Approyo and CEO Chris Carter Featured in BizTimes Milwaukee

Approyo is proud to share that we have been featured in the BizTimes Milwaukee magazine and website. The article written by Molly Dill, focuses on our CEO Chris Carter and our recent growth in the SAP ecosystem and Southeast Wisconsin over the past few years. Below is the article:
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Approyo LLC founder Chris Carter learned a lot from the failure of his first SAP software company, CCI, in 2012.

After CCI lost a major contract, Carter had to put the Milwaukee-based business into bankruptcy and endure significant strain on his relationships with family and friends, some of whom had worked for the company.

“I learned several things. First of all, don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” Carter said. “Second thing I learned is I never want to go through that again… so I work 10 times harder, 20 times harder every day. The third thing I learned is you’ve got to always be selling.”

In 2013, Carter took those lessons and applied them to the formation of Approyo. And it seems to be working. Approyo recently moved from a 900-square-foot office in Muskego to a 7,800-square-foot space in Brookfield and was named to the 2018 Inc. 5000 list with three-year growth of 557 percent.

“Being named as one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States is a great honor. I’m proud of my team,” he said.

Like CCI did, Approyo consults with companies on implementing and hosting enterprise resource planning software from German company SAP. ERP software is used to manage and automate business operations and customer relations.

But unlike CCI, Approyo has spread its client base among 27 companies in various industries across the globe, including French IT services giant Atos. It specializes in a specific type of SAP system called HANA, which is poised for growth as SAP has asked its customers to upgrade by 2025 or face maintenance fee increases.

“Companies like Briggs & Stratton, Miller Brewing Co., Boeing and others, they literally use (SAP HANA) to run their entire business,” Carter said.

In 2018, Approyo’s revenue topped $5 million, and its last three years have been profitable, Carter said. It had grown to 73 employees this year, but recently eliminated its workforce in India to focus on new hires in the U.S. Approyo now has 31 employees, 11 whom work out of the new Brookfield headquarters.

“I don’t take any profits out of the company; I put it straight back into the company to grow it,” Carter said.

His next growth initiative: finding two to three companies to acquire.
“You can’t just be a small player any longer. You need to think bigger, you need to think aggressive, you need to think forward and not just day-to-day,” Carter said.

Five years down the road, he plans to sell the bigger, better version of Approyo.

View the original article:
https://www.biztimes.com/2019/ideas/entrepreneurship/approyo-moves-to-much-larger-hq-earns-inc-5000-spot/

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Photo Credit: Jake Hill Photography

Approyo moves to new office Location in Brookfield Wisconsin

Approyo is proud to announce that we have moved to a new office in Brookfield Wisconsin to accommodate our growth. Below is the full article on BizTimes Media from Molly Dill about our recent move.

SAP software company Approyo LLC has moved to a much larger headquarters in Brookfield to accommodate its growth.

Approyo’s headquarters was previously located in a 900-square-foot space at W144 S6311 College Court in Muskego. Earlier this month, the company moved to a 7,800-square-foot space at 13100 W. Lisbon Road, Suite 500 in Brookfield. It has an option to expand into another 10,000 square feet of adjoining space.

“The opportunity for the (new headquarters) space was great,” said Chris Carter, chief executive officer. “It’s centrally located for the staff that I was looking to hire and I can grow the company to where I want to grow it to and bring them all into one area instead of having to move multiple times.”

Approyo implements, hosts, manages and supports SAP HANA systems for corporations. Founded in 2013 by Carter, former owner of Milwaukee SAP firm CCI, Approyo was recently named to the 2018 Inc. 5000 list with three-year growth of 557 percent. Its 2017 revenue was $4 million, and at the time of the listing it had 73 employees. But Approyo has since cut all of its workers in India to focus on new hires in the U.S., a spokeswoman said.

Approyo now has 28 employees globally, 11 of whom are based in Milwaukee. Four of those Milwaukee employees were added within the past month, Carter said, and if one of four pending large contracts closes soon, the company will add up to 10 more employees this year. The company has about 27 clients worldwide, including French company Atos, for which Approyo manages 42 SAP systems.

“The great thing right now is SAP is in what’s called an upgrade cycle,” he said. “We’re showing companies that we can help them with that upgrade and then manage and support their systems.”

View the original article at: https://www.biztimes.com/2018/industries/real-estate/fast-growing-tech-company-moves-to-brookfield/

Approyo achieves significant growth and adds new team members

Approyo, a leading enterprise SAP HANA Solutions Provider headquartered in Milwaukee has seen significant growth in a state that is also seeing substantial development in the technology sector.

The Wisconsin based company has added to its team with three new employees. Alfred Wedding, Tim Reiss and William Sean Beasley join the Approyo team and will be working hand in hand with its customers and partners to manage and support SAP environments.

• Tim Reiss joins the team as Senior Director of SAP. Reiss brings more than 20 years industry of experience to the Approyo team.
• William Beasley, Director of SAP has more than a dozen years of cloud migration and experience working with SAP.
• Alfred Wedding comes to Approyo as an SAP Basis Coordinator with multiple years of experience with supporting SAP. Wedding is a Naval Veteran and resides in Wisconsin.

 “We have a top-notch team and we will continue to grow our organization. We are proud to be based in Wisconsin, where there is an exponential amount of growth in the technology sector,” says Chris Carter, CEO of Approyo.  “It’s an exciting time to be part of the SAP ecosystem and we can’t wait to see continued growth over the next several years.

Approyo was recently ranked #895 in the Inc Magazine 5000 for the third year in a row. It is very rare for companies to achieve this recognition for three years in a row. In addition, Mirror Review has listed Approyo among the top SAP solution providers in its latest magazine, “The 10 Best SAP Solution Providers of 2018.”  The technology company was also named one of “The 10 Best Performing SAP Solution Providers, 2018” by Insights Success.

Approyo is one of many technology companies in Milwaukee that is adding to the economy.

Milwaukee is making significant progress developing as a technology-based employment cluster. A report titled, Milwaukee's Tech Talent Impact, was compiled in June by several key employers in southeastern Wisconsin and identified 76,000 technology workers in 89 distinct occupations, contributing more than $27.6 billion in economic impact.