Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) will invest more than £3 million to enhance its Electronic Patient Care Records (ePCR) during the next two years and they are not alone. Ambulance Services across the UK and internationally are being encouraged to ‘go digital’ to improve the care and treatment received by patients and to get the very most out of their budgets. They are turning to MSPs with experience in upgrading software, networks and communications.

MSPs who previously worked with the mobile networks directly have found partnering with companies that can offer multi-network services and a management portal, give them so much more control and remove the headache of dealing with multiple carriers and manual requests for changes.

Smart Devices

Ambulance crews are using tablets containing 4G SIM cards to access online information about medical and traumatic conditions and treatment on the move. They are completing incident forms online and accessing ePCRs and information about healthcare providers and plans.

Smart Communications

Ambulance crews can electronically send details about the patient to the emergency department including appropriate photographs from the scene of the incident e.g. road traffic collision or electrocardiogram readings, to help doctors determine the extent of injury that may have been sustained. This allows staff in the hospital to prepare and be ready to act when the patient arrives. 

Push to Talk Radio

Two-way walkie-talkie radio technology is being upgraded to 4G. This has created an opportunity for partners, who are already familiar with selling 4G data solutions. However, suppliers are finding identifying the strongest 4G signal for each device challenging.

The Government’s £1 billion Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) was developed to enable Britain to become a world leader in Emergency Services communications, and a 4G pioneer. EE was selected by the Home Office back in 2015 to provide Britain’s Emergency Services with a resilient national mobile network, giving 300,000 critical emergency workers access to 4G voice and data for the first time.  

UK police forces are using technology to become more productive, efficient and visible. The digital policing vision aims to improve investigations and make it easier for the public and police to communicate. Forces are collaborating with EE and their partners, generating mobile data opportunities for scenarios such as; mobile forensics, digital interviewing, and smart services.

Mobile forensics

Police are now using mobile fingerprinting systems that allow them to check the identity of an unknown person against a database of 12 million records in less than a minute. Many officers carry hand-held scanners connected to their 4G smartphone, allowing them to scan fingertips. The scans are checked against the database.

Digital interviewing

Many police forces are using digital audio-visual interview equipment and touch screens for custodial interviews, which provide improved access to recording for police, legal representatives and suspects.

Smart devices

4G smart devices such as mobiles, tablets and cameras are being used to complete reports much more efficiently. Police Officers are able to record arrests on body cameras and send content in a live stream to officers nearby for assessment and support.

Push to Talk Radio

Two-way walkie-talkie radio technology is being upgraded to 4G. This has created an opportunity for partners, who are already familiar with selling 4G data solutions. However, suppliers are finding identifying the strongest 4G signal for each device challenging.

Leased lines typically have long lead times, so what do your customers use whilst they are waiting? In an existing location, businesses may be able to continue with their slower broadband connection, but for new premises, 4G presents a solution and an opportunity for partners to add value to their proposition.

A leased line is a dedicated, fixed-bandwidth, symmetrical data connection. Leased line installation times can vary and depend on several factors, such as what local infrastructure is already in place. Usually the results of the site survey give a good indication of how long an installation may take, although there is rarely a guaranteed delivery date, because multiple parties need to work together to deliver the circuit. For example, if a road needs to be dug up to install a new duct, applications to implement road closures or restrictions need to be made to the local council. These leased line orders may take many months to complete.

4G

Where the LTE signal is strong, 4G data is a great temporary internet solution, however high out-of-bundle rates and delayed usage information from the networks can make costs unpredictable. Jola proposes a unique solution with JolaNet 4G.

JolaNet 4G is a managed 4G router with an integrated data SIM on either Vodafone, EE or O2 networks. Fixed IP SIMs are also available. The solution is managed by Jola’s Mobile Manager portal, where partners have complete control to view real-time data usage, set-up alerts, apply SIM-swaps, add bolt-ons and bar SIMs. Using Mobile Manager, they can maximise margins and completely eliminate overage charges.

Many of Jola’s ISP partners are offering 4G as part of their leased line packages to give businesses instant access to faster, more reliable connectivity, until their leased line goes live.

