Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

There have been some high-profile cybersecurity attacks on IoT and M2M devices. The Bristol Airport's flight information system was hacked and held for ransom and the digital signage in Union Street station was hacked, with the train information screens being used to display pornography at rush hour. These attacks were visible and disruptive, but there are also hidden attacks where IoT devices are hacked to become part of botnets that are then used to power DDOS attacks against whomever the hackers are trying to target. In this scenario, the device owner may not know until their monthly bill arrives and their connectivity consumption has increased dramatically.

Jola provides SIMs that are used in a wide variety of IoT and M2M scenarios. We are acutely aware of the need to protect our resellers and their customers from the consequences of falling victim to a cybersecurity attack. At the foundation of what we do is our Mobile Manager portal which, with its real-time alerts and control, provides visibility of SIM usage before the monthly bill arrives. Our approach goes beyond managing costs. If the application does not need access to the Internet, then why would you expose it online?

Jola offers SIMs that provide secure private access back to a corporate network with no access to the Internet at all. This almost eliminates the ‘attack surface’ completely. Jola has also been involved in some high-profile digital signage deployments where our approach to security has gone beyond just securing connectivity. We have provided secure devices with hardened device operating systems and configurations to deliver a truly secure solution.

Jola is also the first mobile service provider to route all our public fixed IP SIM traffic through Cloudflare to provide best-in-class, always-on, real-time threat protection.  As a result of this, our partners and their end-users are protected from reputational damage, financial impact and data loss that could otherwise result from the 1000s of cyberattack attempts that we block every single month.

Our goal is to enable our channel partners to embrace opportunities and benefit from our experience to deliver unique and differentiated solutions to their customers that are secure from threats that are undeniably out there.

Mobile data solutions are a huge growth area for the channel because they can replace traditional fixed lines as well as provide reliable connectivity for a plethora of new M2M applications, of which digital signage, ANPR/CCTV cameras and tracking are just a few examples. Book to bill is days rather than months and recurring margins are reasonable. Most MSPs and resellers partner with a single wholesaler, rather than try and deal with the MNOs directly. Specialist aggregators have developed differentiated channel products that end users cannot buy from the MNOs directly and are better priced. The best suppliers will have a suite of intuitive software tools and a portal to make the management of multiple suppliers easier, and less risky with maximum control and margin realisation. Recent innovations in global multinet SIMs and QR codes offer the channel alternatives that their customers need and which will save them money.

Criteria

Choosing the right supplier will tick all the boxes for resellers and MSPs to move quickly into selling mobile data products. Wholesale suppliers will need to give channel partners the tools to uncover and win deals, usually competing with the direct sales arms of the mobile networks. They must be an aggregator with access to all the networks and ideally, they will also be an independent MVNO. Most importantly everything must be automated, with real-time APIs offering zero-touch provisioning and management through a single self-service portal. 

The most successful of these will be highly innovative, with a constant stream of relevant mobile data and IoT products that the networks would otherwise take years to develop and launch. When you partner with the right channel supplier, mobile data is easy to sell, support and bill.

Collaboration

The prospect for the channel is significant. ICT resellers already enjoy strong relationships with businesses and the public sector having sold them a range of IT and telecoms infrastructure. We help partners uncover opportunities and win them with solutions end users just cannot buy from anyone else. Jola has a six-step proven process to help businesses go from a standing start to building a very profitable recurring revenue stream from mobile data. 

Why sell mobile data? 

Your customers are currently working on mobile data projects, and demand is predicted to increase dramatically over the next few years. If you get it right with M2M and IoT, you will quickly generate high-margin recurring revenue and due to higher EBITDA multiples, you will increase the value of your company.

According to McKinsey, revenues from mobile data are set to increase dramatically over the next five years. Factors driving growth are the availability, speed, and reliability of 4G, 5G, and IoT. Statista says the number of IoT devices worldwide is forecast to grow to more than 25.4 billion by 2030. Fortune Business Insights predicts this market will be worth £1085 billion by 2027.

People think IoT is very low revenue and you’ve got to win hundreds of thousands. You don’t. You can often get a decent ARPU of £10 to £15 on thousands of devices and sometimes margins over 40%, so it’s a really attractive line of business to pivot into.

Your mobile data partner will need to give you the tools to win deals, usually competing with the direct sales arms of the mobile networks. Your supplier will need to be an aggregator with access to all the networks and ideally, they will also be an independent MVNO. Most importantly everything must be automated, with real-time APIs offering zero-touch provisioning and management through a single self-service portal.

They will need to be innovative, with a constant stream of relevant mobile data and IoT products
that the networks would take years to develop and launch. When you partner with the right channel supplier, mobile data is easy to sell, support and bill.

The opportunity for the channel is significant. ICT resellers already have strong relationships with business customers for IT infrastructure, asset tracking, digital signage, mobile WiFi, monitoring and utilities.

Mobile data is an easy product to sell and provision and needs very little support. Jola took on just over 150 new partners in 2023 and now has over 1400. We give partners revolutionary solutions they can’t buy from any other supplier such as global roaming SIMs which roam over 4 networks in the UK and hundreds globally for voice, data and SMS activating thousands of SIMs from a single QR code and secure pre-configured plug-and-play solutions for digital signage. We give partners more choice with mobile data solutions for every customer in any market globally.

Jola has been doing white-label since 2005 and in our experience, resellers and MSPs want:

• Control. Their customers must see them as the supplier, not an intermediary. They need real-time, automated online tools to provision, manage, bill and support any white-label products.
• Choice. A wide range of options to meet the differing needs of their customers.
• Competitiveness. They need help in identifying opportunities and they must win the deal against the Networks at a reasonable margin.
• Differentiation. They need products and alternatives their customers cannot buy elsewhere.

