Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

The channel is well placed to help customers adopt new technologies such as 5G. Resellers will know which of their customers are in an area with 5G coverage and also what their requirements are. Many resellers may already be using 4G to solve their customers’ Internet access issues in areas with poorly performing fixed-line services, so 5G is a great opportunity to upsell to new 5G hardware and SIMs.

Is now the time to build offerings that use 5G services?

Now is definitely the time because there’s the opportunity to provide 5G-ready solutions. 5G routers also support LTE Advanced, which is already available in much more of the country than 5G. So by selling a 5G-ready SIM and router, the customer could enjoy a big performance boost even before 5G actually arrives. 

What is the appetite for 5G-ready devices?

In the mobile voice space, the latest handsets from all the main manufacturers are already 5G ready, so any handset replacement project is likely to have 5G readiness as a requirement. In the mobile router space, though, there are extremely few 5G options available although we expect that to change this year now that the major chipset and modem module manufacturers are now producing 5G components in volume.

Smart transport networks

Smart transport networks offer significant benefits to passengers, operators and local authorities, enabling urban services to become more efficient, effective and safe. Cities from London to Singapore are already building them. Madrid is leading the way, with a central control room that receives and integrates data from 40 urban control rooms. They cover more than 100 bus routes, 300 railway lines and 200,000 cameras, delivering end-to-end surveillance and security solutions.

Many experienced providers offer end-to-end solutions to the transport industry, involving 4G routers and cameras. Trams, buses and trains are tracked, and arrival times accurately estimated and advertised, factoring in potential delays. These devices need 4G data SIMs, often with fixed IPs or delivered via a secure private APN. On average, there are seven SIMs per bus for logging into cameras to download relevant footage, Wi-Fi, secure card payments, passenger trackers, applications for tracking hours worked, petrol levels and miles travelled.

Challenges

Service providers face some challenges with 4G. First, some networks are stronger than others in specific locations, requiring partnerships with multiple network providers. Second, they have no way to track data usage, and if devices use more than their allocated monthly allowance, they incur high data overage charges. Third, they need a secure channel for transmitting financial data.

We are looking for a fantastic Marketing Executive, with excellent attention to detail, to work within our marketing team on a wide range of projects from digital marketing to live events. You would be part of a fast-growing technology company, based in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire with an inclusive ethos, great benefits and flexible working.

We welcome candidates with marketing experience, great communication skills and excellent attention to detail to join our hard-working, supportive and friendly team.

We are hoping to interview bright, enthusiastic, can-do people, who can balance priorities and take ownership of campaigns and projects.

Essential

1 years’ experience in a marketing role
Excellent communication and people skills
Attention to detail
Strong organisational and time-management abilities
Creativity and commercial awareness
Team player
Basic knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook)

Nice to have but not essential 

BSc/BA in marketing or relevant field
CIM qualifications
Experience with online CRM systems
Experience with online mailing systems 

Ability to learn on the job

Jola’s products
The market in which we compete
Accounting software
CRM software
Mailing software
Social marketing software
Website management software and analytics
Social media platforms
Marketing best practice

M2M and IoT are not as difficult to get into as you may think. Your customers are working on mobile data projects right now, and demand is predicted to increase dramatically over the next few years. If you get this right, you will quickly generate high-margin recurring revenue and, due to higher EBITDA multiples for IoT/M2M, increase the value of your company.

Your mobile data partner will need to give you the tools to win these 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 networks would take years to develop and launch. Mobile data is easy to sell, support and bill when you partner with the right channel supplier.

Jola took on just under 300 new partners in 2020 and now has over 1,000. COVID-related projects fuelled early demand, but these temporary revenue streams were quickly dwarfed as our partners’ customers started to look at projects they had on the back-burner like cost-saving IoT solutions. We recently put 30,000 multinetwork SIMs into iPads for one public sector project, unrelated to COVID.

Getting started

Speak to your existing customers, understand their requirements and then partner with an aggregator that can provide innovative solutions, unavailable elsewhere. Find out about their current projects and challenges. Once you have established your customers’ requirements, start building your solution.

Andrew Dickinson was the only mobile data representative on the panel “How will next generation digital infrastructure revolutionise channel business models?” at Connected Britain alongside panellists Carl Peters, European VP Solutions Engineering, Zayo Group, Chris Fraser, Managing Director, Aspire Technology Solutions and Aidan Piper, Chief Executive Officer, Welcomm.

The messages were clear.

1. There has been a silent revolution in mobile data with download speeds up to 300Mbs available in most parts of urban UK. These technologies have recently been made available to the channel. Jola’s partner base has more than doubled in two years and smart MSPs and resellers accept that mobile data must be in their portfolio.
2. Every reseller/MSP has at least one significant IoT/M2M opportunity in their existing base of customers, and mobile data aggregators like Jola are helping them find and win them.
3. The financial markets value mobile data EBITDA at least twice the multiple of fibre and broadband. With self-service portals like Mobile Manager, it is easy to sell, manage and bill.

Jola

Jola is a multiple award-winning mobile data aggregator, which means that we offer services from all the major UK networks and hundreds of networks globally. We sell a wide range of options and are a well-established, channel-only company. We are innovative and we launch on average two new products and product extensions every month. We operate in many different vertical markets with market-leading specialists, so we understand the specific needs of each vertical and can help you productise differentiated solutions. We give you complete control over your global SIM estate with Mobile Manager. Your customers can also have access to our white-label portal so they can see directly how much data they are using in each device and make decisions accordingly. We help you uncover opportunities and win them with solutions end users just cannot buy from anyone else. Our objective is to help you reduce churn, increase ARPU and the overall value of your business.

According to recent research, 98% of marketing departments now adopt account-based marketing (ABM) in some form, with 73% claiming the strategy has exceeded the expectations of their organisations. But what is it really?

