Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

The IoT Market

The IoT market was once the domain of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). This is no longer the case; there is now a significant role for the channel. We are increasingly assisting resellers in identifying IoT opportunities or responding to inbound enquiries within their existing base. The MNOs can truly be compared to utility companies. They must manage large-scale infrastructure projects, such as expanding their 5G networks and continually enhancing coverage. However, the organisational mindset that successfully delivers these massive projects differs from that found in our most successful, rapidly growing entrepreneurial channel businesses. We win business by being innovative, flexible, and responsive to the ever-changing needs of customers.

The Opportunities

The IoT opportunities that were common a couple of years ago were generally focused on providing support for relatively low-usage mobile applications such as vehicle tracking, handheld card processing, and smart metering. Recent advancements, such as the ever-increasing 5G footprint and the constant reduction in cost per MB, mean that there are now almost no connectivity applications that cannot be supported by a mobile data solution rather than a fixed line.

AI

The rapid development of AI is driving whole new IoT use cases.  From vehicle tracking in the past, we now have resellers with AI powered cameras providing real-time collision avoidance on building sites.  We’re actively involved in self-driving vehicle pilot programmes around the world via UK based resellers.  IoT and AI is also being used more and more as part of net-zero projects to help optimise the use of renewable energy sources and battery storage.

Demand Drivers

The vast majority of demand from the channel is being driven by the same underlying themes, which are reliability, security and flexibility. 

Most IoT requirements we see are mission critical to the end customer and so as a result we sell 10 multi-network SIMs for every single network SIM.  We even have some sites where we’ve delivered satellite connectivity alongside 5G mobile data to provide belt and braces high speed connectivity.

We’ve all seen the threat posed by cyberattacks as a result of the disruption caused to both M&S and the Co-op in recently.  Cybersecurity is no longer a nice to have it needs to be part and parcel of any digital solution, IoT or otherwise.  Jola has protected all our public IP and Private APN traffic with always on realtime Cloudflare protection since 2022.  This has protected Jola’s resellers and their end-users from thousands of DDoS attacks that would have otherwise disrupted their businesses and inflated their bills.

3G

3G will be switched off, by UK mobile operators.  This will leave many end-users in the lurch with devices that only support 2G and 3G such as vehicle trackers, payment terminals and industrial handheld devices.  This will be a great opportunity for the channel to provide new devices and SIMs supporting 4G and 5G. 

5G

Most of the population will be able to obtain 5G which will drive adoption in higher bandwidth applications.  For SME businesses, FTTP will likely provide the best performance and value for money.  Where FTTP isn’t available then 5G will make SoGEA-based broadband look pedestrian in comparison.  5G hardware will continue to come down in price whilst improving performance.

PSTN Switch-off

The PSTN switch-off will continue to be an opportunity.  Most large operators and many resellers will underestimate how many end-user businesses have PSTN lines in locations where there is no need for high-speed broadband.  PSTN replacement solutions using 4G are easy to sell at a lower cost and higher margin than the PSTN lines they are replacing.

Cybersecurity 

The growing threat landscape is driving more and more companies to put cybersecurity at the heart of their IT and telecommunications strategy.  Providing secure services is now a hygiene factor and demonstrating compliance with the various information security standards will be essential.

AI

AI has evolved from a niche, experimental technology into a critical tool businesses rely on to drive innovation and efficiency.  This is driving the need for more bandwidth in a variety of applications.  For example, we’ve supplied SIMs into vehicle applications where video is being streamed back into the cloud to be analysed by AI to monitor driving standards, support insurance claims and even provide almost real-time collision avoidance on construction sites.

Satellite connectivity

Competition in the LEO satellite space will drive down prices and satellite may be in the mix with fibre and 5G for delivering small office and branch internet connectivity.

M2M/IoT

If you have customers in retail they may be struggling with their connectivity for smart kiosks, digital signage and CCTV. In the NHS contracts are being won for connected smart devices in ambulances, hospitals, police stations, fire stations and even on boats for the Coast Guard. In transport and logistics mobile broadband solutions and tracking devices are a priority. Each reseller in the channel has a huge mobile data opportunity waiting to be won and Jola can help you uncover and win it.

Demand for high-speed, low-latency mobile connectivity for M2M/IoT solutions is growing. The logistics of distributing physical SIMs to multiple locations, potentially at short notice and on a network which is known to have coverage at each site is challenging. To solve this problem, Jola launches a range of multinetwork tariffs, with 5G connectivity via QR codes or physical SIM cards.

