Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

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 the Internet of Things (IoT). The opportunity for the channel is significant, but many partners do not know where to start.

Jola has over 1000 partners successfully selling mobile data. We have productised our unique process and called it The Mobile-Data Revenue Generator (The MRG). The process helps partners to identify low-hanging fruit and win their first significant mobile data opportunity.

Step 1 – are you ready to sell mobile data?

Taking the time to answer these questions will save you a lot of time and money in the long run. Ask yourself:

• What do you sell most of?
• Who do you sell to? (How many customers do you have, how big are they, what sectors do they work in?)
• How many salespeople do you have?
• Do they sell recurring revenue products?
• Can you bill CDRs?
• Can you support mobile data?
• Do you currently sell mobile data?
• Why? / Why not?
• Why now?
• Who do you buy from?
• What do you like about them?
• Why did you choose them?

Step 2 – what do you need to get ready for mobile data?

Think about

• Choosing a trusted channel supplier
• Pricing, Ordering, Provisioning, Management, Billing, Support
• Commission plans for salespeople
• Help with materials, productisation
• Training

Step 3 – who am I selling mobile data to?

Knowing your target audience is key here. Adding a product to your website and hoping for leads is not going to cut it in today’s competitive market. You need to know where the deals are you can win. Where do you have the advantage? Start with your existing customer base. What do they buy most of from you?  What else could they be buying from you? Ask the questions:

• Do you currently buy mobile data?
• Who from?
• What do you use mobile data for?
• How many SIMs do you buy?
• How much data do you use?
• How do you manage SIM estates?
• Why/how did you select your current supplier?
• Do you have any issues?

Where do you start?

There are a few strategies to consider:

Work through your customer list from

• highest to lowest spend
• by highest to lowest employees
• by market vertical

When you set out to win new business, marketing often gets involved. Directors are looking to grow the business, and sales are looking for some leads to convert.

How do we win new business?

It costs five times as much to attract a new customer than it does to retain and grow an existing one. If your clients trust you to deliver internet connectivity they are just as likely to buy a hosted phone system or mobile data solutions from you if you can meet their requirements and are a trusted supplier.

Cross-sell/Up-sell

Cross-sell/upsell campaigns are usually easier to implement if you already have a successful comms strategy in place with existing clients. Sales and marketing can work together to deliver complementary services to customers by updating existing sales and marketing materials. Suppliers can help by delivering white label materials that can easily be slotted into newsletters, websites, flyers and proposals to make existing customers aware of new solutions and a customer offer (better price for existing customers, 3 months free etc.) can really help to move the buyer from the consideration phase into purchase/decision phase. Case studies are really powerful as they can reflect back on pain points customers are having, explain the benefits of their unique solution and provide a reference.

Where to start?

What do you sell most of to whom? If you sell internet connectivity is there a demand for 4G back-up or 4G solutions for homeworkers? Is there demand in your base for mobile data? The easiest way to find this out is to give your sales team a list of questions to ask their clients or ask your marketing team to create a survey.

What to ask?

• What do you buy most of?
• Do you buy mobile data? (We don’t mean mobile handsets but the data SIM cards)
• Who do you buy from?
• What do you use them for?
• Why did you choose them as a supplier?
• Are you happy with your current supplier?

Demand for M2M and IoT is a focus for Jola and our partners, as end-users need more than the MNOs can offer them directly. It is a great opportunity for companies like Jola to innovate with solutions managed in a real-time portal, designed to meet specific needs of M2M and IoT solutions in multiple vertical markets globally.

There are already a great many vertical market opportunities in this space where we are helping partners to win. 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.

Mobile data is a critical part of the PSTN/ISDN replacement portfolio. Resellers cannot 100% address the needs of their customers without a channel-only mobile data aggregator and we hope they will choose Jola.

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

Jola is an award-winning, channel-only supplier of business communications specialising in mobile data SIMs controlled in our management portal. We offer a wide range of mobile data products and Intelligent 4G/5G solutions, which offer MSPs good margin, which you cannot buy from anyone else.

Jola’s ability to innovate is one of our success stories. We continually innovate to help partners win. On average we launch a new product/product extension every month.

We were first to market with a real-time automated portal and we continue to lead and innovate in this important area. Partners bidding to win mobile data opportunities for M2M and IoT solutions such as 4G SIMs in tablets in the public sector or Multinet SIMs in smart water meters are being asked very specific questions about their portal. End-users want to know how real-time the data is and how automated the portal is.

