Building the Orum Integration with Apollo

I’m Melissa Reffsin, Product Manager at Orum. You might be wondering who I am, what Orum is, and what I’m doing writing an article for Apollo’s new tech blog!

What Is Orum?

Orum is an AI-powered live conversation platform driving more pipeline for sales organizations. With Orum, users automate manual dialing tasks, saving teams thousands of dollars and getting reps into more conversations. 

We integrate with users' current workflows, syncing call data and activity directly with the most popular sales platforms. Pairing these integrations with our 

• virtual Salesfloor, which allows teams to collaborate, call, and celebrate together from anywhere, 
• Analytics, which gives teams access to essential metrics to track performance instantly, and our 
• Call Library, which takes sales training and development to new heights – 

Owing to these features, Orum has been named a leader in the dialer space by G2 for the fourth consecutive quarter!

Enter Apollo

As the PM for our core dialing platform, my main responsibility is to develop a strategy and roadmap for our product. So, in early 2023, when it was time to determine what was next, prioritizing an Apollo integration was an easy decision. We knew we’d be able to dramatically increase outbound productivity by reducing time spent on manual tasks while syncing two essential aspects of sales teams’ tech stack.

How The Integration Started

Once we decided to build Orum’s Apollo integration, the user experience was our priority. The integration needed to simplify and automate workflows so users could focus on connecting with prospects instead of completing manual tasks. Those features need to improve the overall sales rep experience. Sales development is the DNA of Orum, and with more than 200 million dials completed on our platform, we have the knowledge and data to empower sales organizations as a productivity and pipeline force multiplier. 

Proposed outcomes of the integration

As a user, 

• I should be able to connect my Apollo account to Orum to load my sequences and dial prospects with call tasks due.
• my call activity should be logged back to Apollo, so tasks are completed, and prospects automatically move to the next step of the sequence.

Technical Design/Implementation

Orum’s Engineering team identified the best way to accomplish what we wanted to do for our users: match the Orum user account with an Apollo user account. This enabled us to pull that user’s sequences call tasks and log associated activity. Each organization is added to Orum via a unique Apollo API key to do this. 

Then, we call various Apollo APIs to get the information needed. Some of the APIs we call and write back to include: 

• Sequences API (https://api.apollo.io/v1/emailer_campaigns/search) allows us to get the list of sequences for that particular user.
• Tasks API (https://api.apollo.io/v1/tasks/search) allows us to get the list of tasks for that user and only shows tasks due for that sequence.

To ensure activity is logged back to the user, we created specific parameters in our setup process that enabled us to match users from one platform to another. This custom setup ensures that prospects move along in sequence automatically, without manual work required on the rep's end.

Phased Release

Once the MVP was complete, we launched a 2-week beta program with ~10 customers. These customers were given early access and helped us iron out the kinks before a broader release. We received valuable feedback that we immediately took action on, and before long, we were ready for the official launch! 

We’ve doubled the number of customers using the Apollo integration month over month and continue to see sales teams energized by our partnership.

Now, organizations worldwide can use the power of Apollo and Orum together to accelerate their pipeline!