Site surveys are expensive to check mobile network connectivity in each location and ensuring SIMs are distributed to the right people at the right time is essential. End-users need the benefits of 5G connectivity and the resilience of a single SIM that can connect to multiple networks. Jola 5G-enabled, MultiNet QR codes meet these needs and reduce costs considerably.

Lee Broxson, Jola’s CSO commented, “Our channel partners have been asking for SIMs that tick all these boxes and they now have access to them via Mobile Manager. Customers want 5G as soon as it is available and LTE-A access until they do. A single SIM that delivers the above but with connectivity on 3 UK networks, 4 UK networks or 3 UK/European/USA networks is a game changer.  Offering QR codes helps to reduce operational costs, simplify rollouts and reduce carbon footprints, which is win for our partners and their customers.”

The Opportunity

Every reseller and MSP has significant IoT opportunities in its existing customer base. 

We’re observing opportunities, from simple connectivity for existing applications like payment processing, vehicle tracking, and digital signage to complete end-to-end solutions such as smart cities and connected healthcare. We help partners find and win these opportunities.

Support from suppliers

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 organizations. 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.

I’m interested in trends traced back to our biggest problems. Two of the biggest 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 that cares as much about helping you grow your IoT market share as they do about growing their own business!

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.

Investment in UC/CC

In the past, it was the PBX or hosted PBX providers that were providing UC add-ons to their basic service sometimes at a significant premium.  Now it is the collaboration vendors that, with the addition of PSTN calling, are now displacing the PBX and/or hosted PBX.  It is now relatively easy to port a UK PSTN number to a Teams user and use that single client (desktop and mobile) to be able to interact using the rich Teams experience or make and receive traditional voice calls as required.

Change 

It is clear that COVID has changed the workplace forever and beneficiaries have been the UC and collaboration solutions such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and WebEx.  In many workplaces, the option didn’t exist to regularly work remotely and as a result, companies didn’t necessarily provide the UC and collaboration tools required.  COVID changed all that and remote working became mandatory for most of us.  At first, we used the tools for multi-person video calls, but quickly started sharing screens and in many cases moved to mass participation web conferences.

What's new?

At the moment the UC collaboration experience is all based on two dimensions video and screen sharing.  However, we already see our SIMs being used in Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications in specialist industries with purpose-built tools and devices.  However, companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Google are investing heavily in AR and VR for both consumers and businesses.  This combined with the widespread availability of 5G makes me think it won’t be too far away before the UC and Collaboration tools that we use every day start to open up AR and VR for widespread B2B use.

Subscription Services

Subscription services allow organisations to benefit from new technologies and services without having to spend large amounts of CAPEX.  It also allows them to scale up or down, which is invaluable for organisations facing seasonal demands. 

Impact on the Channel

Subscription services generally work exceptionally well for channel companies because we’re all used to supplying services such as fixed line and mobile on a monthly recurring basis, often with some term discount to reward loyalty.  The only channel business model that could get disrupted is traditional hardware and perpetual software sales funded by leasing. 

Nowadays, many companies that would have had a PBX in their office and a bunch of servers, switches and firewalls in their comms room or data centre will likely have replaced everything with the private or public cloud equivalents. 

Innovations

In the mobile data world, we’re seeing a shift towards CPE as a service. This enabled, for example, many customers to deploy 5G routers in their networks where it would have previously been prohibitive due to the relatively higher upfront costs compared with 4G routers. 

This is a win-win.  The reseller gets a more valuable stickier solution sell than they might have otherwise enjoyed.  The end-user gets the performance and productivity benefits offered by the latest 5G technologies. 

Key Trends

The key trends that are driving subscription services are the ever-accelerating march towards digital transformation and the cloud.  This has created a virtuous circle that means constant growth in customer adoption drives innovation which delivers improved services which drives more adoption. 

The other side of this equation is that organisations are more reliant on their digital infrastructure and all professional services that provide peace of mind have never been in more demand such as 24x7 network monitoring and support and 24x7 security operations centre services. 

Of course, these professional services are an ideal candidate to be delivered as a service.  We have MSPs delivering managed network and managed security services on a per-user or per-device per-month subscription basis. 