In its simplest form, it targets key accounts. The better you know your audience, the more effective your communications with those prospects will be. ABM strategies have helped sales and marketing teams focus their efforts on targeting specific accounts in addition to more generalist inbound campaigns.

During lockdown, face-to-face interaction was limited to video calls, and ABM was used to fill the gap in many companies. Marketing teams took more time to research individual companies and contacts to build a clearer picture of specific needs and wants in the market. They were able to use information gathered to personalise their campaigns, and their approach switched from mass marketing to much more personal contact.

Generating B2B leads is achievable with a good integrated strategy, but generating larger specific targets is more of a challenge. It requires the ability to pull together work from both sales and marketing teams, analysis across multiple platforms and much more forensic analysis to measure success.

Getting the sales and marketing team aligned is a problem many companies struggle with. Marketing often gets pulled into continuously implementing new ideas and messaging and can become misaligned with the sales team, who have clear targets and concise requirements to meet. When marketing is aligned with the sales targets, they can put together a strategy to achieve the leads the sales team need to convert to hit their targets.

Setting expectations on timings is key. All shareholders want to see results and return on their investment, but setting expectations on when they will start to see results and reporting on agreed KPIs and timings are helpful for all parties. ABM strategies targeting larger key accounts take much longer than run-rate accounts to pull in, their requirements are often more complex as is their selection process and number of key influencers.

As part of our onboarding process at Jola, we help new partners understand, productise and promote our services under their own brand, tailored to meet the needs of their audience. We spend much time analysing their current customer base, looking for opportunities we can win.

Marketing reflects the pain points of its audience whilst gently suggesting unique solutions that cannot be delivered by anyone else. It helps to build a brand and a voice in the marketplace which is unique.

Marketing understands the competition and how its own brand is different. There is a science behind delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. It can be achieved by multiple departments working together: sales with their ear to the ground gathering market data and customer requirements, product teams creating innovative solutions that exceed expectations and offer cost savings, delivery teams doing what they say they are going to do, billing teams who charge you accurately and support teams you can depend on to fix any issues.

Marketing is designed to be emotional, to build strong feelings about a brand no new information can influence. Marketing should continually evolve to meet the changing needs of the market. 

Are you thinking about adding a 4G connectivity solution to your proposition? Are you being asked about it from customers, or are you looking to enhance service or reduce risk for your clients?

4G primary is often called mobile broadband and is used for both temporary and permanent connectivity solutions. Resellers can often provide temporary connectivity until a broadband or Ethernet circuit goes live and can also be used as a 4G failover solution should the primary circuit fail.

4G backup is commonly used to back up primary networks to add an extra layer of resilience; however, managing 4G can be challenging for the reseller and expensive for the client. You need to consider applications that work perfectly well over Ethernet or broadband, which need to work equally well over 4G should the primary network fail. You also need to consider the cost of using 4G data should the primary network fail and the ongoing cost of a 4G solution that no one is using whilst the primary connection is stable.

Need Fixed IP or L2TP?

Many MSPs require one or more Fixed IP addresses on their SIMs. ISPs often require SIMs to be using L2TP so they can control the IP addressing and routing. Jola can supply both.

We were a Gold Sponsor at Margin in Mobile recently, and the number one question we were asked was ‘How do I get into IoT?’ Reading the room, most of the delegates in attendance already sold mobile SIMs. They were familiar with the mobile opportunity, managing voice and data SIMs for businesses, and some had an established mobile broadband proposition. Very few had ventured into selling mobile data for M2M and IoT solutions.

They were familiar with the opportunity to provide sensors, starting with smart meters in offices to street lighting opportunities for local councils, but many were not sure where to start.

The advice we gave was as follows:

Speak to your existing customers to gather requirements

Do you already supply local councils? Schools? Colleges? Universities? Blue-light services? Transport companies? Local and national retailers? Hotel or pub chains?

Find out about their current projects and challenges. Who in your base is involved in smart street lighting? Smart bin collections? Smart parking solutions? Digital signage? Smart ticketing solutions? Smart kiosks? Smart devices for taking orders? Who needs smart devices for remote learning? Who needs connected devices for personal alarms and CCTV cameras? Push-to-talk radios? Bodycams? Security alarms? Who needs asset tracking and monitoring devices? Who needs sensors? Once you have established the requirements of your customers who already buy from you, start building your solution. 

With whom do you need to partner to meet these requirements?

Whom do you need to partner with for the devices, and where are you going to get the connectivity from? What challenges do you need to overcome? Who has the most cost-effective mobile data solution to meet the requirements? Who is agile enough to develop solutions to meet the time frames? Can you manage the data usage across the estate? Can you control usage and costs and protect your customer from bill shock?

Experts such as McKinsey suggest that 5G will have the most impact in four key areas: mobile broadband, IoT, mission-critical control and fixed wireless access.

Enhanced mobile broadband

Faster speed, lower latency and greater capacity could enable on-the-go, ultra-high-definition video, virtual reality, and other advanced applications.

Internet of Things

5G will unlock the potential of IoT by enabling more connections at once at extremely low power. This could create additional monthly revenues, but average IoT revenues will be a fraction of those for mobile broadband because of low usage.

Mission-critical control

As connected devices become increasingly central in applications that demand absolute reliability, such as medical devices and vehicle safety systems, latency will serve as a limiting factor. Because 5G has the potential to deliver significantly lower latency, it provides opportunities in healthcare, utilities, and other time-critical contexts.

Fixed wireless access

Fixed wireless access has existed for years, primarily in areas with no viable wired broadband. 5G is capable of delivering speeds of more than 1Gb/s to the home, making it a viable alternative to wired broadband in many markets, especially in markets without fibre.