Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

I am not a lawyer and anything I write on business contracts cannot be relied upon legally, however I have been reading, drafting and negotiating telecommunications agreements since 1986. Of course every agreement is different but over the years I have noticed three contractual areas that come up regularly.

Initial period extensions

This is a very common trick and one you and your customers definitely need to look out for as often it is buried in the small print. Customer A signs a 36 month contract and a day after the 36 month period expires tries to cancel the service.

Best mobile SIM-only deals for business

Coming out of contract?

If you have come out of your current mobile contract, you may want to consider sticking with your existing handsets and choosing a SIM-only deal. 

Going SIM-only you are not tied into a contract and can upgrade, add or cancel employee contracts on a monthly basis. Your existing provider may be pushing you to sign another lengthy contract and entice you with the latest smart phones but do you really need them for all your employees?

Lead Generation

One of the things I love most about marketing is lead generation. The work that goes into identifying someone who may benefit from partnering with us and figuring out the best approach, key messages and creating that first touch. I enjoy watching the lead develop into a fruitful relationship. It’s lovely when you eventually meet these people at an event and hear about the projects you have worked on together.

Marketing on a Budget

The biggest challenge is operating on a budget. When you work for big companies you are often blessed with big budgets so you can sponsor events, be at all the functions and buy the best data and software available, to help you manage your campaigns. You have the luxury of hiring marketing and sales teams and even graphic and web designers to help you manage your daily activity. On a budget this is a different ball game and the challenge faced by start-ups and SMEs.

How do you generate leads on a budget?

I have found that it is possible with a bit of time, a dedicated, integrated strategy and a good reporting mechanism.

Habits of good entrepreneurial leaders

Having a great idea and assembling a team to bring it to life is the first step in creating a successful business venture. When money is tight and start-up fundraising is required, stress levels are high. If the visions of success don’t happen like you thought, it may be useful to review good leadership qualities to help steer you through.

Communication

Link the business plan and targets to departmental targets and KPIs and report on them regularly to involve every member of the team. A shared vision, clear targets, objectives and measurements highlights how every action from every member of the team contributes to the overall plan.

Delegation

Delegating tasks to the appropriate departments is important as your business grows. Find out what each team member enjoys doing most. Chances are if they find that task more enjoyable, they are more likely to put more thought and effort behind it. This will not only prove to your team that you trust and believe in them, but will also free up your time to focus on the tasks that cannot be delegated.

Who are Jola Cloud Solutions?

Jola is a supplier of internet connectivity and hosted telephony solutions to UK SMEs via trusted partners. Jola works with UK IT support companies as well as business telecommunication providers to meet the specific IT and telephony requirements of their customers.

Networks

Jola has access to all the major leased line networks and has developed an easy quoting and ordering tool. Jola Partners simply enter a postcode to see exactly what connectivity is available and at what cost from multiple carriers in minutes. They are able to send quotes to their customers and place orders for all Jola products in one single ordering tool.

Hosted telephony

Hosted telephony has made some call features more affordable for SMEs and comes with an array of new ones such as the ability to integrate with common desktop software.

There is an amazing selection of smartphones on the market and finding the right one to meet business requirements is not always straightforward. If you need a high-end camera, you may consider the iPhone 6s Plus, or if you are trying to be more productive away from the office, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 could work better for you. If you are looking for an affordable phone you can use at work and at home with the kids, Moto G is a good pick.

If you’ve been waiting for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge you shouldn’t be disappointed. Both phones feature dramatically improved dual pixel cameras for faster autofocus and better low-light pics and they have water-resistant designs.

If you have customers looking to upgrade their ADSL circuits to faster, more reliable fibre broadband and fibre Ethernet and you do not operate your own network, you may be looking for a partnership.

If so, how do you decide the best company to partner with? We have put a few questions together to help you decide.

1 – Do you want to manage the billing?

If so, you need to look for a reseller scheme, where you can set your own pricing and bill your own end users. If you don’t have your own billing platform or prefer not to take the risk on 36 month contracts, a dealer programme might be more appropriate for you. Most reputable suppliers will be upfront with you about their costs and will split the margin with you 50/50. If you go down the dealer route then look for a Partner that has a HMRC approved self-billing system. This guarantees regular payments and avoids the need for you to raise invoices for every penny of commission owed to you.

Online Checkers

To get a definitive answer to the question what broadband speed is available, there are several web-sites you may need to check in with. The definitive guide to if BT Fibre is available is www.openreach.co.uk (after all these are the guys actually building the network and installing the service). If you don’t have a BT phone number this site will work with just an address however it won’t tell you what speeds are available or, if fibre is not available now, when it might be. It also won’t tell you if you are in a Market A or B (until recently Market 1,2 &3) exchange area. This information can be found at www.samknows.com and it matters because BT charge more where they don’t have any competition and this affects prices from their resellers too. Samknows will also list all the carriers operating from your local exchange but it cannot tell you if you can get fibre broadband because it only goes to exchange level, not cabinet level. There will be hundreds of cabinets attached to every exchange and not all of them will have been enabled for fibre broadband.

The combination of smartphones with VoIP technology has changed the landscape of business communications. Desk phones were seen as critical for business until recently with the rise in popularity of cloud hosted telephony, allowing you to use your mobile as a desk phone. Will smart phone apps replace desk phones eventually? I am not sure.

Better business communications at lower costs

Cloud voice offers better functionality than traditional on premise phone systems, at a fraction of the cost, available on monthly contracts per extension. With a reliable internet connection, a phone line and a cloud-hosted package, you get access to features such as voicemail to email, call re-dial, DND, call pickup, hunt groups, SIP port, disaster recovery, hot-desking, call waiting and music on hold. Some packages also include the latest VoIP desk phones and come with inclusive standard UK and mobile minutes. Add-ons such as call recording are also available at a few pounds per month extra.