Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

Jola celebrated its 8^th birthday recently, after a year of growth that saw revenues surge by 80% and EBITDA double.

Jola also had its best year for signing new partners with ICT resellers, MSPs and specialists choosing Jola for their mobile data and intelligent connectivity.

Jola continued its relentless product development, with a string of new products designed to help Jola partners differentiate their offerings and win major deals from the mobile networks direct.

There are very few administrators and support staff in Jola, in fact despite doubling the number of Jola partners in the last 18 months to over 1000, calls and tickets into the company have decreased. We have obsessed over removing human intervention from all processes, and since 2016 invested millions in real-time automation and intuitive, white-label, self-service portals. More than 40% of our 50+ staff are employed in sales and marketing. Their objective is simply to help our partners win more business, and we recruit 15-20 new partners every month. 

A major advantage of our approach is that we can deal with resellers and MSPs of any size and we don’t need to sit behind companies trying to build a channel themselves. The mobile data market is competitive and there’s no reason for resellers to give up some of their margins to a third party whose only purpose is to compensate for the mobile aggregator’s lack of sales capability and automation.

Vendor partnerships are much more effective than simple supplier-customer relationships, especially when considering new products or new markets. If your vendor is ‘sell-through’ rather than ‘sell-to’ they will have a lot of experience of what works in different verticals and they will be able to talk in detail about their case studies. Probably more importantly they will know the pitfalls to avoid, and they can help your conversion by steering you away from bids you are unlikely to win.

Of course, this only works if you trust them, which means they have to be channel-only and be able to point to a track record of selling exclusively through resellers. Some of your bigger customers will be tempted to try and go direct once they learn the identity of your vendor-partner. You must feel confident that they will not only close this conversation down but do it in a positive way that does not jeopardise the deal or your overall relationship with your customer. 

Jola’s experience in the mobile data market is that most end-user customers have an application for IoT/M2M. They either don’t realise it or they don’t consider the MSP/Reseller able to fulfil their needs in this area. Against this, they would much rather buy from existing suppliers, particularly where they need help in defining the project and possible solutions. 

Jola has productised the process of engaging with customers on mobile data and called it the Mobile Data Revenue Generator (The MRG). This unique process defines the way we work together and qualifies opportunities, capabilities and skills. We help our partners to fill gaps in their capabilities and ultimately win large, high margin, long-term contracts.

Why is this such a hot topic at the moment and is it relevant to my business?

Have you ever had a situation where it was critical to hire a new person and you struggled to find them in time? Maybe you only received a few CVs and the ones you did interview were not up to the mark?

We needed to hire new marketing recruits at Jola. We attracted over 100 strong applications. What did we do differently?

Firstly we looked at our job advertisement and test-marketed the copy with people we knew would be great for the job. We found out through this process that we were putting off our target audience with the way we were describing the company. We were missing the opportunity to sell things we can offer candidates that other businesses recruiting similar roles couldn’t. We were putting up entry barriers by using jargon and insisting on very specific experience.

We not only changed the language and tone of our advert, but also added salary details, benefits and described what it is actually like working at Jola. We highlighted the career development potential, training and mentoring available and refocussed our copy on the values we were looking for. We looked at challenges faced by working parents, we looked at day-to-day challenges, getting to work, hours of work, place of work and made some significant changes.

All employees can work from home and no longer need to work 9-5. Our entire marketing team works part-time hours around their children. It is acceptable to take time off or work remotely to solve problems at home. We promote our inclusive culture. We encourage all types of diversity welcoming employees with neurodiversity and from the deaf community. We benefit from the complimentary skillsets which help drive the business forward.

Jola celebrates its 8^th birthday in April 2022, after a year of growth that saw revenues surge by 80%, EBITDA double, and an investment from BGF that valued the company at over £40m.

Jola also had its best year ever for signing new partners with over 1000 resellers and MSPs now choosing Jola for their mobile data and intelligent connectivity.

Jola also continued its relentless product development, with a string of new products designed to help Jola partners differentiate their offerings and win major deals from the mobile networks direct.

Apart from innovative Layer 2 LTE offerings for ISPs and unique big data tariffs, Jola built a new, fully redundant, highly scalable IP edge network specifically designed to deliver high performance and secure mobile data services. Jola Partners’ critical services now enjoy protection from DDoS attacks and super-high speeds globally via the Cloudflare network. Cloudflare’s 121 Tbps worldwide network blocks an average of 86 billion threats per day.

