INTERVIEW Philippe Matos - Apalo
“Our philosophy is to put the reseller first and make it easy for them”
Apalo launches
Philippe Matos, Business Development Director - Apalo
In this interview Philippe Matos, Business Development Director for Apalo spoke to Comms Business about his
new venture into true Fixed Mobile Convergence
CBM: In a competitive
industry how are you
planning on standing out?
Philippe Matos (PM): We are in
an industry where we have 100+
players. Over the years I have
learned that it isn’t important
what I want, it is all about what
the partners want. It’s easy to
say, but if you don’t deliver then
it just won’t happen. If your
partners don’t sell, it doesn’t
matter if you have the best
solution in the world.
I started Apalo because I
believe people will want to
focus on the mobile rst and
foremost. We did have a 12-18
month plan to come to market
but now we are straight into it
because of the virus. Everyone
is using their mobile rst now
and I think that will continue.
is is where everything is
going, we are focusing on
APIs and native integrations.
is is the communications of
tomorrow.
CBM: Can you tell us a little
bit about the solution? Do you
have a Teams integration?
PM: Yes, we do. You need to
integrate with Teams in the
same way you need to have
Hunt Groups, it has now
become one of those boxes you
need to tick. We are oering
proper mobile-rst FMC (xed
mobile convergence) with
native integration. With this
your mobile then becomes a
full part of your system like
your desk phone.
We have made sure we cover
all the features and mobile
applications etc, but to be
honest this isn’t where people
dierentiate these days.
CBM: Why should resellers be
talking to you?
PM: Our philosophy is to put
the reseller rst and make
it easy for them. One of the
ways we do this is to focus on
one central portal. Everything
from the partner point of view
is done through one portal,
they can control, monitor, bill,
bar etc… because its all API
based the partner can plug in
whatever they need.
To make it great for the
partners I believe you also
need to focus on the customer
retention element. e only
way you can do that is by
owning the customer with
your own brand. As a result,
everything we do is fully white
labelled. If the customer tries
to nd your product they will
only nd you (the partner)
and no one else. Customers
are used to shopping around,
we all do it in our personal
lives too, so you need to make
sure you aren’t being undercut
somewhere else. We spend a
lot of time making sure the
partner’s oering is completely
unique from that perspective.
Today, most people have
two or three providers to get
everything they need across
voice, mobile, video etc.
However, most people would
prefer to have one provider that
covers everything. By making
an all-in-one solution which
is also truly native it’s even
better.
ere are a lot of fragmented
options for partners when
they have to go to dierent
suppliers for various bits of
the communications puzzle.
If you reduce the supply chain
and you can get everything
you need from one place then
partners generally like that.
is is something Gamma do
really well, but if you don’t
want to work with them then
your options are limited.
With just one license
we can cover your mobile,
laptop, tablet, and with all
the collaboration and all the
features. It makes it easy and
slick for partners to sell. We
sell the solution in an easy way.
You can have Mobile, UCaaS,
or Calls and Data. You can buy
one or the three together.
CBM: What are your thoughts
on timing of this launch?
PM: We didn’t expect to launch
during COVID, but then no
one was expecting COVID
anyway! I was very surprised at
how much of our industry was
put into furlough when I think
we should all be out there at
the forefront of this type of
technology. We should be
encouraging people to work in
new ways. I understand people
protecting their cashow but
during this crisis I think it is
time to be clever and try and
sell more. I just don’t think
our industry should be using
the furlough to the extent they
are because of the opportunity
which has presented itself.
20 | Comms Business Magazine | July 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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