Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

Addresses PSTN replacement need

There are millions of single-call PSTN lines in the UK that are soon to be end-of-life. Upgrading to broadband is expensive and capital costs of converters and 4G routers soon mount up.

Jola has solved this problem for resellers and their customers by providing everything they need, on one affordable monthly rental.

“We have recently added a wide range of Analogue Telephone Adapters to our PSTN Replacement Toolkit ranging from single to 48 port solutions. We also have routers with in-built ATAs as a ‘one box’ solution for those customers that only need a single line. Jola Partners manage each port on their ATAs using our portal. The credentials of their SIP overlay services are auto-configured on the devices. End-users can retain their existing analogue phones and port their numbers, which is great for customers such as hotels and care homes, who don’t want to replace their handsets. Jola ATAs complement our existing portfolio with customers able to plug the ATA into an intelligent 4G router and use Jola mobile connectivity to deliver the SIP service. The Device as a Service model is becoming increasingly popular because there are no up-front costs and the device is guaranteed for the duration of the contract” Lee Broxson, CSO, Jola.

Following the acquisition by Wireless Logic, Jola is strengthening its Channel presence with the appointment of Jon Chard as Partner Director.  Jon brings a wealth of Channel knowledge and is a fantastic asset to the Jola Sales Team. 

'‘I’m delighted to have joined the Jola Team, a business that I have held in high regard for several years. Jola is an innovative and forward-thinking business in the channel, and I am looking forward to helping them push towards further growth and continued success.’ Jon commented.

Lee Broxson, Jola CSO added, ‘It’s a pleasure to have Jon joining the team as a Partner Director, he brings with him 17 years of telecoms experience with five of those spent working with Jola at one of our suppliers.  Jon will be managing our larger MSP and ISP partners with a strategic goal to help find and win larger deals within their bases using our unique Mobile-Data Revenue Generator™  (MRG™) process.’

Chard’s appointment enhances the continued expansion of Jola with Oliver Izard, a former sandwich year placement, re-joining Jola as an Internal Account Executive.

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 to 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 of 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 (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.

We have been selling mobile data to the channel since 2014 and we understand the pain points of our partners and the needs of their end-users in each vertical market. Over time we have developed a unique portal, that gives you the control and visibility you need to manage global SIM estates. Control you can even extend to your customers. We have also developed unique hardware solutions that save our partners time, helping them create a great customer experience, maximise their margin and minimise costs for their customers.

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 it right with M2M and IoT, you will quickly generate high-margin recurring revenue and, due to higher EBITDA multiples, increase the value of your company.

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 IoT devices in 2030. Fortune Business Insights predict 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 in excess of 40%, so it’s a really 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 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 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. We may not find ourselves supplying car manufacturers with SIMs for self-driving cars, but 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 very little support. Jola took on just over 200 new partners in 2021 and now have over 1200. We recently put 30,000 multinetwork SIMs into iPads for one public sector project, with a very quick book-to-bill timeframe and no issues.

Scale

Our partner didn’t have to add any more people in billing or accounts to support it. SIMs provision immediately using our Mobile Manager platform, so you don’t have to wait three months to start generating recurring margins. As soon as customers put that SIM into their device, you’re billing for it.  

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. 

The MRG

Jola has developed The Mobile-data Revenue Generator. It is a six-step process to uncover mobile data opportunities. The process defines the way we work with partners and qualifies opportunities, capabilities and skills. We help our partners to focus on key opportunities and ultimately win large, high-margin, long-term contracts.

Selecting the right suppliers

Who will you 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, maximise your margin and protect your customer from bill shock?

High Demand

Demand for reliable mobile data to track the location of lorries, buses, coaches, taxis, delivery vans and hire cars is growing, as is the tracking of assets. Smart transport networks offer significant benefits to passengers, operators and local authorities, enabling urban services to become more efficient, effective and safe. Customers want to be able to track the progress of their deliveries and car hire companies need to track the location of their vehicles, as well as monitor the safety of the drivers.

Solutions

There are many end-to-end solutions available to the transport industry, involving 4G routers and cameras. Trams, buses and trains are tracked, and arrival times are accurately estimated and advertised, factoring in potential delays. These devices need 4G data SIMs, often with a fixed IP or delivered via a secure Private APN.

Suppliers

MSPs and resellers need a wholesale supplier with a wide range of connectivity options from single to multi-network to Fixed IP to meet the evolving needs of the sector. Many MSPs have strong relationships in this sector and understand the challenges faced and the solutions required. End-users need continuous connectivity and control over their data usage to avoid data overage charges. Jola’s MSPs can manage global SIM estates in Mobile Manager providing end-users with real-time data usage, alerts bolt-ons and data pools to monitor usage and avoid bill shock.

