Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

As part of our on-boarding process at Jola, we help partners with current opportunities and explain how our product portfolio can help them to win them. Many join us with a growing need for internet connectivity or hosted voice, and as they move through our training programme, they uncover opportunities for additional services such as mobile data.

Adding new services can lead to brand repositioning, to reflect new solutions and USPs in key vertical markets. It is tempting to think that by changing your website you will achieve brand repositioning, however the strategy will impact every area of your business.

Where to start

Start by establishing why you are repositioning your brand. The reasons why will determine the extent of change that is necessary. For example, if you want to be known as a specialist in one area, you need to research the market, the suppliers, the competition, the customers and the products, to see where you fit into it and how you can differentiate yourself within it.

Testing

Test your messaging to ensure it reflects reality. Are you the market leader? If you are, then back it up with facts. It you are a new entrant, you need to test your content and your messaging over time, to reflect reality. Build up case studies and testimonials across key verticals and target similar prospects, to build market share. Ensure you use the right terminology, as this will help prospects find you.

According to a recent report by Market Research Hub (MRH), the global Push-To-Talk market is due to grow 10.3% annually for the next eight years. Push to Talk (PTT) is a service that enables users to instantly communicate. Users activate this feature by pushing a button on a device.

Two-way walkie-talkie radio technology, frequently used by police officers, engineers, truckers and taxi drivers is being upgraded to 4G. This has created an opportunity for resellers, who are already familiar with selling 4G data solutions. However, suppliers are finding identifying the strongest 4G signal for each device challenging.

Jola provides a wide range of 4G data SIM packages, including cost-effective multi-network roaming packages, controlled within Mobile Manager. Our multi-network SIMs roam to the strongest signal in each area. Our white label management portal allows partners to place orders, manage SIMs, usage and alerts. Private APNs can add an extra layer of security.

McKinsey found that organisations with ethnic, social and gender diversity were 33% more likely to outperform their industry average. These companies also have lower customer churn thanks to a consistent level of excellent service and the will to go the extra mile.

Diverse organisations are more successful because of the way they utilise the wide range of skills they have recruited and the corporate culture they have cultivated. Diversity is part of their values and positively effects how they do business. It starts with an ingrained respect for others and a desire to work together to achieve a common goal. This influences their marketing style, their attitude to on-boarding and training, quoting and ordering tools and their after-sales service.

Hiring people from diverse backgrounds can help to foster creativity and offer a range of perspectives and ideas. Employees are more likely to feel comfortable and happy in an environment where inclusivity is a priority. Equality in the workplace is important for encouraging workers from all backgrounds to feel confident in their ability and to achieve their best.

According to a recent report by Transport Focus, passengers listed value for money, punctuality, Wi-Fi connectivity and safety, as their main priorities. These factors are driving a rise in demand for smart transport networks around the world, creating 4G data opportunities the channel is well-placed to provide.

Smart transport networks offer significant benefits to passengers, operators and local authorities, enabling urban services to become more efficient, effective and safer. 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 over 100 bus routes, 300 railway lines and 200,000 cameras, delivering end-to-end surveillance and security solutions.

There are many experienced providers offering 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 a fixed IP. On average there are seven SIMs per bus, for logging into the cameras to download relevant footage, Wi-Fi, secure card payments, passenger trackers, applications tracking hours worked, petrol levels and miles travelled.

Challenges faced by solutions providers

Service providers face a few challenges with 4G. Some networks are stronger than others in specific locations requiring relationships with multiple network providers. Secondly, they have no way of tracking data usage and if devices use more than their allocated monthly allowance, they get high data overage charges. Thirdly, they need a secure channel for transmitting financial data.

Running before you can walk

It is tempting to rent the plush office in the premier location and to bring on expensive resources too early, but it is a risk.

Entrepreneurs typically have boundless energy and big ideas for the future, however it is useful to for them to be supported by people that can not only help to make their ideas a reality but can also map the journey.

Choosing the wrong team

Successful teams typically have a diverse mix of skills and experience with a shared vision and ethos. You can’t do it all yourself when growing a business, it is not sustainable. Do what you love to do and do best and include others in the management and ownership of the business.

Hire people you know and trust, who share your work ethic and company culture, who are driven and gifted in their chosen fields. Good staff are the backbone of any business and reflect your reputation and goodwill.

Choosing the wrong customers

It is exciting to win new business, however taking time out to consider whether you should accept the new business is key. Targeting financially stable companies who you can build a long-term relationship is preferable and balance your base to ensure that if you lose your biggest customer, you can still trade.

