INTERVIEW Andrew Dickinson - Jola
“Even if just as a defensive strategy, resellers want to be able to add Direct Routing to their hosted voice
portfolio but not all are experienced with Microsoft and PowerShell.” Andrew Dickinson, MD of Jola
Automating Direct Routing
In this interview Andrew Dickinson, MD of Jola, explains why his new automated Direct Routing proposition is
big win for partners dabbling in the Microsoft Teams space
CBM: The recruitment hasn’t
seemed to have slowed down
at Jola, why is this?!
Andrew Dickinson (AD): e
growth has continued and we
have hired six people since we
went into lockdown in March.
We have over 700 partners
and sign 20 a month so we
need account managers to
look after them. We continue
to launch two new products
a month and we have also
recruited product managers
and software developers. As
sta are promoted, we have to
backll, and we have vacancies
in provisioning and support as
a result. Our apprenticeship
programme has been a huge
success. e standard of
candidates in our area has been
outstanding and this has really
helped.
CBM: Your Teams proposition
has evolved significantly
since we last spoke, can you
fill us in on the changes?
AD: We were the rst to launch
Teams Direct routing for the
channel and we are constantly
improving it. Many of our
resellers’ early customers were
large global organisations and
besides calling plans for UK
customers wanting to make
international calls, they also
needed unlimited local call
plans in other countries. You
can now make free local calls
from 31 countries using Jola
Direct Routing. We also oer
free call-recording and a host
of other features via our SIP
platform. We realised early on
that conguring Teams Direct
Routing was very tricky, so we
spent a lot of time automating
the provisioning process.
CBM: Why is the automated
Direct Routing proposition so
significant for Channel?
AD: Even if just as a defensive
strategy, resellers want to be
able to add Direct Routing to
their hosted voice portfolio but
not all are experienced with
Microsoft and PowerShell.
Even accredited Microsoft
partners nd it dicult and
time consuming, and for a few
pounds a month, they question
if it’s worth the hassle. Jola
has the only fully automated
provisioning system for Teams
DR. Jola partners only need
administrative access to be able
to add users in a few minutes.
CBM: Handsets for Teams?
Surely everyone is now
moving to software on laptops
etc?
AD: I agree, and if you’re locked
in the spare room right now
you probably haven’t used
a desk phone for months.
However, some people still
prefer a traditional desk phone,
especially in the oce. ey
like to be able to see at a glance
who is free, and they get used
to the more tactile mechanics
of picking up and transferring
calls. Our rst three large
Teams Direct Routing deals
came with orders for Yealink
handsets. I guess it takes all
sorts!
CBM: You have recently
launched a product for ISPs…
how will this impact how you
(and others) deliver their
services in the ‘new world’
we are entering?
AD: Last year Jola took the
big step of becoming an eSIM
MVNO. Soon businesses
will probably only buy eSIM
because it stops MNOs using
high switching costs to skew
commercial terms in their
favour. However, eSIM is more
than just an insurance policy.
We buy mobile data wholesale
in global markets, so prices
are low. With 450 networks in
167 countries on every SIM,
international rollouts are easy
and site surveys unnecessary.
e big development recently
has been to make this available
to ISPs at Layer 2, or L2TP.
ISPs have long recognised
the value of being able
to failover to a ‘wireless’
connection, but until now the
problems have been speed,
cost and conguration. If
an ISP is going to oer 4G
back-up on any connection
it has to be cheap and it has
to be fast enough to at least
handle the end users’ critical
applications. Most importantly
all the IP addresses must
transfer seamlessly to the
back-up connection without
the need for reconguration or
additional equipment.
Jola partners can crossconnect
into our data centres
at layer 2. ereafter they
only need to put a SIM in
their customers’ routers for it
to work. Normal operating
costs are only a few pounds
a site and we have ways to
mitigate overages in the event
of network failures. e service
operates in the same way in
Andrew Dickinson, MD of Jola 167 countries.
18 | Comms Business Magazine | August 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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