set to double by October 2026. There are still 2.8 million lines on the old network that need to move.

For Jola and our reseller partners, this continues to be the single biggest driver of growth. The PSTN switch-off is a compelling event that forces businesses to re-evaluate their entire telecoms infrastructure. When they do, many discover that 4G and 5G mobile data solutions can deliver more for less, without the complexity and lead times associated with installing replacement fixed lines. A cellular solution can be deployed in days rather than weeks or months, and with improving coverage and speeds, the performance gap has effectively closed for the majority of use cases.

The delay to 2027 simply extends the window of opportunity for the channel. The message to resellers is clear: if you’re not already having these conversations with your customers, your competitors will be.

Opportunities

The opportunity for the channel is enormous and growing. 

The VodafoneThree merger and the continued expansion of 5G SA will drive new use cases around IoT and private networks. As device connectivity grows and data consumption increases, the demand for managed mobile data solutions through the channel will only strengthen. 

For Jola’s reseller partners specifically, the combination of the PSTN deadline, improving mobile coverage, and growing business appetite for flexible, rapidly-deployed wireless connectivity means the addressable market is expanding significantly. Businesses don’t want to wait twelve weeks for a fixed-line installation when a 5G can be live in days. The partners who invest now in understanding and selling these converged wireless solutions will be the ones who capture the biggest share of what is becoming a very substantial market opportunity.

For Jola, ESG means building products and partnerships that deliver technology responsibly — with consideration for environmental impact, ethical practices, and social value. We focus on reducing waste through smarter hardware design, driving efficiencies via cloud-provisioned connectivity, and supporting inclusive solutions that benefit customers and communities alike. Social and environmental outcomes are integrated into how we innovate, support partners, and scale mobile data solutions.

Expectations
End users increasingly expect partners to deliver value beyond price, including solutions that reduce waste. Employees want to work for organisations with purpose, innovation, and impact. At Jola, our focus on solutions that reduce deployment emissions (e.g., zero-touch provisioning) and technology that enables broader social value reflects these evolving expectations.

Implementing a strategy
Start by clearly prioritising measurable environmental and social outcomes that align with your business strengths — for example, reducing packaging and transport waste, supporting digital inclusion, and delivering secure, resilient connectivity.

Suppliers
At Jola, ESG is built into our everyday operations rather than managed by a separate HR function. Companies should partner with suppliers who take the same approach — removing barriers and providing meaningful employee support.

Key Priorities
Companies should consider the carbon impact across digital services and connected devices, responsible supply chain practices, data security, and the ethical use of technology. As ESG expectations evolve, companies that fail to take proactive steps — such as celebrating cultural diversity, offering real flexibility, and supporting mental health — risk falling behind and losing both talent and customers.

IoT opportunities in the channel

With technologies being switched off (PSTN, ISDN, 3G) and the current economic climate, demand for cost-effective, managed IoT connectivity solutions from the channel has never been so high. We are seeing an exponential rise in demand for SIMs for monitoring and smart devices. Resellers, manufacturers and service companies are finding new uses for IoT daily, and with more 5G available, this is unlikely to slow down.

In demand

Some of the most popular IoT solutions our resellers are involved in are vehicle telemetry and tracking, connected security and fire systems, machine monitoring, asset tracking, smart healthcare and smart city applications.

Opportunities for you

There is no reason why the channel can’t be involved in any IoT opportunity by partnering with the right suppliers. Jola provides IoT connectivity, hardware, and solutions through our 1,600 channel partners. Where we don’t have all the elements required for an end-to-end solution, we can help direct a reseller to the vendor partner that can provide the missing pieces of the puzzle.

Every reseller and MSP has significant IoT opportunities in its existing customer base. We’re observing opportunities ranging from simple connectivity for applications like payment processing and vehicle tracking to complete end-to-end solutions such as smart cities and connected healthcare. We help partners find and win these opportunities.

With IoT connectivity, the most common requirement is for multi-network un-steered SIMs to provide resilience and the best coverage. Mobile operators cannot typically provide these themselves. The channel can provide the correct SIM for its customers without being tied to any single mobile operator’s network footprint or product portfolio.

Monitoring

MSPs help property owners and developers monitor carbon levels. They have created solutions to monitor energy consumption across many different devices within the home. Their devices need 4G to report usage information and for general maintenance.

The opportunity for the channel is massive. The challenge is finding the opportunities each partner can win. Suppliers that can help resellers target opportunities they can win are crucial. Solutions need to be easy to sell, roll out and manage.

Trends

A key trend driving the as-a-service model is the move to IP and the imminent PSTN switch-off. Millions of PSTN lines in the UK are soon to be end-of-life. Upgrading to broadband is expensive, and the capital costs of converters and 4G routers soon mount up. Device-as-a-service models have solved this problem with no upfront hardware costs, low monthly charges, and added benefits of ‘advance replacement’ and free returns for faulty routers.

Support

All resellers and MSPs working with a trusted supplier like Jola can describe themselves as having an IoT practice, much like how they might have a cybersecurity practice today. Instead of considering IoT as a product, consider it a toolkit that can solve many of your customers’ problems. Your customers have problems that you can solve using IoT.

