Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

With technologies being switched off (PSTN, ISDN, 3G) and the current economic climate, demand for cost-effective, managed mobile data solutions from the Channel, has never been so high.

Hotels and care homes are replacing single phone lines with managed 4G solutions and other single PSTN applications like lifts, alarm lines and door entry systems are following suit. There is a need for secure pre-configured 4G routers for digital signage, temporary WiFi for construction sites and fixed IP SIMs for CCTV cameras. Multi-Net SIMs are required for ANPR cameras, wearables and tracking devices. 3G SIMs in thousands of devices from fixed line backup to street signs need to be replaced.

The list goes on, and the opportunity for the channel is massive. The challenge is finding the opportunities each partner can win and to do this Jola has come up with a unique process called The Mobile Data Revenue Generator™.

Jola is helping channel partners uncover prospects with immediate requirements for mobile data SIMs. We help develop unique solutions that partners can't buy from anyone else, at a competitive price and healthy margin. We are channel-only so partners can trust us to help them pitch and close deals. We are on hand to support partners and their customers throughout the buying process and we can help create winning propositions, producing large, high-margin long-term contracts.

It is clear that Covid has changed the workplace forever and beneficiaries have been the UC and collaboration solutions such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and WebEx.  In most workplaces, the option didn’t exist to regularly work remotely and as a result, companies didn’t necessarily provide UC and collaboration tools required.  Covid changed all that and remote working became mandatory for most of us.  At first, we used the tools to simply have multi-person video calls, but quickly started sharing screens and in many cases moved to mass participation web conferences. 

In the past, it was the PBX or hosted PBX providers that were providing UC add-ons to their basic service sometimes at a significant premium.  Now it is the collaboration vendors that, with the addition of PSTN calling, are now displacing the PBX and/or hosted PBX.  It is now relatively easy to port a UK PSTN number to an MS Teams user and use that single client (desktop and mobile) to be able to interact using the rich Teams experience or make and receive traditional voice calls as required.

At the moment the UC collaboration experience is all based on two dimensions video and screen sharing.  However, we already see our SIMs being used in Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications in specialist industries with purpose-built tools and devices.  However companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Google are investing heavily in AR and VR for both consumers and businesses.  This combined with the widespread availability of 5G makes me think it won’t be too far away before the UC and Collaboration tools that we use every day start to open up AR and VR for widespread B2B use.

How is the UK progressing with the rollout of 5G and full fibre technologies?

All 4 major UK networks are well underway with their 5G rollouts. Three and EE are ahead in terms of numbers of cities compared with Vodafone and O2, however the reality is that most major cities now have 5G which accounts for over 50% of the population.  The expectation being set by the operators is that it will take a further 5 years to reach 90% of the population.  Achieving this will involve turning off the 3G networks to re-use that spectrum to support 5G.  The last 10% may well require technology or an approach that has not yet been used in UK mobile networks such as using 5G satellite constellations to provide infill.

Biggest opportunities

The performance offered by 5G can be better than the performance offered by the fixed line broadband service available in many locations.  The channel are bound to have customers with poor broadband performance and 5G could well be the answer, especially when combined with a high performance 5G router and external antenna.

5G provides high performance Internet access in locations where there is no fixed line connectivity at all.  This means locations where solutions such as hosted voice, collaboration, IP CCTV could never have been supplied are now accessible for the first time.

5G requires new devices to take full advantage of the increased performance.  A fact often overlooked is that all the UK networks support LTE-Advanced or 4G+ with a much larger footprint than their 5G networks and yet the vast majority of 4G routers on the market today don’t take advantage of the extra performance.  In some cases a good quality LTE-Advanced or 5G router would provide up to 4 times the performance on 4G compared to using a device that doesn’t support LTE-Advanced.  In many cases where you’re deploying 4G in a fixed location we would recommend installing a 5G router because it will provide much better 4G performance and will be ready for 5G when the coverage reaches that location.

Biggest challenges

One of the biggest challenges is that a customers existing equipment may not be ready for the latest 5G or full fibre technologies. This means that there is a potentially significant capital expenditure required.