Andrew Dickinson, CEO of Jola commented, “We have just closed the books on our seventh full year and won Megabuyte’s Emerging Star award for the Best performing Telecoms Services company for the second year running. We continue to grow and to invest in people, products, platforms and processes. We have a fantastic team here at Jola who are dedicated to supporting our growing partner base. It is great to see so many Jola partners building profitable revenue streams from our unique mobile data solutions.”

Telephone lines as we know them will not exist in a few years’ time. As BT starts to close down telephone exchanges in favour of a 100% IP (Internet Protocol) network, millions of end users will need to consider if they need a physical connection and if they want to keep their traditional telephone number.

For many applications (e.g. lifts, ATMs, door entry systems, alarms, digital signage, street lighting) changing out a telephone line for a broadband circuit is unnecessary, expensive or impossible. A mobile broadband connection is the ideal solution for these end customers but what if they don’t want a mobile phone number and prefer to retain their traditional phone number?

Millions of new connections represent a significant opportunity for the channel and Jola has a lot of experience in helping their 1000+ partners to find and win these deals.

Furthermore, Jola is the only mobile data aggregator to also run and manage their own SIP network. Built on their experience in SIP, Mobile Data and number porting they have recently launched products specifically designed for the channel to help them take advantage of this aspect of the impending PSTN switch-off.

Adrian Sunderland said “Jola’s PSTN replacement packages are the perfect solution for MSPs, ISPs and resellers looking for a slick wholesale solution, managed end-to-end via a real-time fully API integrated portal. Millions of telephone lines will take time to migrate and we are already seeing massive projects kicking off as companies wake up to the challenges and choices ahead. This is a great opportunity for Jola partners to become first-mover experts in what is going to be the hottest sector in telecommunications over the next few years.”

There are millions of PSTN lines that won’t be able to use a SoGEA or FTTP type replacement due to costs, incompatibility or logistical challenges. Mobile data will be a requirement for customers replacing PSTN lines for intruder alarm monitoring, call points and many other applications. Jola works with partners to uncover these opportunities. Recent case studies are as follows:

Intruder alarm monitoring

Our partner has a customer with 13,000 PSTN lines used to monitor intruder alarms and fire alarms in properties, both commercial and residential, all over the UK. We suggested a Dual SIM Robustel Router with dual MultiNet SIMs for resilience and a 500MB aggregated pool of data to be shared across all sites. We added a Private APN to the solution to ensure secure remote access to each device. The solution we provided met the security standards required and by sending pre-configured routers to site we were able to ensure a smooth set up process for engineers, a great margin for our partner and reduced costs for the end-customer. The end customer saved around £90,000 in monthly rentals and nearly £2m in set-up charges. Jola included some software customisation to make the Robustel routers 100% plug-and-play and the partner took a £1.2m pa contract at an average margin of 40%.

Taxi Freephone and Info Call Points

There are a significant number of phone boxes in hospitals, supermarkets and hotels allowing you to book a taxi or receive information for free. Each one of these call points will need to be upgraded as they will no longer work after the PSTN Switch-off. We had a partner who won a deal to upgrade 650 analogue call points in hospitals, hotels and hospitality venues. The biggest challenge they faced was the high upfront costs of replacing the hardware. We provided Robustel routers with an Analogue Telephone Adaptors (ATA) SIP Overlay service and calls over IP. We provided MultiNet SIMs with pooled data to be shared across all sites. The partner won a £600,000 annual contract and the end customer saved over £13,000 a month and nearly £200,000 in CAPEX.

According to Statista, there are over 29.3m PSTN lines and over 4.2m ISDN lines in the UK. Every residential customer with a PSTN line will need to move to an alternative solution to continue making calls on a landline and accessing the internet. Every business in the UK will need to review their internal communications and replace both PSTN and ISDN lines. Customers may find that they can get faster speeds more cost-effectively using 4G/5G routers and a data SIM card.

There are millions of PSTN lines that won’t be able to use a SoGEA or FTTP type replacement due to costs, incompatibility or logistical challenges. Mobile data will be a requirement for customers replacing PSTN lines for lift emergency calling, alarm signalling, telecare and many other applications.

What is available from Jola?

The PSTN Replacement Toolkit contains a choice of connectivity (Fixed Line, Mobile, Leased Line), voice over GSM or voice over SIP. It also includes cellular or SIP gateway hardware, options for either porting existing numbers or adding new UK numbers. Everything is managed through our market-leading, fully-automated, white label, provisioning portal - SIP Manager.

