Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

The Challenges

One of the biggest challenges is integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) into business strategy. If you aim to increase EBITDA and sell your company for the highest multiple, how does ESG align with this? The second challenge is measuring success, and the third is often resources. Companies with ESG initiatives that support the overall business strategy are more likely to invest in them, support them, and measure their success.

The Standards

Looking at key metrics can be helpful when developing an ESG strategy to understand a starting point, what success looks like and how to get there.

Carbon emissions, energy consumption, waste production, and water usage can serve as valuable metrics, alongside employee satisfaction, community involvement, and regulatory compliance. Having the right KPIs, motivations and measurements is key to success.

The Risks

Like any new initiative if the ESG strategy does not align with business strategy and corporate values, if it is not properly resourced, measured, monitored and reported on, it may fail. Without proper communication and engagement, it can fail miserably.

The Benefits

Building a successful team that can deliver growth is crucial for any company in the channel. Finding, training, and retaining the right people who can understand and exceed your partners' expectations is challenging, but when achieved, it becomes difficult to replicate. Loyalty is fostered by creating an engaging and financially rewarding environment for learning and acquiring key skills that are invaluable to our partners.

Successful partnerships are built on trust, transparency, and mutual respect. Choosing the right supplier will tick all the boxes for resellers and MSPs to move quickly into selling new solutions. Leading wholesale suppliers give channel partners the tools and the propositions to uncover and win deals, usually competing against strong competition.

What do resellers need?

Resellers need wholesale relationships they can rely on to help them grow their business and embrace new opportunities. When looking to benefit from compelling events, such as the PSTN or 3G Switch-off, resellers look for partnerships which offer a ‘one-stop-shop’ for everything they need to find and win deals. They look for relationships with suppliers that go the extra mile to support business growth and make buying from them easy, with excellent account managers, differentiated and competitive propositions and real-time management portals.

Right supplier

Successful channel suppliers are often highly innovative, with a constant stream of relevant solutions that other companies would take years to develop and launch. When you partner with the right supplier, solutions are typically easy to sell, support and bill.

Partner Programmes

Does your supplier have a programme to help you uncover and win new opportunities? Do they offer regular webinars to communicate the latest opportunities and new differentiated solutions to solve common problems? Jola has the MRG™, a six-step programme which has been successful in helping partners build recurring revenue from unique and differentiated mobile data solutions.

Technology

Technology plays a critical role in improving communication and collaboration. Automated ordering and management platforms allow for easy provisioning, monitoring, and control of customer assets giving resellers control over their margins and solutions.

New Opportunities

Demand for M2M and IoT solutions is growing particularly in retail, logistics, and healthcare. With businesses increasingly relying on mobile data connectivity, there are opportunities for mobile data solutions in smart kiosks, tracking devices and wearable monitoring devices cameras to name but a few.

The channel educates businesses to adopt new technologies and find smarter ways to solve problems. 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.

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 devices from attacks.

Tapping into current demand

Mobile data solutions are a huge growth area for the channel because they can replace traditional fixed lines and provide reliable connectivity for 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.

Providing differentiated solutions

Jola has developed differentiated channel products that end users cannot buy from the MNOs and are better priced. Jola has 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 multinetwork SIMs and QR codes offer the channel a simple, cost-effective and reliable solution to common connectivity issues.

Choosing the right supplier will tick all the boxes for resellers and MSPs to move quickly into selling mobile data products. Jola gives channel partners the tools to uncover and win deals, usually competing with the direct sales arms of the mobile networks. Jola is an aggregator with access to all the networks and an independent MVNO. They offer automated portals with real-time APIs offering zero-touch provisioning and management.

Jola is highly innovative, with a constant stream of relevant mobile data and IoT products that the networks would otherwise take years to develop and launch. With Jola mobile data is easy to sell, support and bill.

Successful lead generation and opportunity conversions

Jola launched the MRG™ – Mobile-data Revenue Generator™ - to help partners quickly build recurring revenues from mobile data solutions. ‘Rev Up’ is their new partner incentive scheme rewarding their fastest-growing partners using the MRG™ with VIP hospitality packages to the British Grand Prix.

Jola launched the MRG™ as a tried and tested process to find and win mobile data opportunities. Partners in the programme have transformed their businesses and become specialists in providing secure, reliable mobile data solutions to digital signage in supermarkets, trackers in cranes and CCTV cameras in car parks. Rev Up is an opportunity for more partners to get involved in the MRG™ and a chance for Jola to reward and share their success.

Demand

With technologies being switched off (PSTN, ISDN, 3G) and the current economic climate, demand for cost-effective, managed IoT connectivity solutions from the channel has never been so high. We are seeing an exponential rise in demand for SIMs for monitoring and smart devices.  Resellers, manufacturers and service companies are finding new uses for IoT daily, and as we accelerate towards 5G, this is unlikely to slow down.