Opportunities

The best place to look for opportunities is always in your existing customer base.  Seek out those customers that may have struggled to sign off on a project in the past due to CAPEX constraints but that could do using a purely OPEX model.  Look for customers that have experienced rapid growth organically or have grown through acquisition, they will be facing technology and communications problems that you can help with. 

During 2024 3G will be switched off by most, if not all, UK mobile operators. This transition will leave end-users stranded with devices that no longer work such as vehicle trackers, payment terminals, and industrial handheld devices. This situation presents a significant opportunity for the Channel to offer new devices paired with SIMs supporting 4G and 5G.

While most of the population will have access to 5G, fostering the adoption of higher bandwidth applications, SME businesses can expect optimal performance and value for money through (FTTP). In cases where FTTP is unavailable, 5G is likely to hugely outperform (SoGEA) based broadband in terms of performance and efficiency. The cost of 5G hardware is expected to decrease with advances in performance, making it an attractive investment.

The opportunity

The ongoing PSTN switch-off represents a substantial business opportunity. Many major operators and resellers may underestimate the amount of businesses using PSTN lines in locations where high-speed broadband is unnecessary. Resellers offering PSTN replacement solutions leveraging 4G find they are easy to sell. Many resellers will already be talking to their customers about the PSTN switch-off and guiding them towards appropriate solutions in plenty of time, potentially saving their customers money whilst making more margin.

Internet security is no longer a nice to have. In the mobile data space, the Fixed Public IP SIMs present the easiest attack surface for hackers.  There have been many examples of CCTV cameras, IoT devices, VoIP handsets and mobile data routers being hacked, used as part of botnets and used to facilitate DDoS attacks and telephony fraud.  At Jola, we’ve been running all our Fixed IP traffic through Cloudflare for two years and we now prevent hundreds of hacking attempts against our customers monthly.  

Current Trends

The increasing demand for reliable mobile data extends beyond traditional tracking to broader applications that require precise control. This involves leveraging technology in diverse ways and supporting different requirements across the sector, such as optimising scheduling processes and managing sensors.

As we explore trends in the transport and logistics sector, it's evident that the focus is shifting towards sophisticated solutions. While the tracking of assets remains crucial, smart transport networks are now delivering substantial benefits to passengers, operators, and local authorities. Urban services are becoming more efficient, effective and safe.

End-to-end solutions within the industry leverage advanced technologies like 4G routers and cameras. Tracking systems for trams, buses, and trains are becoming more sophisticated, accurately estimating and advertising arrival times while factoring in potential delays. These solutions often rely on 4G data SIMs, some with a fixed IP or delivered via a secure Private APN.

Warehouses are increasingly adopting these solutions to stay competitive and realise significant benefits in terms of manpower savings and cost reductions. The advent of 5G further empowers companies, even in rural locations, to adopt new technologies that streamline and enhance workflow tracking.

MSP Priorities

In serving the evolving needs of the transport and logistics sector, resellers and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) need to offer choice and control. A wholesale supplier with a diverse range of connectivity options, from single to multi-network to Fixed IP, is essential. Many MSPs have established robust relationships within this sector, understanding the challenges and proposing customised solutions.

End-users require continuous connectivity and control over their data usage to prevent data overage charges. Jola’s partners play a crucial role in managing global SIM estates through Mobile Manager, providing real-time data usage insights, alerts bolt-ons, and data pools. These tools enable efficient monitoring of usage, preventing bill shock. Additionally, the use of mobile data networks expedites start-up processes, eliminating delays associated with lengthy fixed-line installations.

Key challenges

Service providers, without the assistance of an intelligent aggregator, encounter several challenges in the 4G landscape. Firstly, varying network strengths in specific locations necessitate relationships with multiple network providers. Secondly, the absence of data usage tracking leaves devices susceptible to high overage charges when exceeding monthly allowances. Thirdly, there is a crucial need for a secure channel for transmitting financial data.

Cost-effective multi-network SIMs, coupled with an online ordering and management portal, address these challenges. Portals which facilitate data usage tracking, enable the setup of usage alerts and allow for the retroactive application of bolt-ons ensure data costs are controlled. Data pools provide the flexibility of sharing data across multiple SIMs, while buffer pools eliminate high data overage charges. Furthermore, the utilisation of Private APN networks enhances security by facilitating the encrypted transmission of data across a private mobile network.