Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

As trusted suppliers to the SME market you may be asked to recommend or supply new services. This may result in a search for a new supplier to partner with. What five things should you look for when finding a new supplier?

According to a recent survey conducted by Sage, 57% of employees say the availability of flexible working in their workplace is important to them. This is one of the many reasons more and more businesses are turning to the cloud.

Hiring, training and retaining good staff is not an easy task. If you can offer flexibility, you often get loyalty in return. There is a proven link between satisfied employees and satisfied customers.

Cloud-hosted applications like Office 365, accountancy packages such as Xero and CRM packages like SalesForce are all accessible remotely with a reliable internet connection.

With hosted telephony platforms such as JolaPhone, calls can be answered and transferred by employees remotely as if they were sat at their desk. Companies can offer more flexible working and route calls to remote workers. This is also useful in busy periods as an overflow, routing calls to part-time staff working from home to ensure call answer targets are met and fewer calls are missed.

Businesses continue to operate efficiently and can also offer flexibility to employees who need to work remotely or from home. They often feel more valued by the company and much more motivated to help grow the business as part of a team.

Demand for business internet connectivity in the UK is being driven by the availability of faster more reliable, fibre and Ethernet technologies. Our records show that leased line pricing has reduced by 20% in the last six months, helping to further fuel demand.

Companies are looking for faster, more reliable internet connectivity to access cloud-hosted applications such as CRM, accountancy and telephony applications. Cloud applications tend to be pay per seat per month and come without the investment in servers and internal management.

Businesses are looking to their trusted suppliers to advise them on what is available and expect the best possible price, smooth installations and excellent technical support.

IT and telecoms providers are looking for suppliers that can offer them the widest choice of carrier services at best possible pricing with tools to make quoting and ordering easy. They are looking for experienced providers who understand the carrier installation processes and potential barriers to sale, such as lead times, wayleave and excess construction charges. 

Until recently small businesses have avoided adding auto-attendants and queues to their telephone system, mainly because of the prohibitive cost but also because they felt it put callers off.

Now with changes in consumer behavior and the growth in cloud telephone systems this is no longer the case. Callers to a business now expect to be answered by an automated system and if the voice is succinct and professional their initial perception of that company is enhanced. As long as they are transferred at the next step to a human being they will often view the company as more organised, more professional and bigger than perhaps they actually are.

With cloud voice every individual gets their own direct phone number and for callers that don’t know who they want to talk to (like sales enquiries) they are handled professionally and directed immediately to someone that can help them. Even in very small companies where everyone mucks-in with incoming calls, employees can see on the screen what the call is about before they answer it.

According to McKinsey, Machine 2 Machine SIM revenues are set to increase dramatically in the next 7 years to over £11bn by 2022. Demand is being driven by the availability of fast, cost effective, reliable 4G and the development of smart devices.

IT and telecommunications companies servicing the UK SME market are experiencing this surge in demand first hand and are looking for a trusted supplier with a comprehensive management portal for maximum control and minimum cost.

Small businesses are looking to 4G for faster, more flexible connectivity on a monthly commitment. Their IT and telecommunications suppliers need a management portal to manage large estates of SIMs, where they can monitor usage and alert users approaching their data limits, back-dating bolt-ons to the beginning of the month to completely avoid additional monthly charges.

Mobile Data SIMs on 30-day rolling contracts from multiple suppliers are aimed at tablet and laptop users but also work for Machine to Machine (M2M) applications. You can usually choose the amount of data you think you will use on a monthly basis and add bolt-ons as required, connecting your device directly to the internet. 4G is becoming widely available and offers fast, reliable internet connectivity.

Things to think about when choosing a data-only SIM

• Where will you be using the data-only SIM?
• Is 3G/4G enabled in this area?
• How much data do you think you will need each month?
• What type of SIM card do you need for your device?

About Jola

Jola is a channel-only supplier of internet connectivity, hosted telephony and mobile solutions to UK SMEs, via a channel of IT and telecommunications partners. Our mission is to sell ‘with’ rather than ‘to’ partners, with the objective of finding the right solutions for their clients. Our vision is to provide as much automation as possible to allow partners to quote, order and manage solutions via easy-to-navigate online portals. We offer monthly training webinars to all partners and experienced 24/7/365 technical support.

Reseller or Dealer?

We operate two partner programmes and you can choose the right one for you and the products you sell. Some of our partners are both reseller and dealer e.g. they may be a dealer for JolaNet where they do not have the 24/7/365 resources to manage 36-month leased line contracts on their own; and reseller for JolaPhone where they can support monthly rolling hosted telephony within working hours.

Some business owners in the voice and data channel are on the lookout for complimentary, often recurring revenue streams, to help grow their business. Traditionally these companies have looked for new products high in demand with excellent growth potential and sales and marketing support.

Others, particularly in the data channel take a more reactive approach. Trusted by their customers, IT specialists are led by customer demand and approach new services as solutions to problems. One product does not suit all and the range of solutions available and recommendations from peers become important factors when considering a new supplier.

Typically, a conversation takes place internally to agree to proceed and recommended suppliers are interviewed. Commercials are then agreed with the winning provider and solutions are quoted. If the deal is won, the companies work together to install and support the solution throughout the lifetime of the contract.

Recommendations from trusted sources are essential, as so much is as stake on this first order. If it works, the customer often becomes a reference site and the product becomes part of the portfolio. 

Real Business say the most successful company directors have many of the following traits. What do you think?

 The Willingness to Do More

As the director of a company you are responsible for any shortcomings. You are in charge of delegating tasks, ensuring satisfactory output and in the end the ones that will have to answer to the company owner(s)/shareholders, HMRC, or clients if things do not go as planned. For this reason, successful directors know that they have an obligation to pick up the slack and they are not afraid to put in some hard work when it is called for.

The Ability to Adapt and Adjust

Everything doesn’t always go as planned. In fact, most of the time you can count on there being some deviation from the original blueprint, especially in the channel where there are so many variables to consider. A proficient company director is able to adapt to changes and quickly make required adjustments.

Diligence and Persistence

Both of these traits are needed in tandem – diligence without persistence will not put you ahead of competitors, and persistence without diligence will have you working harder but not smarter.

On 1 February 2016 HM Revenue and Customs (“HMRC”) introduced emergency legislation to combat the threat of VAT fraud in the wholesale telecommunications sector.

These VAT changes only affect voice and related data services but do not affect service charges, access or line rental services. Voice call charges (including VOIP), data usage and text usage are all affected.

So if your monthly bill for usage charges from a supplier was £5000+VAT (£6000), it is now just £5000 and the £1000 of VAT you used to pay to your supplier, you now owe directly to HMRC.