The ISDN Replacement Toolkit comprises SIP Trunks (including bundled inclusive calls or unbundled wholesale pricing), resilient SIP trunk options (resilient server side and/or client side), and flexible inbound and outbound routing. UK, international and non-geographic number porting is provided via portal or API.

Channel Live

Jola is exhibiting at Channel Live with a wide range of differentiated mobile data solutions and PSTN replacement solutions. Jola will be highlighting the mobile data opportunity and demonstrating how resellers can quickly find and win opportunities within their customer bases.

Mobile Manager

Jola will be demonstrating their multi-award-winning management portal, Mobile Manager, which is the only fully automated portal in the channel giving resellers complete control over their global SIM estate in real-time.

MultiNet

Jola has created a competitively priced, UK IP addressed, un-steered roaming SIM. Private APN options are also available where traffic is securely managed within the DDOS-protected Jola network.

PSTN Replacement Solutions

Jola’s PSTN replacement packages are the perfect solution for MSPs, ISPs and resellers looking for a slick wholesale solution, managed end-to-end via a real-time fully API integrated portal.

L2TP SIMs

For those Jola partners with their own networks and interconnects, Jola offers access to a variety of SIMs and tariffs over Layer 2. This provides seamless failover for Ethernet and broadband services using their own IP addresses. We also have fantastic big data rates for pre-Ethernet.

The Mobile Data Opportunity

At 2pm on Wednesday 30^th March in Theatre 3 Jola will be presenting a session on the Mobile Data opportunity. Using case studies, Lee Broxson, CSO, Jola will explain the mobile data opportunity and how high ARPUs, and good margins can be achieved.

MSP Viewpoint

Come and listen to our CSO, Lee Broxson at 3.45 pm on Wednesday 30th March on the panel debate: MSP Viewpoint: Moving forward from the Pandemic. taking place in Theatre 3.

Next Generation Telecoms Workforce

Come and listen to our CMO, Cherie Howlett, at 11.15am on Wednesday 30th March on the panel debate: How to Attract More Women in The Next Generation Telecoms Workforce, which is taking place in Theatre 3, Channel Live at the NEC.

Preparing for the PSTN Switch-off

Come and listen to our CEO Andrew Dickinson at 1.25 pm on Thursday 31st March 22 on the panel debate: Preparing for the PSTN Switch-off. It's in Theatre 2 at the Channel Live Exhibition at the NEC.

Come and see us on Stand 230

Entry is free. To register click here: https://channel-live-2022.reg.buzz 

At an average of 9000 a day in 2021, Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks worldwide were up around 30% on 2020, with the UK suffering the third highest behind the USA and France. In October 2021 Commscouncil.uk reported sustained attacks on several of their members operating VOIP networks. DDoS and Ransomware attacks are the biggest threat to network operators and their customers.

Jola recently built a fully redundant, highly scalable IP edge network specifically designed to deliver high performance and secure mobile data services. Jola announced today that their partners’ critical services now run over the Cloudflare network. Cloudflare’s 121 Tbps worldwide network blocks an average of 86 billion threats per day, including some of the largest DDoS attacks in history.

Adrian Sunderland, CTO, commented, ‘The Jola network is built on technology from Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare and Cisco and underpins our Fixed IP and Private APN services. We are the first MVNO in the world to partner with Cloudflare to ensure secure, fast delivery across our network. Cloudflare gives Jola partners protection against DDOS attacks but more importantly peace of mind that we are using world-class suppliers to prevent new threats as they emerge.’

Ambitious channel companies are always looking to recruit, develop and retain talented employees to help them grow. Statistics show that highly engaged and rewarded staff are more productive. Satisfied employees tend to be more loyal to the company and deliver higher levels of customer service.

Jola certainly thinks so, as they recently rolled out a very generous EMI scheme which is planned to deliver six figure pay-outs to their most loyal and high-performing employees. Jola’s EMI scheme grants share options to every employee. Jola employees are allotted a number of shares that they can buy and at the next transaction Jola employees will benefit from the increase they have created in the value of the business.

Andrew Dickinson, CEO commented, “We ran a similar scheme at Griffin and it was very successful. Each member of the team has a part to play in the growth of the company. They all have individual KPIs which contribute to the success of the business. We hold monthly meetings so every member of the team can see where we are against the growth target we are all working to. We have some brilliant talent within the business and it is important to us to reward everyone who works in Jola.”