To address this problem, we launched our Device as a Service offering.  Good quality, high performance 5G devices are expensive, potentially three or four times the price of the equivalent 4G device.  Our channel told us that this was an obstacle to 5G adoption.  So now we offer all our devices on an Op-Ex model so that the channel partner and the customer don’t have any hefty upfront costs that might put them off taking advantage of 5G.

The cost-of-living crisis is having an impact. Employees are worried about putting on their heating when working from home, and the rising costs of fuel travelling to the office. Many businesses are worried about how they will carry on with much higher energy bills. 

However, in a crisis, there is also opportunity. The opportunity for employers to react to challenges faced by employees by offering cycle-to-work schemes and cost-of-living bonuses. 

Demand for products such as mobile data is increasing as companies look to implement technology as a way of cutting costs. For example, councils are implementing smart street lighting and smart bin collections. 

Demand for smart meters is high, which creates mobile data opportunities for trusted channel partners to provide and manage. As companies look to cut costs, smart device-as-a-service solutions become more attractive with no upfront hardware costs and the ability to upgrade or switch devices as required. 

Jola has run a successful apprenticeship scheme for many years, allowing us to educate our new recruits on the needs of Jola partners and our unique products. Our team enjoy introducing new people to the channel, with a passion for customer service and developing their skills and experience.

At Jola, we look to match new roles to available courses in each department. We work with a specialist agency that helps us to recruit the right candidates for our roles and supports our apprentices to complete their training courses. The blend of obtaining educational qualifications at the same time as learning on the job works well for us.

Jola has worked with three different apprenticeship training providers over the years. Each one has offered end-to-end support from recruitment, and training through to successful course completion.  Courses are made accessible using a mix of online and face-to-face tutoring as well as on-the-job training and projects.

The courses provide an understanding of important concepts, which our apprentices use and incorporate into our business. The apprenticeship schemes help the whole company to evolve in a positive way.

Jola has been fortunate to retain most apprentices beyond their programme. A successful Technical Support apprentice went on to be employed by Jola as a Network Engineer, further developing their skills.

One of our school leavers successfully qualified at level 4 of the scheme. They are now the go-to person for all our current apprentices, assisting with project work.

New products

For end-user businesses, saving on upfront costs, flexibility and future-proofing are driving the as-a-service market. Many would prefer to pay monthly with no-upfront costs and the ability to upgrade as required.  XaaS is attractive to vendors because they can create MRR from what was previously NRR. This means the company is more likely to grow predictably and survive severe downturns. They can hire staff to support their growth without having to lay them off if orders dry up. COVID was a disaster for NRR/project-based companies whereas MRR companies in general were able to ride it out and without laying off/furloughing staff.

To meet this need Jola offers a range of intelligent, affordable 4G & 5G routers on a rental ‘DaaS’ (Device as a Service) model over multiple terms. DaaS also means faulty routers are dealt with on an ‘Advanced Replacement’ basis and hardware can be upgraded.

As A Service Model Evolving

As the Internet has become faster and more reliable, centralised cloud-based offerings have grown in popularity. Virtually anything can be sold as-a-service and this model benefits both end users and resellers. The pace of innovation has picked up and end users don’t want to get locked into obsolete technologies. For the reseller, the cost of servicing their customers is lower with aaS and recurring margins make their business more profitable.

Key Trends

A key trend driving the as-a-service model is the move to IP and the imminent PSTN switch-off. 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. Robustel and TPLink routers, plus Grandstream ATAs and ISDN-TAs, can all be taken as DaaS.

Key Benefits

Companies with high recurring revenues are more valuable than those relying on one-off sales. This was brought into sharp focus during the pandemic when companies with a high proportion of recurring revenues featured almost exclusively in Private Equity transaction news. Telecoms resellers saw their multiples increase while more traditional MSPs had to baton down the hatches and furlough staff.

For Jola partners, the DaaS OpEx model has many benefits over CapEx purchase, not least for cash flow. From the end users’ point of view, they usually have lower set-up costs and they pay over a period of time without having to sign a third-party lease. The monthly rental usually comes with a service guarantee, support and future-proofing (the ability to upgrade within the term). Suppliers who offer XaaS products to resellers remove the need for them to invest CapEx in stock.