With JolaNet 4G, partners send a pre-configured router to their customers, which works out-of-the-box, doesn’t need cabling or a land-line and can be monitored in real-time. Packages are competitively-priced, providing the opportunity for healthy recurring margins for partners and eliminating ‘bill shock’ entirely for end-users.

Are you winning clients who need private networks to carry financial transactions over IP with 4G back-up? Have you ever struggled with the 4G element? Do you manage multiple in-country suppliers, with multiple manual ordering processes? Do you ever get frustrated with the lack of visibility across your customers’ SIM estates? Would you benefit from direct control over the SIM assets and the ability to aggregate data across countries?

Jola provides a range of data-only SIM packages including multi-network roaming SIMs with pooled data options. Partners only need to contract with one supplier. They have access to an automated management portal and complete visibility and control over their entire SIM estate.

They don’t need to survey each site to establish the best signal. Our multi-network SIMs connect to the strongest available signal in the EU. Having all the networks isolates issues to the device rather than the network.

Partners are able to order new SIMs and pools, add SIMs to pools, set up alerts and monitor the pool. If any site fails, they have a data pool to draw from and a buffer. They can even set up and manage private APNs.

We partner with some of the world’s largest MSPs, managing private networks for blue chip companies globally. We position ourselves as a viable alternative to partnering with multiple in-country mobile network operators.

In the channel we are well-versed in productising products and services. We know how to package them, how to promote them and how to sell them, promoting our USPs over the competition. We seem to accept processes as part and parcel and rarely productise them. Are we missing a trick?

When the processes we offer form part of our USPs, we are definitely missing a trick by not productising them. Everyone says they offer ‘excellent customer service’, but what if this is the one thing you know makes you different from the competition? By productising your processes, you can demonstrate the value to your customer base and reap the benefits.

Where to start?

By defining your customers needs. What are customers looking for? How do you meet these requirements better than the rest? What evidence do you have to support this? By noting down the journey, you can productise your unique process, reflecting back the customers’ needs and how you are meeting them.

Understand success

By mapping processes next to KPIs to help you track success, you can start to see how you achieved success. Analyse your biggest customer deals, where did the original lead come from? How was it generated? How was it converted? How was the first opportunity generated? How was this closed? How was the order placed and processed? How did you prevent any installation issues? How did you ensure the customer was billed correctly? How did the customer feel when the first order had gone live? What support was given along the way? How does the customer rate the support given?

Map your unique process

Once successful order journeys have been mapped, unique processes ensuring success become visible. Describe and name each step of the process. Write it up as a flyer and advertise it on your website and as part of your proposals.

M2M (Machine to Machine) is how machines use a network to connect to each other, without the need for human intervention. M2M involves connecting devices to the cloud, managing devices and collecting data. M2M is about connecting and communicating with a machine that can send and receive data such as a device or sensor.

IoT is the network of connected devices. Things connecting with systems, people and applications.

Simply put M2M provides the connectivity that offers capability to IoT.

How much is this market worth?

Forbes estimate that the global IoT market will be worth £352bn by the end of 2020. According to GrowthEnabler & Markets and Markets analysis, the global IoT market share will be dominated by three sub-sectors; Smart Cities (26%), Industrial IoT (24%) and Connected Health (20%). Followed by Smart Homes (14%), Connected Cars (7%), Smart Utilities (4%) and Wearables (3%).

How does this growth affect MSPs?

The potential for new recurring revenue is significant. Experienced providers, set up to manage complex solutions, have the opportunity to establish themselves as M2M/IoT authorities, winning multi-national opportunities from within their existing base and from competitors.

As solutions go live, data needs to be collected and analysed in meaningful ways to the business. Many will use third parties for systems and data analytics to interpret data, to be used to process changes and launch new products and services.

Security is a major concern for many MSPs, particularly when processing sensitive data such as financial transactions. MSPs who already deliver managed security services, or can partner with third party data security companies, will have an advantage.

Which industries will benefit the most from IoT/M2M technology and why?