Over the last twelve months Jola has launched on average, one new product a month. This takes a lot of detailed planning to ensure we have the right product, at the right price, which meets the specific needs of our partners and their customers. Once we have launched a new product, we help our partners launch to their customers and measure success against clearly defined targets. We have developed some top tips to help partners with their own launch process as follows.

Step 1 – Know your audience

It is tempting to think that every customer will benefit from your latest new product, but this is rarely the case. We encourage partners to think about problems faced by existing customers, which the new product could solve. We then get more granular in defining the problem and the characteristics of the customers that could benefit. From this we build a list of top prospects.

Step 2 – Plan your communication

Using the information gathered in step one, we encourage partners to define the problem, then simply explain the solution, outlining what the product is, what it does and how it solves the problem. We provide a lot of the basic information, but it is important to tailor the content with specific concerns and relatable solutions. We advise partners to research the competition to understand how their solution is different and promote the differences over and above what is already available. This information gets written up on web sites and incorporated into campaign materials.

The challenges

Resellers providing SIM cards to large corporates often contract with more than one supplier. Their biggest challenges are lack of automation, lack of control and billing issues. Orders need to be placed and chased via email. Resellers have no way of knowing when SIMs go live and data used, until they receive their bill, which can often be late. This results in customers complaining about high data overage charges.

The Opportunity

With IHS forecasting 58 billion connectable devices by 2022, demand for 4G data is on the rise. Enabling data analysis from a wide range of devices from trains, to agricultural machinery, the 4G sensor market has grown significantly within a short amount of time. Many resellers do not see how they can benefit from this opportunity but know that they service industries with a current requirement. Partnering with Jola, resellers are winning more and more 4G data opportunities and benefitting from a profitable recurring revenue stream.

Physical Space Analytics

4G sensors at exhibitions offer key insights into how visitors interact at events and within retail spaces. 4G sensors gather metrics about users visiting and their engagement. Sensors track how many visitors attended, how long they stayed, how they moved around the space and engagement and conversion rates. Clients can view their data in real-time to view a live graph of visitors over time, length of stay and a heat map to show visitor flow and distribution within the space.

Primary detection is via WiFi sensors powered by 4G. These pick up 3G and 4G signals from all smartphones, laptops and tablets carried by visitors. Signals contain a unique identifier, which is used to build a picture of visitor data per event. Data is encrypted and anonymous, therefore is only used for monitoring purposes.

The opportunity

According to McKinsey, revenues from mobile data are set to increase dramatically in the next 7 years. Factors driving growth are the availability, speed and reliability of 4G and the trend of embedding data SIM cards into devices such as routers for 4G back-up.

Retailers like supermarkets, department stores, restaurant chains and petrol stations are creating private networks to carry financial transactions over IP, from multiple POS systems, often favouring SD-WAN networks with 4G back-up. Depending on their size and the complexity of their requirement, they typically choose a trusted supplier, with experience rolling out and managing solutions in their sector.

The customer’s problem

They are not sure which network is best in each location, when the 4G back-up will be used and how much data they will use. Sending engineers to site to establish the strongest signal is a timely and expensive exercise. In addition, they regularly receive high data overage bills, which can be as much as tens of thousands of pounds a month.

The solution provider’s problem

Managed Network Providers are experienced at designing, rolling out and managing solutions, however have struggled with the 4G element, managing multiple in-country suppliers, with multiple manual ordering processes and a lack of visibility across the SIM estate. They have no direct control over SIM assets and cannot aggregate data across countries.

The opportunity

Revenues from mobile data are set to increase dramatically over the next few years. This has certainly been Jola’s experience. We have partners benefiting from the availability, speed and reliability of 4G back-up solutions for fixed line services installed in a range of devices including door entry systems and gates.

Door entry systems are popular in gyms, hotels, laboratories, warehouses, factories and large corporates. Some simply check validity of membership/room cards and grant access, others include more complex biometric systems and video.

The customer’s problem

4G data SIM cards on a single network can fail if there is an issue with, or congestion on, the local mast. It costs money to send out an engineer to look at the problem and swap the SIM card to another network.

The solution provider’s problem

The solution provider needs to establish the mobile network with the best signal in each location. They then need to contract with multiple providers to be able to provide the strongest mobile signal in each location. They have no visibility or control over the whole SIM estate and regularly receive high data overage charges, when single sites use up more data than anticipated.