Xaas products are ‘in-the-cloud’ and with little equipment actually, on the end users’ premises there is less to go wrong and by removing the need for engineers to physically attend site, service overheads are lower.

Telephone lines as we know them will not exist in a few years’ time and millions of end users will need to decide what to do with their existing phone numbers. Jola has come up with a free white-label application that resellers can use with their customers to forward calls from landlines to mobiles or to add landline numbers to mobile data SIMs.

Jola operates both a mobile data network and a SIP network and has developed an innovative application that partners can re-brand. CloudNumber is available to download free from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Instead of having to use an analogue phone or Analogue Telephone Adapter (ATA), CloudNumber allows users to connect to Jola’s PSTN replacement services via their mobile phone. Experts in number porting, Jola can facilitate the porting of both landline and mobile numbers. Jola partners have the choice of ordering new numbers or easily porting customers’ landline numbers, who can carry on making and receiving calls, without the need for any additional hardware.

There are millions of individual PSTN lines in the UK that are soon to be end-of-life. Upgrading to broadband is an expensive overkill solution and can come with significant upfront costs.

Jola is in a unique position as the sole channel-only provider of both mobile data & SIP and has put together a webinar which focuses on PSTN Replacement Toolkits with multiple solutions for every requirement.

A record number of participants have signed up for the webinar. With the PSTN switch-off looming, the channel is looking for cost-effective solutions they can sell, deliver and control with ease.

Jola has created zero-CapEx hardware rental packages for single PSTN lines supporting phone calls, alarms, EPOS machines, door entry systems, CCTV, lift lines and calling kiosks, among many others. 

‘Resellers can replace common PSTN solutions at a really competitive price, managing operations and usage within Mobile Manager. End-users can retain their existing numbers and choose their preferred SIP Overlay solution with additional options such as voicemail and call recording.” Lee Broxson, CSO, Jola.

In the channel, we are seeing an exponential rise in demand for mobile data SIMs, not only for use in 5G/4G routers, pre-Ethernet connectivity and Ethernet back-up but also for digital signage, gaming machines, vending machines, monitoring devices, sensors and ATMs. SIMs are being used in wind and solar farms, measuring and tracking key variables, they are also being used in smart TV cameras, which roam internationally. Manufacturers and service companies are finding new uses for mobile data daily and, as we accelerate towards 5G, this is unlikely to slow down.

It's practically impossible for resellers to provision and control SIM estates without a comprehensive, well-established real-time portal. Choosing a trusted channel-only supplier means the reseller can take advantage of their knowledge and experience when they are bidding for deals. Jola’s most successful partners involve our Partner Managers directly with their customers without fear of disintermediation. Price is really important and mobile data suppliers need to understand that their products have to be priced so that channel partners can win deals at decent margins.

Millions of PSTN lines 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.

When the networks made 4G available to the channel around 2016, it changed the game. 3G SIMs running at only a few Mb/s struggled with email but 4G started to be used as a substitute for fixed-line broadband. When, due to political pressure, MNOs swapped out manufacturers recently, they upgraded many towers to support 4G+ which offers download speeds of up to 300 Mb/s. Although the networks do not publish 4G+ coverage it is estimated that over 90% of the UK population has access to 4G+. As 5G becomes ubiquitous it will overtake the number of fixed-line data connections very quickly.

The opportunity for the channel is significant and for those resellers not sure where to start, Jola has productised its unique process of helping customers successfully sell mobile data. It is called The Mobile-Data Revenue Generator (The MRG) and it helps partners to identify low-hanging fruit and win their first significant mobile data opportunity. From there they can start to productise mobile data and develop the eco-system required to sell, support and bill it.

What are the benefits to businesses of a strong female presence in boardrooms?

