Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

12 months ago UK, 30-day ex-VAT wholesale 4G data was c30p/GB. Today it’s c3p/GB. Average tariff-based prices.

If you’re a connectivity reseller you probably just stopped reading this. Either because you already know about 4G and are slightly miffed the cat’s out of the bag, or you’re researching 4G suppliers.

The pandemic has had the same effect on mobile data usage as it’s had on Microsoft Teams. When organisations send all their employees home, and Openreach can't deploy engineers to install or fix broadband, what are the alternatives?

Jola Partners pivoting into 4G, uncovered opportunities in their customer bases, far beyond homeworkers. 200,000+ SIMs for education, NHS, digital signage, buses, taxis, car parks – the list goes on.

Where the 4G SIM is in a fixed location, adding an external antenna can boost the speed 10x, and at over 100Mb/s 4G is suddenly a viable backup for Ethernet. 

When 5G is available on the tower, resellers have a profitable upgrade path to offer customers.

Average latency on 5G is typically 1ms vs 4G at 40ms and ADSL at 15ms. So there are reasons beyond speed, to upgrade.

IoT/M2M is the hottest growth sector in ICT. c7bn devices will be 20bn-30bn globally by 2030.

How can the Channel ride the IoT wave, without committing to a high risk ‘build it and they will come’ strategy?

Common to every IoT project is M2M – connectivity. This is the biggest opportunity, but presently the domain of MNOs offering single network SIMs and a BYOD solution.

Intelligent Connectivity breaks this dominance.

In an IoT project the endpoints need sensors, managed by a gateway, attached to a 4G/5G router. Significant processing power is also required to collect data and allow remote management. Every deployment is different so there must be the capability to write custom apps onto these devices.

eSIM releases the MNOs stranglehold on the M2M market. Analysts predict there will be more than 2bn eSIMs deployed in IoT projects within 5 years.

Since Jola launched their combined IoT Router/PC/Gateway in March 2020 we have had thousands of orders. MSPs are shipping our devices worldwide, pre-loaded with a 450-network eSIM that downloads a config as soon as it’s plugged in.

We recently rolled out 600 units in weeks for a faultless digital signage project.

In the last 12 weeks we have recruited 6 new staff. None of us had ever hired someone without physically meeting them before.

FOR BUSINESSES

1. YOU CAN MAKE YOUR PROCESS MORE RIGOUROUS

Too many trips to your office can put candidates off. Conversely the more we see them, the more likely they are to reveal their true selves. You can use multiple Teams calls and they don’t all have to be an hour long to justify the travel time. Just make sure you prepare well and avoid repeating questions.

2. RECORD THE INTERVIEW

This enables you to take fewer notes, focus on the candidate and include others in the review process. Ever interviewed a candidate from an agency and within 10 minutes you know it’s not a fit? Help your agency filter better by watching videos of their CV interviews.

3. TAKE VERBAL PRE-OFFER REFERENCES

References are especially important if you can’t physically meet someone. Nowadays written references are practically useless. Ask candidates for phone numbers of recent bosses and their permission to call them. If they think highly of the person, they will take your call so as to not harm their chances. Describe the job and ask them why they think 'X' is suited to the role and what training will be required.

What is an eSIM?

If you've even heard of eSIMs, you might think it’s a new Apple initiative to fix a SIM to an iPhone circuit board. It is, but that’s not even half the story, and a long way from the real opportunity for the channel.

eSIMs solve a number of problems for businesses, and therefore represent a significant opportunity for resellers looking for a magic mobile data bullet to compete with a Mobile Network Operator (MNO).

What are the typical use cases?

Lock-in

Companies with thousands of SIMs in devices globally are often locked in with existing suppliers, even when their contract has ended and better commercials are available, because the cost of swapping out SIMs to another provider is too high.

Signal

Companies usually want to connect to the network with the strongest signal. Some multinetwork SIMs are steered and so always try to connect to their own network, when competitor networks may be stronger. Multinetwork SIMs also negate the need for expensive site surveys.

Control

Companies need to have visibility of their data usage on each device to manage data limits. If they go over their monthly data limit, they may be billed high data overage charges or run the risk of being barred.

Solutions

An eSIM MVNO solves all these problems with network agnostic, un-steered or steered, embedded or plastic triple-cut SIMs. MVNOs buy wholesale, from mobile data aggregators (so they're very price competitive). Their SIMs are invisible to individual MNOs so, unlike with consumer eSIMs, MVNOs don’t need permission from MNOs in each country. MVNO eSIMs roam automatically across hundreds of global networks and additional profiles can easily be added OTA (Over The Air) to take advantage of cheaper local rates.