Jola’s partners access all our white-label mobile data solutions through Mobile Manager. Here they can price and provision solutions themselves in real time. Partners can custom-build their own APN networks. Through Mobile Manager we offer thousands of networks worldwide and unique and differentiated solutions to suit every type of mobile data requirement. 

We are the only supplier to provide a tried-and-tested programme to identify, qualify and win mobile data opportunities within existing customer bases (Mobile-data Revenue Generator). We work with partners to identify opportunities we know we can win, generating profitable recurring revenue streams.

Harry Singh, a Partner Director at Jola, cycled over 350 miles from Edinburgh back home to Birmingham, over the weekend. With other members of his cycling club, Harry helped raise over £2500 for the Sikh Helpline – a local charity that provides a Samaritans-type service in the West Midlands.

Harry Commented “I am pleased to say that we all managed to cover the distance (367 miles in total) and raise over £2.5k for the charity, and the event itself raised substantially more.  In doing so, I also burnt through 30,920 calories, so if you see me stuffing my face during any Teams calls over the next few days that’ll be why!”

The channel has an essential role in educating businesses to adopt new technologies. It is our responsibility to highlight products being switched off, such as 3G and PSTN, to help companies prepare, with improved, more cost-effective solutions.

Vehicle trackers, payment terminals and industrial handheld devices will stop working as 3G is switched off unless companies are presented with a future-proof solution.

5G is becoming more widely available and 5G hardware is reducing in price, making 5G a viable alternative to fixed line connectivity in some areas, offering customers a faster, more reliable solution.

Improving online security is becoming more of a priority with Denial-of-Service attacks on the increase. Jola has been running Fixed IP traffic over Cloudflare for many years protecting connected CCTV cameras and smart devices from attack.

Trusted advisors

End-user businesses don’t ask for information about a product, they ask for help solving a problem. The supplier who understands the challenges and proposes a simple, cost-effective solution, becomes the go-to advisor for similar challenges in the future.

Jola took home two awards at the Comms National Awards last Thursday night at the Park Plaza Hotel in London. We won Best Partner Programme over £10m turnover and Best Partner Portal for Mobile Manager. We also won Highly Commended for Diversity Equality & Inclusion.

The judges shortlisted over 200 entries, a record number, from 101 suppliers and resellers including other well-known channel businesses such as BT Wholesale, Talk Talk Wholesale, Giacom and Gamma.

Adrian Sunderland, Jola's CEO, commented, “We are thrilled to win these awards and proud to sponsor the Mobile IoT Reseller categories. This is an incredible achievement, and I want to extend my thanks to our suppliers, partners, and amazing team for their continued support and dedication. It was a fantastic evening.”

The Park Plaza was packed with Jola partners and prospects on 25^th September 2024. Over eighty channel partners and prospects gathered to hear about Jola’s innovations and how these are creating high-recurring margin opportunities for resellers and MSPs. With legacy mobile and PSTN networks being decommissioned, there is no better time for the channel to sell mobile data.

Adrian Sunderland, Jola’s CEO welcomed partners and explained how Jola has built on carrier technology to create a secure network and unique solutions, that are easily packaged, sold and managed on Jola’s award-winning white-label portals. Jola’s CSO, Lee Broxson highlighted increasing customer demand across key verticals for innovative mobile data solutions, from digital signage to tracking devices. Ben Merrills, Jola’s CTO spoke about how products are designed, developed and tailored to meet the exact needs of end users whilst delivering high recurring margins for resellers. He teased products launching soon such as managed Teltonika routers, 5G eSIMs delivered via QR codes and satellite connectivity solutions. Magnus Wright, Jola’s Head of Sales explained key case studies in each vertical market and how Jola helps partners find and win these deals to help grow their businesses. Guests were invited to enjoy a networking lunch with the Jola sales team to start the discovery process and uncover deals partners are most likely to win.

Adrian Sunderland, Jola CEO, commented, “This was our largest partner event to date, reflecting the current surge of interest from the channel on mobile data. Established Jola partners have increased the value of their businesses and added millions in recurring margins over the last few years. The market is still growing and every MSP and reseller should have a mobile data proposition. We had great feedback on all of our speakers.”

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 with thousands of different applications being available off the shelf.  The public cloud providers such as AWS and Azure complement these with mature and secure IoT development environments allowing organisations to develop their bespoke solutions.

What IoT solutions are in demand?

Some of the most popular IoT solutions that we find 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.

What opportunities are available to the Channel around the IoT?

There is no reason why the channel can’t be involved in any type of IoT opportunity by partnering with the right suppliers.  Jola provides IoT connectivity, IoT hardware and IoT solutions through our 1400 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.

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

Awareness and support for mental health has improved over the last few years. Organisations like Jola are inclusive and diverse. They provide all employees with private medical care and support for physical and mental conditions. Employees need to feel supported and valued within a business and channel businesses benefit from strong relationships with an experienced and successful team.

At Jola, we provide a safe environment for the neurodiverse and check in with them regularly. As a business, we provide confidential counselling and encourage holidays and social interaction with our team, such as family fun days and team nights out. 

About Jola

Jola is an award-winning, channel-only supplier of business communications specialising in mobile data SIMs. We are a global eSIM MVNO, providing innovative IoT and mobile data solutions to MSPs, ISPs, IT support companies and telecommunications resellers.