Jotellulu, a Spanish startup with the mission of transforming Small and Medium Portuguese IT Companies into the cloud, in a democratic way, this technology and facing the big ones, only arrived in Portugal recently, but suppliers, in global terms, already serve more than 7,000 workers in around 1,700 organizations.
Manuel Perèz, marketing director Jotelulu, announced in the space of the ‘Executive Digest’ statement the reason for creating the startup, the motivation for expansion in Portugal and his opinion on the Portuguese market and if there is still room to grow in terms of the cloud.
– What is Jotelulu? When were you born and why?
Jotelu was born as a response to a need and it all started in 2016, when it was still a consulting and IT support company that sold cloud services to micro and small companies. They allow us to centralize customers and services, a tool that allows us to better manage the infrastructure that we deploy for each of our customers and that allow us to remain competitive. We tried: tools, solutions from the big players in the market (AWS, Azure or Google), management platforms, but we didn’t find anything that really worked like our small IT companies. The difficulty of knowing and mastering the use of these larger platforms, which have their own certifications, was the starting point. Jotellulu then chose its own cloud platform, accessible to any company, through a simple and easy to manage platform.
Jotelulu is thus a platform designed to transform IT companies into cloud service providers with their own brand and prices. Simply put, we say that Jotelulu is like a “white label cloud services supermarket”. This is an exclusive service for IT companies, which registers their customers (generally also micro and small companies) and chooses which services to implement for each of them, according to their needs.
– When did you arrive in Portugal and what was the motivation to expand to the Portuguese market?
We arrived in Portugal last month, one of the main reasons that led Jotelulu to focus on this market as it has similarities with Spain. The Portuguese and Spanish markets are made up of companies with less than 10 employees and, in Portugal, SMEs represent 99.9% of all companies in the country.
In addition, Portugal as an attractive market due to a clear growth in cloud demand. We know that it is still very focused on the big players (AWS, MS Azure, etc), but we also consider it a great opportunity for us, we do things differently and we know that we can bring a lot of value to the small IT company.
It is also a market close to our headquarters in Madrid, which allows us to have greater control over the local operation.
– How do you propose to help as IT SMEs to strengthen their capabilities and positioning in the cloud segment?
Until now, it was not necessary for small IT companies to sell services, they would need very specialized services to manage as platforms. In addition, they had little profit margin and were losing prominence, so they preferred to continue selling hardware and installing infrastructure in their customers’ offices. When you are a small IT company, selling this service is not a simple process and the big players in the market do not make it easy.
Therefore, our proposal is to offer a simple platform that helps to manage and sell cloud services, which offers high profit margins in a white label format and with quality technical support – something that the Portuguese market does not yet exist. tools that help and make small IT companies more competitive, making the cloud more accessible and we can thus democratize its use as Portuguese SMEs.
– How to characterize a Jotelulu or universe of technological SMEs in Portugal? Are we a mature market? What are the strengths and weaknesses?
When we wanted to expand our business, we also took into account the technological scenario and Portugal was a natural choice for us. In recent years, more and more companies in the technological area have set up shop in Portugal and, invariably, this trend affects the ecosystem that is being developed. This reality comes from the development of the country itself and that Portugal assumes an increasingly central position at European and global level as a technological hub allows for excellence of excellence.
Checking, comparing Portugal with other centers, holders that national development is still a relatively recent trend and with space and time to grow relatively recent and with space and time to grow This is where Jotellulu, as the company will enter from the platform, we want them to be competitive from the platform and become more capable of making the benefits of the cloud can be developed to be competitive.
– And in terms of the cloud? Is it a mature technology in Portugal or does it still have significant room to grow? Has there been much demand for the cloud in recent years? Can you quantify this evolution of demand?
Currently, and largely due to the pandemic, we see in Portugal how small companies are moving away from investing in hardware and software located in their offices, to migrate to a cloud-based model. The need for a remote work environment, storage and a virtual telephone exchange (IP telephony), from anywhere from any device, has increased the demand for the cloud and opened space for the growth of this technology. The numbers say so: as an illustration of FutureScape 2022, from IDC Portugal, they reveal that direct investments in digital transformation will increase on average, per year, by 16.5%, between 2022 and 2025, with expenses by companies on public cloud services account for more than 20% of business IT spending.
However, the trend is that only medium and large companies are able to move to the cloud and carry out a digital transformation, as they have sufficient resources to do so. SMEs do not have IT specialists on their teams, so they tend to outsource their management to an IT company. However, as traditional IT companies, which are how they have to sell and implement the cloud in SMEs, they also find it difficult to offer this service to their customers, as traditional pricing agreements with cloud providers hurt their competition. . Given this context, we believe that there is still a lot to be done to democratize the cloud in Portugal, and this is the right time to bring new solutions, like ours, to the market.
– How to combine larger companies and SMEs like Google or Microsoft from the cloud universe
that as small IT companies they don’t really compete with the big players in the market, they go into different niches. They created complex cloud platforms, which large players and specialized computer profiles, successive prices, limiting the sale of media to companies.
The reality is that small IT companies (our partners) are different. These companies target a very specific niche, SMEs, who are looking for a reliable, secure, profitable cloud solution that does not vary from month to month. With these Jotelulu small business companies, small business companies can market these without hassle, at a price that suits their small business and under their own brand, which their exclusive business is allowed.
– What advice would you give a Portuguese technological SME to sing in the cloud world?
I would say that this is the right time to invest in the cloud, which is a market with a lot of potential and that, after the pandemic, small businesses have realized the importance of mobility and teleworking. The rest is a bit necessary as always, finding good suppliers in those who are suspicious and listening to SMEs to offer the solution they know.
– How can Jotelulu’s “white label cloud platform” help small and medium-sized Portuguese technology companies to be stronger?
As before, our platform allows IT margin, with specialized profiles, which can refer to protagonists of implementation and management of complex services, our prices can offer a good profit margin, a white label that the support company of Jotelulu is always available to help directly.
In addition, we do something that no one else does in the market, we support small IT companies with specific tools, throughout the life cycle of the services they sell: from marketing, sales, legal, technical and invoicing management. In this way, we opened the door to the cloud for countless technological companies that until today saw this technology as a product for large companies and we provide it as tools for them to become more competitive and stronger.
– What are the plans for Portugal? How many people do you currently have working in Portugal and how many do you want to have in the coming years?
We have just launched the platform in Portugal and, just a month later, many results and many expected greater interest, with many customers who did not expect it. Our idea is and if we settle in Portugal, where we grew up we are the same as Spain and that’s why we have high expectations. That said, we will grow our team as the market needs it. We have, essentially, 3 people dedicated to the Portuguese market and we hope to have 10, or more, by the end of the year or the beginning of the next.
– What are the terms of turnover and revenue for 2022 or 2023?
As I mentioned earlier, it is too early to make a prediction. We are at a very early stage, but expectations are very high because the reception is incredible.
– Do you have offices in Portugal? Where? Want more?
For the moment we do not have a local office and we lead the operation from Madrid. However, we are aiming to increase the team and have our own space within a few months.
– What level of investment do you have planned for Portugal for this year and for the next ones?
Our goal is to grow in the Portuguese market. We want to continue to develop a platform and features and services that add value to our partners (such as IT companies). In the medium term, the idea is to continue with the internationalization process in Europe. In the coming months, we will also invest in the world of communications in Portugal, through the Central TelefonicaVirtual (VoIP) service. This allows IT companies to jump on the communications train and implement this type of service to their customers in an easy and intuitive way.