Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once said, “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” If you are getting slightly confused with the quote, allow us to dissect the meaning of it by illustrating the journey of Christopher Carter, Founder & CEO of Approyo.
Mr. Carter attended The Georgia Institute of Technology, where he studied computer engineering. In those days, Mr. Carter was working as a freelancer in Systems, Application, and Products (SAP) technology. However, fate intervened and led him into the marketing industry.
In the late 90s, Mr. Carter realized that SAP is his true passion, and he went back and served it prior to forming his own company. Over the years, he owned multiple businesses, and before he knew it, he ended up selling those. At that moment, Mr. Carter thought it was time to retire.
However, fate intervened again when Mr. Carter heard of SAP HANA and what it had to offer. He dove headfirst back into SAP and came up with Approyo.
Tracing the Journey
Still, to truly understand the journey of Mr. Carter, we need to look at his life between the first owned company and Approyo. He came across the first hurdle with the initial company, where due to some circumstances, he had to close his doors. He also had to come up with a solution to assist his employees in gaining new employment and watch them move on to new companies. Such a closure shattered Mr. Carter’s dream.
Nevertheless, Mr. Carter learned some crucial lessons from the experience and utilized them to create a better future for himself. These challenges are what helped him pave the way to success with the establishment of Approyo back in 2013. In the beginning, the main struggle with Approyo was the enlightenment of all stakeholders about cloud and all the usage for SAP.
For Mr. Carter, learning what the right way to attack prospective clients, know how to earn their trust, etc. was a learning process in itself. With time, the hiring of new staff and growth in certifications and experience, along with the advancement of technology and innovation, helped push Approyo to where it is today.
Approyo has not slowed down its business whatsoever, even throughout the current pandemic. The business is running as always, and under the leadership of Mr. Carter, the firm has continued to operate as its customers expect. On the contrary, the pandemic helped Mr. Carter and Approyo to serve more customers due to the market downtime and companies’ demand for a stable ERP system.
In the pandemic, where everybody is working from their homes, Mr. Carter reveals that communication is his number one key to success. “I am constantly in contact with my team, making sure that our customers are being taken care of and that everyone is on the same page and we hold weekly virtual meetings to ensure that. I am also always learning and educating at the same time,” he stated.
“It’s important that other people are educated on where we are at in the world when it comes to technology. There is always more to learn, it doesn’t matter how old you are or how long you’ve been in your current job position, gain knowledge every day,” he adds.
Furthermore, Mr. Carter understands the hurdles and challenges, and thus, have declared to offer new and existing customers free cashflow till the end of 2020. This move not only highlights Mr. Carter’s values for the industry but also showcases the dedication to success of other businesses.
The above journey was possible only because of Mr. Carter’s dedication of staying abreast with the industry. Machine Learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), have been on the rise in recent years. All of these ties in with Approyo’s SAP capabilities and its abilities to accelerate customers’ own growth and abilities.
“Using these technological advances to the advantage, means having the capability to provide real-time smart data to customers, and being able to predict problems before they occur, leading to more success in the future,” Mr. Carter asserts.
For forthcoming years, Mr. Carter’s focus is on growth. He says, “You should always be wanting to expand, whether it’s your customer-base, your staff, or your general skill set. No one should be okay with staying stagnant, you should always wish for more, and then take the steps to get there.”
Approyo – One Stop Shop for SAP Needs
Approyo’s target audience is extremely broad as SAP is used by more than half of businesses today. Not only deemed dependable and certified, Approyo is a master in SAP. While other businesses cater among many services including Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, etc. Approyo’s main focus is SAP and that is what makes it an industry-leading company.
In the words of Chris, “We don’t only do large projects such as implementations, upgrades, and migrations, but we provide ongoing service support and managed services as well. Our customers’ businesses are taken care of 24/7, and we are always available to answer questions at any time, making sure they are satisfied.”
Mr. Carter’s journey can be labeled as a trial and error. He learned from his experiences, circumstances, and learning processes. He is grateful for all those opportunities that have been bestowed to him throughout his journey of being an entrepreneur and Approyo is just one of the great results from his ideas coming to fruition.