Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

There are around 200,000 charities in the UK, employing nearly a million people. This sector has been a conundrum for the IT channel because, whilst there are opportunities for professional service fees, ongoing revenue and margin are depressed by heavily discounted licenses and low commission rates.

For example, Microsoft’s E1 license is free up to 2000 users and E3 is only £4 a month. To add Phone System to either of these is only £2.40 but at £9.10 pcm (and no reseller commission), resellers and their customers have been put off by Microsoft’s Calling Plan (needed to make and receive calls outside the Teams environment).

Now resellers of Jola’s Direct Routing call plan for Teams can offer their non-profit customers the full suite of Office products, including Exchange, Teams, Phone System, and Unlimited UK calls at a competitive price.

Not only will the customer save on the rental of a traditional/hosted phone system, they will also no longer need telephone lines or ISDN.

Retailers want fast, reliable, cost-effective internet connectivity in stores for EPOS till systems, kiosks, advertising screens, WiFi etc. They often use 4G as a back-up to a fixed line primary circuit, to ensure business continuity.

MSPs want to win retail bids for European technology roll outs. 4G is often a small element of the bid, but can cause Project Managers headaches, when dealing with multiple in-country suppliers, manual ordering and no visibility of data usage. They want full control over every element of the roll out.

The opportunity

4G devices that roam in the EU, such as 4G WiFi routers in yachts, need to connect to the strongest 4G signal available. According to recent European Boating Industry statistics, there are over six million recreational craft in EU waters at any one time.

Devices that always need connectivity, such as monitoring devices inside containers, need SIMs which provide users with good connectivity, wherever they roam. There are over 20 million shipping containers worldwide.

PPG

Pay-Per-GB SIMs are un-steered, so have no preferred network, and connect to the strongest 4G signal available. These SIMs connect to multiple mobile networks in many EU countries. Resellers only pay the standard per GB price for additional roaming data, above the monthly allowance.

PPG SIMs offer resellers and their customers a much more flexible and predictable cost when roaming in the EU. Even if the primary and secondary network fail, a multi-network SIM will continue to operate seamlessly.

It’s challenging to set a price for roaming SIMs. Resellers need to know which countries the SIMs will roam to and how much monthly data they will need. Some countries are more expensive than others to roam in, for example UAE and Andorra. Sales people can’t always be sure how much data will be used in each country and how often SIMs will roam in more expensive countries. They run the risk of choosing a package that includes countries which SIMs will never roam in, pushing up the price.

To solve this problem Jola has launched an M2M Roaming Tariff Tool. It was designed for Jola partners to make it quicker and easier to find the right SIM tariff. Tariff Tool provides resellers with a range of options on a variety of data allowances across hundreds of countries and networks.

There are two types of partners that sign up with Jola for mobile broadband SIMs. The first already has an opportunity and needs a supplier to help fulfil the 4G element, the second is enthusiastic about growing a new recurring revenue stream.

Experienced Partners

Partners with existing opportunities often have strong relationships with their clients. Although they may not already offer mobile broadband, they are trusted advisors and capable of sourcing the elements they need to build and roll out solutions. These partners are looking for a solution to a data problem. They need a partner to quickly understand the problem, pose a cost-effective solution and help them to win their bid. This often involves pre-sales and product development, to create a tailored solution to displace an incumbent.

New Partners

New partners selling mobile for the first time want to understand the products, and pricing, but more importantly the opportunity. Partners with a large connectivity base, often start by offering 4G back-up solutions and temporary Ethernet solutions. Many can already see how the product would meet the needs of their audience and package it accordingly.

In retail and construction specialists are offering 4G internet connectivity, hosted telephony, IP-CCTV and IP-PTT radios on short-term contracts for events and site offices.

Successful partners produce case studies and reference sites to help to build a pipeline of similar opportunities.

M2M/IoT covers a broad spectrum: from low-usage data SIMs in monitoring devices, to high usage data SIMs in 4G routers.