Advertising

Connected devices such as wearables and smart devices have given marketers granular data on buying habits, allowing them to target consumers with their preferences. You may have noticed that adverts within social media and pop-ups within online apps are much more targeted, based on information gathered from online searches and online buying habits.

In some countries, smart advertising boards are changing content to target passers-by more accurately and smart drink bottles exist, where customised content can be received by scanning the bottle with a smartphone.

More commonly, sensors are being used in public spaces to track traffic and even happiness based on the number of Wi-Fi connections from hand-held devices such as mobile phones.

Construction

IoT applications will help grow margins for building developers and enable more efficient building operations, enhanced tenant relationships and new revenue generation opportunities. Smart buildings will deliver unprecedented energy and cost savings alongside new levels of occupant comfort.

In addition to helping reduce costs, smart buildings are also positioned to significantly improve physical security. Through the incorporation of IoT connected facial-recognition cameras, organisations can now protect their offices in real-time, taking account of risk factors and the long-term costs / reputational damage that could be involved in a potential security breach.

M2M and IoT have created smart factories in the manufacturing industry. This is having a positive impact on productivity and profitability alike. As the cost of smart sensors has reduced, the use of them for gathering information on factory floors has increased.

According to a recent McKinsey study, the greatest value from IoT for manufacturers will be in operations optimisation, making the various processes within the factory more efficient. This includes using sensors, rather than human judgment to adjust the performance of machinery and data collection from production to amend processes. Essentially, by remotely tracking and monitoring machinery, output can be optimised, and downtime avoided, reducing costs.

Using sensor technology, manufacturers can track serialised and non-serialised components as they are received, warehoused and used to construct sub-assemblies and finished goods. Traceability of raw materials/parts is essential and new technologies are being engaged to track them from goods-in right through the manufacturing process to goods-out.

Monitoring can help reduce costs in inventory, ordering raw materials/parts on demand on a just-in-time basis. Pulling relevant data into one single piece of software can help factory management create a dashboard of key measures right across core processes.

How will your customers benefit from 5G?

5G is short for ‘fifth generation mobile networks.’ It will be a constantly developing network of networks encompassing a far broader array of devices than mobile phones.

Faster Speeds 

5G is set to be much faster than 4G, some are saying as much as 100 times faster. The increased speed will benefit your business customers in lots of ways. Businesses could use 5G instead of a fixed line broadband circuit and use cloud-based applications with ease, in the office and remotely. You could add 5G to your connectivity portfolio and send out pre-configured 5G routers.

Lower Latency 

5G will also have much lower latency. We will see much less delay on AI and VR devices for example. 5G will make using mobile data even more attractive, opening up new revenue streams for partners and better solutions for end users.

Greater Capacity 

5G will need to have greater capacity in the backbone networks so that the networks will be able to cope better with many high-demand applications all at once. Businesses will benefit from new products and services not yet invented, creating new potential revenue streams for you.

Reliability 

5G is expected to be ‘ultra-reliable’, meaning no dropped calls or connectivity, which will power more ‘critical’ devices, in healthcare and transport. Partners could create their own IoT/M2M solutions designed specifically to meet the needs of their customers, with the help of specialist 5G SIM suppliers with excellent management portals.

Where do you want your business to be by the end of the year and how are you planning to get there? What are your key opportunities and what could threaten your success?

Objectives

Many business owners outline exactly what they want to achieve and articulate this in a list of smart objectives, with measurable targets. For example, in the next 12 months we want to exceed £xm annual revenue.

Engage key people

It is useful to involve the sales and marketing team when planning revenue targets. It is a good idea to analyse current revenue streams and pipelines to understand where business is being won and how much winning the business is costing. Which products are the most profitable? Which products are the easiest to sell? Do you have a handle on churn? Where will the opportunities come from in 2019? Is the current sales and marketing strategy working? What needs to be added or changed?

What will be accomplished by when?

The business plan usually contains high level objectives, strategy and financials, however, the sales and marketing plans often contain more detail, analysing where we are now, where we want to be, how we will get there and arrive safely.