What IoT solutions are in demand?

Some of the most popular IoT solutions 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 IoT opportunity by partnering with the right suppliers. Jola provides IoT connectivity, hardware, and solutions through our 1,400 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.

Every reseller and MSP has significant IoT opportunities in its existing customer base. We’re observing opportunities ranging from simple connectivity for applications like payment processing and vehicle tracking to complete end-to-end solutions such as smart cities and connected healthcare. We help partners find and win these opportunities.

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

Monitoring

MSPs help property owners and developers monitor carbon levels. They have created solutions to monitor energy consumption across many different devices within the home. Their devices need 4G to report usage information and for general maintenance.  

The opportunity for the channel is big. The challenge is finding the opportunities each partner can win. Suppliers that can help resellers target opportunities they can win are crucial. Solutions need to be easy to sell, roll out and manage.

Key Trends

A key trend driving the as-a-service model is the move to IP and the imminent PSTN switch-off. Millions of PSTN lines in the UK are soon to be end-of-life. Upgrading to broadband is expensive, and the capital costs of converters and 4G routers soon mount up. Device-as-a-service models have solved this problem with no upfront hardware costs, low monthly charges, and added benefits of ‘advance replacement’ and free returns for faulty routers.

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 organisations. 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 most significant 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 who cares as much about helping you grow your market share as they do about growing their own business.

The IoT Market

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, and thousands of applications are available.  Public cloud providers such as AWS and Azure complement these with mature and secure IoT development environments, allowing organisations to develop their bespoke solutions.

Look for a channel-only supplier with

• A real-time, fully automated, API-enabled, white-label portal that connects to every mobile network in the world
• A network and internal systems protected from DDOS attacks
• Global eSIM networks
• OPEX and CAPEX financial models on hardware
• Financial stability and demonstrable growth
• A wide range of SIM options across several different networks
• Cost-effective SIP-enabled 4G/5G PSTN replacement products
• Routers with proprietary auto-configuration and management software built-in
• A programme to help you identify opportunities you can win

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 your company's value.

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 an 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; 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 little support. Jola took on just over 150 new partners in 2024 and now has over 1500. 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 choices with mobile data solutions for every customer in any market globally.

Join our webinar hosted by Jola's CEO Adrian Sunderland on Tuesday 28th January 2025 at 10.00am

Adrian Sunderland hosts an unmissable webinar on making money from mobile data. He will share the latest opportunities, how to find and win them and success stories from Jola partners increasing the value of their businesses as a result.

Jola is a multi-award-winning, mobile data MVNO and the UK's leading channel-only supplier of mobile data SIMs. We provide innovative IoT and mobile data solutions to MSPs, ISPs, IT support companies and telecommunications resellers. Jola has over 1400 partners, comprising global MSPs, specialists and resellers.

Using case studies, Adrian will explain the mobile data opportunity and how high ARPUs and good margins can be achieved. He will help the audience uncover opportunities within their own customer bases and explain how mobile data can only be successfully scaled with a supplier who can deliver unique and differentiated solutions, managed in a fully-automated, real-time portal.

Learn how you could increase the value of your company by partnering with Jola.

Click here to register for our webinar.

4G and 5G MultiNetwork Connectivity

Low-cost 4G & 5G data multi-network SIMs have solved the affordable reliability conundrum that end-users have faced for years. Broadband connections can be unusable for days with no compensation, while Ethernet circuits cost ten times as much and still offer no guarantee of 100% uptime. A second fixed line is expensive and offers little comfort because it relies on shared infrastructure. If you were climbing a rock face, you wouldn’t attach your second rope to the same piton. Multi-network SIMs further improve SLAs and negate the need for expensive site surveys, while Private APN options steer traffic away from the public internet, considerably improving security.

Continuous Connectivity

In today's all-IP world, maintaining continuous internet connectivity is crucial. Implementing 4G or 5G backup solutions ensures that operations remain uninterrupted during primary connection failures. An ever-increasing number of devices are being connected therefore a resilient network is of utmost importance. A prime example of this is in the retail market. Keeping retailers online to ensure they can continue to transact and collect customer data is vital. 5G backup solutions mean no lost revenue during primary failover.

Reliable Connectivity

MSPs & resellers can capitalise on this demand by offering reliable mobile connectivity to ensure seamless backup during unexpected disruptions. Mission-critical applications such as lift lines requiring battery backup and a move-off PSTN will benefit from 5G backup.

Routers that provide in-built battery backup for power autonomy in the event of a building outage allow businesses to remain online.

Mobile Data

Mobile data provides a separate network path, reducing end-user vulnerability during a DDoS attack. Jola is 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, 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.

By focusing on mobile data connectivity as a backup strategy, channel companies can deliver effective solutions that minimise downtime, protect against disruptions, and enhance business resilience.