For many resellers, low usage, low management IoT opportunities are problematic because they require specialist devices, support and management software. Higher usage mobile data opportunities can be more complex, however can also be very lucrative, easier to win and easier to support. These opportunities include solutions such as mobile broadband and Private 4G.

Mobile Broadband

Mobile broadband is an element of most tenders these days, either for remote workers, as a back-up, or as a primary solution where fixed line is unsuitable. Resellers submitting compelling bids ensure their suppliers offer; all the MNOs; online asset control; and a suite of products to enable them to build bespoke solutions.

Private 4G

For customers wanting additional security on 4G devices, fixed IP SIMs are available, but can be very expensive. Private APNs are available from the carriers but do not give the reseller control over their assets. Jola is the first channel mobile supplier to launch self-serve, Private APNs. The products address security concerns by avoiding the public internet and offering a secure, remote access platform that lets resellers seamlessly extend their existing IT security controls to their end users’ mobile workforce, wherever they are.

What’s the opportunity?

Launched last year, Teams has become one of Microsoft’s fastest selling products. An upgrade to the Office 365 Enterprise license, it offers collaboration, screen sharing, voice, video, IM and a whole bunch of other cool features. If you upgrade to E5 you also get Phone System, Advanced Security and Analytics, for £30.80 per user per month. If you have E1 or E3 and only want Phone System, you can just pay an additional £6 per month. Microsoft do not currently offer Phone System as an upgrade on their most popular Business Premium licence, but this is a logical next step.

What’s the issue?

If you want to connect Microsoft Phone System to the PSTN (you will, if Teams is to replace your PBX or hosted telephony system), the Microsoft Calling Plan product is a little clunky. It’s also quite expensive, compared to SIP bundles available in the market.

What’s the solution?

Instead of using their Calling Plan, Microsoft will allow customers to connect Teams Phone System to an alternative network provider using Direct Routing. However, setting this up is complicated and expensive and there are only a handful of companies in the UK offering Direct Routing as a service.

5G offers solid, high-speed, connections, delivered same-day, with minimal provisioning and support overhead.

With every major carrier and a portfolio of channel-centric products, Jola enables resellers to retain control and differentiate. 30-day contracts and online usage management tools minimise the credit risk. When the MNOs launch a 5G wholesale product, Jola will be one of the first to offer it to the channel, through Mobile Manager.

Unlimited offerings

Mobile data costs have not reduced, so any unlimited product relies on assumptions about wastage, and traffic shaping. As a well-known company found out when they offered unlimited broadband, there is a danger that it only attracts very heavy users. If this happens, usage economics go out the window, the product becomes unusable, and either the price is increased or the product is withdrawn.

We advise our partners to sell bespoke solutions. End-users ordering unlimited retail offerings, may be paying too much for their mobile data. Resellers with access to mobile usage data can offer bespoke solutions to meet exact requirements and save the end-user money.

Resist selling consumer and business retail products

One thing is for certain, resellers do not want to start selling consumer retail products. These products are not designed for business use and end-users run the risk of traffic shaping and being cut-off by the carrier.

Business versions are available, but are not easy to re-sell, manage and on-ward bill. Also, some unlimited SIMs are locked to the router supplied.

In areas where fixed line connectivity is not available or fast enough, 4G may be an option. It is often cheaper and faster to install than satellite or external wireless solutions and is available on short term contracts.

JolaMobile

Resellers focussed on vertical markets, such as retail and construction, are offering bespoke mobile broadband solutions for pop up retailers and construction sites. They package rugged 4G routers with bespoke JolaMobile data packages with up to 500GB monthly data allowance.

End-users benefit from plug-and-play solutions, often live and working on-site, within 24 hours. Jola partners benefit from healthy recurring revenues and the ability to monitor data usage and prevent bill shock before it happens by adding back-dateable bolt-ons, sharing data across sites or having buffer pools in place.

JolaNet 4G is Jola’s managed 4G router with an integrated data SIM on Vodafone, O2, EE, Three, Fixed IP or multi-network. The solution is managed by Mobile Manager, 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.

With JolaNet 4G, resellers 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.