Challenges and solutions

Without the involvement of an intelligent aggregator, Service providers face a few challenges with 4G. Firstly, 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. Cost-effective multi-network SIMs are available along with an online ordering and management portal, which tracks data usage and allows resellers to set up usage alerts, and back-date bolt-ons. Data pools, allow data to be shared across multiple SIMs and buffer pools negate high data overage charges completely. Private APN networks offer increased levels of security, allowing encrypted data to travel across a private mobile network.

As BT starts to close down telephone exchanges in favour of a 100% IP network, millions of end users will need to consider how they are going to replace their ISDN and PSTN lines. Many will be considering availability requirements and backup solutions. This presents a considerable opportunity for the channel.

Jola is a wholesale SIP provider offering SIP and PSTN replacement services to the channel. They have developed High Availability SIP Trunks as an alternative to ISDN and PSTN lines, providing partners with a configuration which supports two SIP Gateways in geographically disparate regions. They are connected to one customer endpoint, giving end-users high availability with a built-in fail-over. HA Plus solutions support multiple CPE IP addresses.

Adrian Sunderland, CTO at Jola commented, “Our new High Availability SIP Trunks are a welcome addition to our PSTN Replacement Toolkit, which offers partners everything they need to replace PSTN and ISDN lines however they are being used. HA SIP Trunks support Enterprise Grade solutions for large corporates which require high availability solutions.”

What was the vision when you founded Jola?

We founded Jola with an experienced team and a tried and tested strategy. At Griffin, we built a channel of over 700 resellers, annual revenues of £24 million and a team of around 130 employees. We had so much fun and success that after the company was sold in 2012 it seemed inevitable that we would work together again. Our philosophy at Griffin was that we were ‘selling with our partners’ rather than ‘to them’ and we continued this approach with Jola.  

Automation, billing and healthy margins are a given. Jola’s vision was to put our partners in control and make them more successful. We felt we understood the needs of their customers and developed unique solutions to help resellers address them. Resellers have higher conversion ratios when they choose suppliers they trust to work alongside them on deals. Innovative suppliers provide differentiated products, which give resellers a higher margin potential.

We started out as a channel supplier specialising in internet connectivity and hosted telephony. When the networks started to allow us to sell 4G products we realised that the biggest opportunity for the channel was in mobile data and so we developed Mobile Manager®. Jola became a multi-award-winning, channel-only supplier of business communications, specialising in mobile data SIMs. We built our own global eSIM MVNO, providing innovative IoT and mobile data solutions to MSPs, ISPs, IT Support companies and Telecommunications Resellers.

What does the acquisition signal to the channel market? 

It reinforces the value of mobile data. With 4G+ download speeds of around 300Mb/s available to 90%+ of the population, mobile data is a credible alternative to fixed line, as well as a great 100% SLA, backup story. It is also the only practical solution to replace millions of PSTN lines in the next few years. Only around 20% of resellers sell mobile data but by 2025 every reseller in the UK will have to have it in their portfolio. As is always the case with disruptive technological change, early movers win more market share and ringfence their customers from competitors.

The financial markets value mobile data EBITDA at a higher multiple than fibre and broadband. With self-service, fully automated portals like Mobile Manager®, it is easy to sell, manage and bill.

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 to find and win them. 

Could you provide some background to the deal and why Wireless Logic?

Wireless Logic is one of the standout successes of the ICT sector and we have long been admirers of Oliver Tucker and his team. It was important to us that Jola remain an independently-run company, focussing as always on the UK channel. 

There is a natural fit between Wireless Logic and Jola, which makes this an exciting acquisition for all involved. Jola will strengthen and focus the group’s routes to market in the UK and beyond, paving the way for further business growth in the years ahead. 

Our 1200+ partners will see no change in the short term and over time they will benefit from a stronger balance sheet, product innovations across the group and more extensive supplier relationships.

Wireless Logic mainly sell direct and Jola has always been exclusively channel-only. Is this an issue?

I have been in channel since it started and my team is channel through and through. Apart from the fact that our partners are contractually and legally ring-fenced, our reputation should be sufficient to answer this question for partners and prospects. 

What are the cross-portfolio benefits of the acquisition and does it provide new areas of business to develop?

Wireless Logic sees Jola as its channel brand. Over time the best solutions and services will be made available to all partners.

More specifically, what will be the channel benefits of the acquisition?

Wireless Logic is a leading global IoT connectivity platform provider that simplifies and automates IoT management for any device, anywhere. With more than 10 million IoT subscriptions active in 165 countries and direct partnerships with 48 mobile networks, the group provides reach into more than 750 networks across the globe and delivers value throughout the IoT connectivity chain. 

Being part of the group our channel partners will continue to benefit from innovative solutions and management portals to help them win lucrative mobile data opportunities and grow their businesses. Wireless Logic has an enterprise value of over £1bn. Resellers and MSPs working with Jola should feel more confident of winning large and valuable deals, even when competing directly with the MNOs. 