End users do not want multiple supplier portals to deal with, they want the ability to order a wide range of technologies from multiple network operators in a single portal. They want direct access to activate SIMs, add bolt-ons and share data across accounts. They need access for their end users to be able to monitor usage in real-time. Suppliers who can offer real-time, automated portals are better placed to win the deals.

We invented an intelligent 4G/5G solution for digital signage, which arrives plug-and-play, will work anywhere with an electrical socket, can be managed remotely via a portal and prevents hackers from gaining access to the digital content.

MSPs save money on site surveys, as we use un-steered multi-network SIMs which will connect to the strongest mobile signal anywhere. They can be rapidly deployed to multiple sites globally, will arrive pre-configured with the Jola App, allowing auto-configuration. There is no need for manual configuration on site, saving valuable time and set-up costs.

Apart from innovative Layer 2 LTE offerings for ISPs and unique big data tariffs, Jola recently built a new, fully redundant, highly scalable IP edge network specifically designed to deliver high performance and secure mobile data services. Jola Partners’ critical services now enjoy protection from DDoS attacks and super-high speeds globally via the Cloudflare network. Cloudflare’s 121 Tbps worldwide network blocks an average of 86 billion threats per day.

Retailers, such as fast-food restaurants, have invested in self-service kiosks to allow customers to order their own meals in-store and have them delivered to their seats. Connected kiosks require gateways, routers and data SIMs. Stores typically have multiple connected devices, which are becoming more complex and expensive to manage.

Self-service kiosks in hotels allow guests to check in and out. They are really useful at peak times to reduce waiting times and improve customer experience. Automating processes help reduce costs for the hotel, which no longer needs to pay employees a premium to work unsociable hours on the front desk. Kiosks are also used to promote upgrades and extras, generating additional revenues.

MSPs installing self-service kiosks in multiple locations must consider electricity points, the availability of connectivity as well as the management of an increasingly complex IT network at each location.

Connected kiosks often require gateways and routers in addition to mobile data. Managing multiple connected kiosks in different locations can be costly and complex to manage. Site surveys are often required to establish the strongest mobile signal in each location.

Jola partners offer a unique solution with their Intelligent 4G/5G routers. Our routers are smart and negate the need for a gateway. Jola SIMs are all managed within one easy portal. MSPs can easily manage and monitor data usage across sites. We offer multinetwork roaming data across all four major mobile networks, and our routers arrive preconfigured. 

Suitable for mobile broadband and large-scale IoT rollouts, our routers run a unique operating system allowing apps to be installed alongside the core routing software. 

Do you have customers who use a lot of mobile data? Are you looking for a reliable and cost-effective solution you can manage?

Customers, such as CCTV specialists are now being asked for live streams from their cameras. To do this, specialists need reliable hardware and large data SIMs, that they can monitor and manage.

EE advertises itself as the UK’s best network for 4G and 5G. EE M2M SIMs are specially designed for use in demanding applications. They have a ruggedized design and have higher data endurance and greater heat resistance than normal SIMs.

Jola is an award-winning, channel-only supplier of business communications, specialising in mobile data SIMs. We are a global data specialist, providing innovative IoT and mobile data solutions to MSPs, ISPs, IT Support companies and Telecommunications Resellers.

Jola is a mobile data aggregator and MVNO, which means that we offer services from all major UK networks and hundreds of networks globally. We have been selling mobile data to the channel since 2014, and we understand our partners’ pain points and the needs of their end-users in each vertical market. Over time, we have developed a unique portal that gives partners the control and visibility they need to manage global SIM estates. We have also developed unique hardware solutions that save our partners time, helping them create a great customer experience, maximise their margins and minimise costs for their customers.

Mobile Manager is our M2M/IoT SIM management portal, which communicates in real-time with multiple mobile network operators. Mobile Manager handles M2M SIM activations, ceases, suspensions, reports, alerts and bolt-ons and can be used by resellers and their end users to manage large estates of M2M SIMs in multiple devices worldwide.

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 such as mobility scooters, e-bikes and electric scooters. On construction sites, assets such as telehandlers are tracked and monitored to record operational-critical alarms for servicing, remote diagnostics and load usage. Do you have customers who need to track their devices? Could they be buying bespoke mobile data solutions from you?