The best suppliers will have the products, portals, and people to help their channel partners succeed. Although IoT is complex, with the right supplier, it isn't difficult.

If you’re new to IoT, your choice of IoT provider could be the difference between success and failure. At Jola, we have developed a complete go-to-market process to help our partners assess their strengths and weaknesses, learn essential skills, find opportunities, and secure their first deal. When we go through this process, and one of our partners secures their first deal, the confidence it gives them can be transformational.

Compelling events

The best opportunities are always those where a compelling event affects organisations. The PSTN Switch-off and the 3G Switch-off are great examples of such events.

You’d be surprised how many things are connected to PSTN lines that don’t need broadband. We’ve replaced PSTN lines with IoT solutions in applications as diverse as remote wind farms, lift shafts and sheltered housing developments.

The 3G switch-off is causing users of payment terminals, ATMs, vehicle trackers, and door entry systems to search for new devices, new SIM cards, and new solutions.

Two of the most significant issues we face are climate change and the quality and productivity of our public services. IoT is being used extensively in both areas in exciting ways, which is an opportunity for the channel.

Find an IoT supplier who cares as much about helping you grow your market share as they do about growing their own business.

IoT

The IoT market used to be the preserve of a small number of IoT specialists and the IoT departments inside the Mobile Network Operators. IoT applications were limited to some mega-scale consumer-focused services and B2B remote sensing services focused on specific vertical markets, such as utilities.

Almost every business can benefit from IoT, and thousands of applications are available. Public cloud providers such as AWS and Azure complement these with mature and secure IoT development environments, allowing organisations to develop their bespoke solutions.

Look for a channel-only supplier with

• A real-time, fully automated, API-enabled, white-label portal that connects to every mobile network in the world
• A network and internal systems protected from DDOS attacks
• Global eSIM networks
• OPEX and CAPEX financial models on hardware
• Financial stability and demonstrable growth
• A wide range of SIM options across several different networks
• Cost-effective SIP-enabled 4G/5G PSTN replacement products
• Routers with proprietary auto-configuration and management software built-in
• A programme to help you identify opportunities you can win
  

They are adding mobile data to their portfolio, but why?

High Demand

With technologies being switched off (PSTN, ISDN, 3G) and the current economic climate, demand for cost-effective, managed mobile data solutions from the channel, has never been so high. We are seeing an exponential rise in demand for SIMs not only for use in 5G/4G routers, pre-Ethernet connectivity and Ethernet back-up but also for digital signage, monitoring and smart devices. Resellers, manufacturers and service companies are finding new uses for mobile data daily and, as we accelerate towards 5G, this is unlikely to slow down.

Quick-win Opportunities

Public Sector

The NHS has rolled out iPads to ambulance crews all over the UK recently. The iPads will help them access medical records to help inform their course of action. MSPs have found that partnering with aggregators offering multi-network services and a management portal gives them so much more control and removes the headache of dealing with multiple carriers and manual requests for changes.

Retail

AV Specialists are ordering complete, secure connectivity packages for digital signage, to arrive plug-and-play to each site, and consisting of an intelligent 4G router, a SIM and some clever configurations to prevent hackers from accessing the signs. Devices arrived pre-configured with an app, allowing auto-configuration, saving time and money.

Transport and Logistics

Specialists are novating SIMs on various tariffs and price plans with their Private APN for bus and coach companies for cashless ticketing systems and WiFi. End-users can manage data usage directly on their own management portal.

Tracking and Monitoring

MSPs are helping property owners and developers to monitor carbon levels. They have created solutions to monitor energy consumption across many different devices within the home. Their devices need 4G to report usage information and for general maintenance of the equipment.

Suppliers that can help resellers target opportunities they can win are crucial. Solutions need to be easy to sell, roll out and manage. Jola has a tried and tested six-step process called the Mobile-data Revenue Generator™ to help partners win their first deal. To find out more visit https://www.jola.co.uk/partners/.

One of Jola’s unique differentiators is their Mobile-data Revenue Generator™ (The MRG™) programme. It uses Harvard Business School teachings to productise repeatable processes that generate reliable, successful outcomes. The programme was developed to help channel partners grow mobile data revenue streams successfully.

Jola’s analysis shows that partners in the MRG™ grow 41% faster than those not in the programme, so all partners are encouraged to get involved. MSPs already have significant opportunities within their existing customer base. The MRG™ helps identify and win them. MSPs receive excellent training and support across every department, giving them their very own in-house IoT practice.

One partner recently won a global opportunity for a leading fashion retailer. Using Mobile Manager, they use aggregated multi-network SIMs to support payment solutions and in-store Wi-Fi. Another partner won a UK-wide Fixed IP opportunity for mobile data back-up for care homes.

Cherie Howlett, Jola CMO commented: “The MRG™ is more than a go-to-market strategy, it’s a growth engine for the channel. We’ve seen partners transform their businesses by winning innovative mobile data solutions they can’t buy from anyone else. The programme is designed by the channel for the channel, perfected over many years and has a 100% approval rating.”