MSP 501 Profile: Approyo Rides SAP Expertise, Helps During Pandemic

Company Name: Approyo
MSP 501 Rank: 404
Founder & CEO: Christopher Carter
Headquartered: Brookfield, WI
Primary Services:

Twitter: @Approyo

Approyo makes a name for itself by providing full SAP service technology. It touts extensive capabilities in hosting and managed services, upgrades and migrations for its customers, running any SAP-supported core functionality. The company manages more than 300 SAP environments around the world. It supports business from production to migration onto SAP S/4 HANA.

Approyo says it designs its cloud environments and tailors them specifically to the needs of its customers. The company’s goal is to bring data and information to its clients’ businesses as quickly as possible — and affordably.

Founder and CEO Christopher Carter discusses COVID-19 business challenges and offers advice on handling debt.

Channel Futures: What new opportunities and challenges came with the COVID-19 pandemic?

Christopher Carter: The global COVID-19 pandemic has been a game changer for us this year. Many companies are struggling with the aftermath, whether they may have had to close their doors, or are experiencing less revenue because of rising unemployment rates. To help companies in their time of need, we are now offering both current and new customers the ability to free up their cash flow by allowing them “a way to have zero cash flow until the end of 2020.” This allows them to push off payments for up to six months.

Approyo’s Christopher Carter

We understand these are hard times for everyone, including companies, their employees and executives. As such, if any company is willing to allow us to help them, we will be glad to assist them in any SAP needs, from daily SAP basis support to large instance projects. We’ve had several companies come to us just so we could free up their cash flow. They’ve chosen us not only for that, but for the success that we experienced before this pandemic. Throughout the pandemic we have continued with our daily activities, still experiencing ongoing growth and success. This offering has just highlighted our services and values, giving one more capability for customers to see why Approyo is the partner they need to be successful in their digital transformation journey. We only succeed when our customers do, and that’s always our first priority.

CF: Is the influx of private equity and increase in M&A activity impacting your business? If so, how?

CC: This is a great question and one that I’ve been able to save for our company for a long time. We have not taken any M&A or VC funding, as we have been cash-flow positive in the manner that customers need and expect. Being riddled with debt is not my idea of a successful company.

It is normal for companies to experience small amounts of debt through growth, new acquisitions and new hires. But it’s how you adapt to it that drives your business in the right direction. You must work to have a positive cash flow in order to drive your customers and your company to success, and in my opinion, not having that is the ultimate failure. I am asked daily by so-called VCs and M&A people if they can assist us with our funding. But most have no clue about Approyo or what we are looking for in order to grow. With the current pandemic, private equity is definitely on the rise, but that doesn’t mean it is always the best option.

CF: Why are you a business owner instead of working for someone else? What is the allure of entrepreneurship to you?

CC: To be very honest, this is an easy answer for me. I didn’t like working for other people and I didn’t like the fact that individuals who didn’t know what they were talking about were trying to lead me down a path for my customers’ failure rather than success. Not having the right skill set to both lead a team or an organization, and a lack of knowledge from the technology standpoint was brutal to live with. That led me to start my own company. I did so by going after their customers because I knew their failures. I knew what they were good at and what they were terrible at. And I knew what their executive team was thinking.

Having seen what their motive was, I knew how to attack them the right way — and attack them I did. The allure of being an entrepreneur meant that the buck stopped at my desk and the decisions I made technology-wise, staffing-wise, business-wise and client-wise lay on my own shoulders. I hired very intelligent people to run certain operations, people I knew I could trust and could interact with and rely on. At Approyo, we work as a team, not as a lord and his minions, but a true team of executives and staff who work hand in hand to make sure that our customers are successful.