Demand for mobile data is growing which presents a fantastic opportunity for the channel to increase ARPU and the overall value of their businesses. The challenge many partners face is finding the opportunities and winning them. Selling solutions their customers cannot buy from anyone else, uniquely solving a problem, simplifying rollouts and saving them money.

Jola launched the MRG™ – Mobile Data Revenue Generator - to help partners do that. ‘Rev Up’ is their new partner incentive scheme rewarding their fastest-growing partners using the MRG™ with VIP hospitality packages to the British Grand Prix.

“We launched the MRG™ as a tried and tested process to find and win mobile data opportunities. Partners in the programme have transformed their businesses and become specialists in providing secure, reliable mobile data solutions to digital signage in supermarkets, trackers in cranes and CCTV cameras in car parks. Rev Up is an opportunity for more of our partners to get involved in the MRG™ and a chance for us to reward and share their success.” Cherie Howlett, CMO.

Demand for mobile data is high

With the sunsetting of 3G, the PSTN Switch off and the rollout of 5G, demand for mobile data solutions has never been higher. Resellers and MSPs are in the perfect position to take advantage of this. They are looking for reliable suppliers who can help them grow high-margin, recurring mobile data revenues increasing the overall value of their company.

Specialist wholesalers offering support

Wholesale suppliers are helping channel partners to win deals, usually competing with the direct sales arms of the mobile networks. They are aggregators with access to all the networks and often an independent MVNO in their own right. These suppliers provide automated portals 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.

Excellent win rates

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. Within this customer base, opportunities for mobile data solutions exist in asset tracking, digital signage, mobile WiFi, monitoring and utilities, which Jola partners are winning.

Profitable opportunities

Mobile data is an easy product to sell and provision and needs very little support. Jola signed just over 200 new partners in 2024 and now has nearly 1500. One of our partners recently won a huge deal for thousands of RoamNet data SIMs for use in phones and tablets. Using our unique QR technology eliminated the need for physical SIM cards, making the rollout quick and easy. QR codes are also a significant step towards minimising e-waste and removing several operational headaches. SIMs roam over hundreds of mobile networks and are managed via a single platform – Mobile Manager.

Jola SIMs also operate ANPR cameras, CCTV cameras, vending machines, digital signs and tracking devices around the world.

No additional resources required

Our partners don’t have to add any more people in billing or accounts departments to support these deals. SIMs provision immediately on Mobile Manager, so you don’t have to wait to start generating recurring margins. As soon as customers put that SIM into their device, you’re billing for it.

Target existing customers

Our advice to resellers looking to get into mobile data is to speak to existing customers, understand their requirements, and partner with an aggregator who provides differentiated solutions that will help you win against the vanilla products offered by the Mobile Networks. Find out about their current projects and challenges. Once you have established your customers’ requirements, we can help you position your mobile data solution for maximum margin and customer satisfaction. 

When you come to sell all or part of your business, mobile data profits are valued at up to three times those of traditional IT and telecoms products.

Find out more

Contact Jola and ask us about our MRG programme and Rev Up incentive programme rewarding fast-growing partners winning lucrative mobile data solutions in retail, security and the public sector.

Challenges

The biggest challenge sellers in the channel face is competition. Suppliers need to know their USPs and how to educate the market on opportunities. It’s about communicating how you help your partners solve problems and win opportunities the competition can’t.

Understanding the customer

The B2B buying process has undergone significant change in recent years. Surveys have shown that when SMEs are buying ICT they 1. Research the web 2. Approach existing suppliers 3. Ask peers for recommendations. Unsolicited approaches by phone, email or IM are disliked and may hamper your chances, especially when used in isolation. Your salespeople are your most expensive resource. Profile your customers to understand their challenges and make sure they know you are the go-to partner who can help.

Winning deals

At Jola, we help partners identify customers with requirements for mobile data. We help uncover challenges and pitch unique solutions that cannot be matched.

The biggest waste of your time is the deal you don’t win, so we help partners qualify and pitch opportunities they can, using the six-step Mobile-data Revenue generator process.

The best test of a new supplier is conversion rate. A channel-only vendor with a growing partner base and financials is a good sign because it means their partners are closing large contracts. Most vendors say they have a channel programme but there is little substance behind the fluff. Ask for evidence and references. Pull their accounts!

Make sure your vendor has products that can be easily productised and billed. They should be provisioned, managed and supported through a mature, well-established, API-enabled, real-time, self-service portal. Ask for evidence that the products are reliable and easy to support. Make sure you don’t lose control of the process and the relationship with your end users. Your salespeople will be reluctant to sell anything that might damage the rapport they have with their customers and/or put core product lines at risk.

Key opportunities

PSTN-Switch-off – There are mobile data opportunities for lift lines in shopping centres, hotel chains and car parks.

3G Switch off – There are SIMs out there about to stop working, which need replacing.

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.