Jola offers a cost-effective range of M2M and IoT SIMs designed for asset tracking and monitoring. Many device tracking specialists have been let down by the MNOs in the past, who have not been responsive enough to solve problems as they were identified. Mobile data aggregators like Jola are able to offer partners the widest range of M2M and IoT SIMs from multiple suppliers as well as Multinetwork and Fixed IP variants all controlled within a real-time automated portal. Customers are able to tailor packages to meet exact requirements with solutions, you just cannot get from the MNOs directly. End-users need to be able to stay in control of their end-user experience and track usage to avoid bill shock. Jola allows partners to use pooled data options to share data across multiple sites and track data usage in real-time. Alerts are really useful for partners, who can then add bolt-ons where required or use data pools to control their own margins and their customers’ charges.

Jola is an award-winning, channel-only supplier of business communications, specialising in mobile data SIMs. We are a global data specialist, providing innovative IoT and mobile data solutions to MSPs, ISPs, IT Support companies and Telecommunications Resellers.

According to a recent report by Nester, the global electronic security market is expected to be worth £104.5 billion by the end of 2024. The predicted growth is being driven by increasing demand for safety and surveillance systems.

The market is segmented by product type such as video; surveillance systems; intrusion alarm systems; fire alarm systems; access control systems; CCTV; electronic article surveillance and detection systems; electrified door hardware; hybrid video recorder and network video recorder.

The CCTV segment has the highest predicted growth, due to increased utilisation in newly constructed buildings and offices.

Opportunity

Partners who sell security solutions are partnering with companies like Jola, for a wide range of 4G and 5G data packages for their pre-configured routers. Data SIMs with static IP addresses within routers allow users to access their CCTV camera footage when fixed-line connectivity is not available, for example on construction sites and in remote areas.

Partners use engineers to test the signal strength in each location to advise on the best 4G network to connect to. Multi-network roaming SIM packages are popular as they always connect to the strongest signal. External antenna can increase signal strength and routers are generally pre-configured for a plug-and play solution.

Jola

Jola provides a wide range of 4G and 5G data packages including cost-effective multi-network roaming packages, controlled within Mobile Manager. Our multi-network SIMs roam to the strongest signal in each area.

The UK Security System Services market consists of 2,203 businesses, employing over ten thousand employees, generating £1.4bn in revenue with an annual growth of 11.8%. Factors driving growth are concerns over a rise in crime and the threat of terrorism. Businesses are upgrading security systems and Governments are focussing on national security. 

Security specialists are investing in mobile broadband in rural locations, where 4G/5G speeds are fast and fixed-line services are slow. 4G CCTV is growing in popularity, as it doesn’t require direct power or a WiFi connection. 4G+ download speeds around 300Mb/s are available to 90%+ of the population.

4G/5G Broadband

4G and 5G broadband packages are available on short-term contracts.

Managed 4G/5G WiFi

Pre-configured 4G/5G routers are available with next-day delivery, with a choice of contract terms for companies who want to monitor data usage and avoid bill shock.

4G/5G Failover

Wireless 4G and 5G connectivity provide a powerful failover solution, ensuring there is a connection to central databases and systems if the fixed line fails. It can also provide primary connectivity in rural locations where fixed line speeds are not sufficient.

Many organisations use 4G or 5G for temporary connectivity initially, while they wait for the fixed-line to be installed, and then continue to use it for failover afterwards – maximising the return on their investment.

4G/5G CCTV

Data SIMs with static IP addresses within 4G or 5G routers allow users to access their CCTV camera footage when fixed-line connectivity is not available. Un-steered multi-network roaming SIM packages always connect to the strongest signal. An external antenna can increase signal strength and routers are generally pre-configured for a plug-and-play solution, that works in every location.

With 4G+ download speeds around 300Mb/s available to 90%+ of the population, mobile data is now 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.

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. Resellers need experienced hands-on support with key customers, so the only practical option is channel-only suppliers, with a proven track record and robust processes.

The financial markets value mobile data EBITDA at least twice the multiple of fibre and broadband. With self-service, fully automated portals like Mobile Manager, it is easy to sell, manage and bill.

Mobile data is more than just IoT. Vendors offering too few options and no control will fail to connect with the thousands of resellers trying to develop differentiated and converged solutions for their customers.