According to Deloitte, gender diversity in UK board rooms is lagging behind European counterparts with only 1 in 5 board room seats held by women. I sat on the board at Jola for over eight years and was the only female board member. Being a female on the board sends a positive message to other females in the organisation that there is not a glass ceiling and it is possible to progress to more senior positions within the organisation. If you can see someone similar to yourself doing the job you want in the future, it makes the goal seem more achievable and you can often gain a mentor to help you learn the skills to be able to get there. I like to think that I brought a new dimension to the team and some complementary skills. Board discussions were always inclusive and a female marketing perspective from a detail-orientated person was often useful in decision-making. The Jola Board has learned that it’s not enough to have female representation you have to make sure decisions are not made without everyone’s input.

How are you taking a lead on the issue of increasing female representation at the top in your business?

At Jola, we focus on hiring and developing the skills we need to satisfy the demands of our partners. We use our own technologies in-house to facilitate flexible working and run training and development programmes, which has helped us to recruit more women into management positions within the organisation.

I have championed a few different initiatives to remove the barriers some women face working in the channel such as work-from-anywhere and part-time hours. This has facilitated Mums working from home, doing school drop-off and pick-ups, attending parents' evenings, school productions, sports days and taking kids to after-school clubs. It has also allowed Mums to be at home to look after ill children and relatives globally, whilst being completely focussed on the needs of Jola, our sales team and our partners’ requirements during working hours.

We have introduced fantastic EMI schemes and employee benefits to compete with much larger organisations offering the same flexible working and gender-diverse culture locally.

We changed the way we recruited to remove the barriers of very specific qualifications and experience and focussed on finding smart people who share the same values as the Jola team and who are looking to grow and develop with us.

We are supported by entrepreneurs who have given us a voice at every level of the organisation and a career path to progress. We introduced work experience schemes, apprenticeship schemes, sandwich year placement schemes, graduate training schemes, and we advertised roles internally so women could progress inter-departmentally. We encourage and pay for our staff to gain qualifications to progress within Jola.

We have official training and development programmes as well as unofficial mentoring programmes. We encourage networking and personal development sessions with organisations such as Reframe, Women in Tech.

What initiatives and developments do you participate in to help increase the presence of women on boards in the wider industry?

I actively contribute to industry magazines and attend events speaking on panels discussing diversity and inclusion.

What are the objectives of these efforts and how are the initiatives being progressed? 

My objective is to raise awareness, inspire and to demonstrate how small changes can make such a big difference to the quality of female candidates being recruited and the success of organisations in the channel.

What more action needs to be taken to boost the number of women on boards?

I don’t think there is a quick fix. We need to increase the number of experienced candidates to recruit from. The more we can influence young people to reach their potential, the better the recruitment pool will be for us when they are ready to start work. We could go into schools and talk about the careers we can offer in IT and Telecoms and get them excited about learning new skills. We can offer work experience programmes, apprenticeship schemes, mentoring schemes, re-training schemes, back-to-work schemes and graduate schemes to grow our own talent internally and offer career development and share schemes. If you are on the board you often own a stake in the company and to do this you need to be able to invest. This is a barrier in itself. I was lucky enough to be part of a start-up with seed money, of which my share was a percentage I was able to invest.

What barriers have you identified to having more women on boards and how is Jola addressing these challenges?

To recruit the best talent into the industry we need to look at barriers. Do our daughters want to become board members in IT and Telecoms? My daughter did want to be a YouTuber or an actress but has recently said she may start her own business and aims to be CEO. She is more aware of what we do as she spent so much time sharing my home office being home-schooled.

Jola addresses some of these challenges because we need to grow our own talent internally. We are not specifically focused on hiring more women, in fact, we are against positive discrimination. If board positions are recruited for, the pool we recruit from needs to be more diverse and to do this we need more experienced women with great track records in previous board positions, who can add something extra to the existing board.

What cultural considerations need to be taken into account and why?

If you have children, someone needs to look after them. If I look at the school gates 97% of the parents doing the pickup and drop-offs are women. If you don’t have children it may be more of a level playing field. Do we then need to look at job descriptions for potential board members to see what they are looking for and work backwards? Do we have the connections and network to be recommended for openings? Do we have the track record and experience required? If not, we need to build that and work with brilliant entrepreneurs who can help us achieve our goals.