And specifically, what new opportunities do you plan to exploit?

Specifically, Wireless Logic has a much broader pure IoT proposition within the group including a wide range of devices and device management capability.

There are already a great many vertical market opportunities in this space where we are helping partners to win. Being owned by Wireless Logic will only improve our partners’ chances of finding and closing large contracts.

Jola SIMs are being used in tablets, routers, CCTV cameras, lifts, cranes, wind turbines, push-to-talk radios, body-worn cameras, monitoring devices, streetlights, ANPR cameras, yachts, digital signs, personal alarms, door entry systems, smart gates, cameras, buses, coaches and trains.

Our internet connectivity and SIP solutions are used by well-known large corporates and SMEs. We help partners to win new business,  increase ARPU in their current base, and reduce churn.

At Jola, we always start with the desired outcome and work back and are good at defining and measuring KPIs, which drive our business and partner satisfaction. We can do this anywhere. Our partners want complete control over their own customer experience, preferring to manage products directly in real-time portals themselves, rather than picking up the phone to us.

During the pandemic, we changed the way we liaised with partners and have not really changed back. All face-to-face meetings were done on Teams and partners didn’t feel obliged to small-talk for 30 minutes just because their Jola account manager had driven an hour to see them. Teams meetings were shorter and more frequent, partner training was easier and more effective and, most importantly, Jola partners closed bigger deals, more quickly. 

We hope we have the balance right between self-serve portals and customer service. Portals are available so partners can order, make changes and support customers directly, although they can rely on us to help identify and win new opportunities. Information is readily available for partners to find in our knowledge base however, we answer the phone within 20 seconds if you need us. All our marketing is designed to reflect the needs of our prospects and follow-up processes are managed by responsive humans, who understand them.

The UK Physical Security System Services market consists of 2,203 businesses, employing over ten thousand employees, generating £1.4bn in revenue and with an annual growth of 11.8%.

The impending ISDN/PSTN switch-off is an especially compelling event in this sector because it effects almost every monitored device in the UK. Anyone involved in physical security is planning to upgrade to IP, either via a fixed connection or mobile data. Mobile data features disproportionately in this sector because for millions of devices an upgrade to a fixed connection represents a significant increase in cost.

Thousands of resellers and MSPs still don’t have a mobile data proposition and are therefore unable to offer a one-stop solution to their customers in the security sector, amongst others. Early-movers who have partnered with a mobile data aggregator have been surprised at the margins achievable. This is because independent channel-only aggregators are able to provide differentiated products, like un-steered multinet SIMs and preconfigured specialist hardware, that the MNOs don’t offer. They have also found the products relatively easy to sell, deliver and support and, with book-to-bill times of only a few days sometimes, revenues flow quickly.

Andrew Dickinson, CEO Jola commented, “There is high demand for mobile data from customers in the security sector. For resellers it is an easy product to sell, provision, support and bill and if you get it right, you will quickly generate high-margin recurring revenue. Financial markets attribute higher EBITDA multiples to IoT/M2M so including it in your portfolio, increases the overall value of your enterprise. Jola partners have beaten the MNOs directly to win very large SIM deals from well-known logos in the security market. We have unique solutions with both network and device security built-in, protecting users from both DDOS attacks and hackers.”

The advertising world has changed dramatically in the last 20 years with social media platforms competing directly with traditional media companies, forcing them to innovate to survive. One of the biggest transformations is in digital signage, which is now one of the fastest growing media markets in the world.

However digital signage has its own challenges. Interactive signs need to be updated remotely with software and messages but often connecting them to a fixed internet connection is impractical and expensive. Where they use 4G/5G, the network has to prevent anyone hacking into the devices as well as protect them from DDOS attacks, which would take them offline.

The routers containing the SIMs must be robust, secure and capable of being provisioned and reconfigured remotely.

Jola’s Solution

We invented an intelligent 4G solution for digital signage, which arrives ‘plug-and-play’ at the customer’s site. It will work anywhere with an electrical socket, can be managed remotely via a portal and is protected from threats at both device and network levels.

Un-steered multi-network SIMs negate the need for expensive site surveys as they connect to the strongest signal and switch automatically if the primary network becomes unavailable.

 The Opportunity

• Connectivity for digital advertising boards in the UK
• Scalability, reliability and ability to deploy rapidly across the country
• Control and ease of connectivity management

 The Solution 

• Robustel R1510, preconfigured with device security
• Aggregated 2GB MultiNet SIMs

 The Outcome

• Dramatically reduced operational overheads
• Great support from Jola development team in building the bespoke configuration
• Reduced costs, increased revenue, improved margin
• Complete control over the SIM estate via Mobile Manager®