Where the MVNO has a self-serve portal, resellers and their customers have complete control over the networks they connect to, and data usage.

Part of Office 365 and launched in 2018, Teams is Microsoft’s fastest selling product and recently overtook Slack as the #1 collaboration tool, according to recent research. By upgrading to MS Phone System, Office 365 users also get call management features.

If you need to make and receive calls outside of the Teams family, the Microsoft solution starts to look a little clunky and quite expensive. Out-of-bundle calls are paid for per minute by logging a company credit card on the system, and whilst some country rates are in line with the market, others are not.

Instead of using their Calling Plan, Microsoft will allow you to connect Teams to an alternative network provider using Direct Routing. However, setting this up is complicated and expensive and only a handful of companies in the UK offer Direct Routing as a service. There has not been a true, self-serve, white-label, channel programme for Direct Routing in the UK - until now.

Jola’s Direct Routing for Teams is built on a Microsoft approved platform and offers numbers in 167 countries as well as every area code in the UK. Jola’s unlimited wholesale UK call package costs less than half that of MS Calling Plan with very competitive out-of-bundle rates – billed monthly in arears. 

For the first time suppliers of Office 365 will be able to offer a viable alternative to traditional, or hosted telephony, at a compelling price to their customers, whilst making a good recurring margin on call bundles and out-of-bundle call charges.

I was on a beach and a guy tried to sell me some local precious stones. Very quickly we went from $100 to $10 and when I tested the ‘stones’ they were actually lumps of plastic. He shrugged and moved on to the next tourist – no hard feelings on either side. His negotiation approach is more zero-sum than win-win but has this damaged his business? – probably not.

Handle negotiations with a one-off sale badly in B2B and you may harm your reputation or your bottom line, but usually only on that one deal. However, getting it wrong with an ongoing relationship can be disastrous, especially in the channel. Where a company is re-selling your product, you have to know exactly where you fit in the value chain. What is the Standard for your product? What will your partner need to sell at, to win against the competition? - and still make enough margin to excite them, and their salespeople. What is unique about your offering and how does that translate into benefits for your partner and their customers?

I see basic negotiation mistakes all the time in my industry and usually due to lack of research and preparation. Suppliers trying to sell products to resellers without considering what they will sell it for, or assuming that their ‘unique’ features are benefits, without having properly tested the proposition. On the other side, resellers come back with random requests for discounts and get offended when you ask why. Alternatively, they invent prices they have received from other suppliers in an attempt to improve their own margin.

Going into a negotiation, there is an assumption that you will come to an agreement. If you are unable to agree terms this is often viewed as a failure but whether or not it is depends on how well you have prepared.

Before you start a negotiation it is important to think through potential outcomes. Which party has most to lose if you cannot agree? If you have done your homework on Standards you will know the range of acceptable outcomes. If you cannot get to a deal in this range, which side is most adversely impacted?

You should be able to answer this question for both sides and for individuals on both sides. e.g. perversely a product manager incentivised on average margin may be more inclined to lose a large customer than give them a significant price cut to stay. However there is a cost to switching suppliers as well as acquiring and on-boarding customers, and moving away may be the wrong decision for both organisations. One option is to adjourn the conversation with the product line and find someone with a more holistic view. Even then they may overestimate the value of inertia, so you have to make them believe there is a real possibility of losing your business. Properly research the alternatives and be prepared to walk away from a deal if your minimum requirements cannot be met.

There are plenty of doom-mongers around Microsoft’s recent incursion into the cloud PBX market but little practical advice. If you find yourself competing with Teams Phone System, here are three things to consider;

1.   Be prepared. Microsoft list only 22 inclusive features of Phone System on their web site and they don’t appear to offer optional extras. If you currently charge for some of their standard features, you may initially feel a little disheartened. However, many features you offer, and your customers need, may not be there. Put together a competitive matrix for your salespeople and their customers. Include the range of devices you offer vs Microsoft approved devices. Make sure your salespeople understand Office 365 pricing. Phone System is available with only the more expensive licenses and at time of writing is not an upgrade on Microsoft’s most popular 365 licence, Business Premium. Build a price comparison table into your Features Matrix. As Microsoft expand their features update your sales team.

2.   Focus on SMEs. Due to the level of licence and technical skill required to configure Teams Phone System, it feels as if it would appeal more to bigger companies. It has always been hard to sell a hosted cloud product to really large organisations. Yes, they benefit from not having to have a PBX in every office, but at a certain size it’s often cheaper for them to buy their own cloud platform. Because it is an upgrade to expensive Office 365 licences, Teams Phone System may be less attractive in the SME market, which is the sweet spot for most hosted providers and where the average sale is still only seven seats.