Appirio

The Virtuous Cycle:

Today, organizational growth and success requires that you provide world-class experiences for both your customers and workers. Yet too often, legacy systems and processes along with the antiquated way traditional service partners work, makes transforming those experiences an overwhelming challenge — resulting in getting stuck and settling for the status quo. Appirio delivers a different experience. Our free-thinking consultants — many of whom are practitioners themselves — challenge conventional thinking to lead your organization in the creation of next-generation Worker and Customer Experience by first creating actionable strategies to deliver results quickly, and then helping you adapt to a new experience-driven era over time.

We believe Worker and Customer Experience are intrinsically linked and must be addressed together. By leveraging cloud technology, new ways of working like crowdsourcing, and using solution accelerators to rapidly build and integrate solutions, customers can create both amazing Worker and Customer Experiences that drive profitability and growth.

A Thriving Appirian:

Over the years we’ve identified some commonalities among our Thriving Appirians. Check them out!

#BeTheFun

You are fun, collaborative, and a true teammate.

#GoAllIn

You go all in every day and are passionate about what you do.

#GetYourHandsDirty

You go above and beyond for your team and don’t mind getting your hands dirty.

#CustomerFanatic

You are customer-centric and will be a fanatic for your customers.

#NoBS

You’re a change agent; you take ownership of your work, your company, and your customers.

A Different Experience at Appirio:

We believe in the Virtuous cycle, which means we want all Appirians to be energized, loyal, and engaged. But most importantly we want Appirians to have fun at work and so our programs are designed to do just that. Volunteering through a Silver Lining activity, learning health & wellness tips through our CloudFit program, working remotely on a challenging client engagement, or attending an Appirio hosted meetup for Happy Hour all provide avenues for our fun & inclusive culture to come to life.We believe that a diverse and inclusive workforce is key to building meaningful relationships and delivering the best results to our clients. That’s why we focus on hiring the best people with unique skills and backgrounds-not just the right keywords on a resume. The Worker Experience we provide to Appirians has been nominated for multiple awards.

Appirian Benefits and #WorkPerks:

The Appirio Worker Experience is friendly, fun and fueled by passion. Our employees are our most valued resources and the basis for our success, which is why we offer an extensive benefit program that best suits your needs. Therefore, we are proud to offer the following benefits:

Silver Lining:

”Deeply Passionate People Who Go Out and Make Things Happen”

The Silver Lining was launched in 2010 through the passion of Appirians who have made giving back and sustainability part of their personal and professional lives.

We support this mission through three initiatives:

• Cloud Acceleration Projects:  We provide pro-bono professional services to support the adoption of cloud technologies in a select number of nonprofits each year. Targeted projects have included Code2040 and Perkins School for the Blind.
  
  
• Company-Sponsored Group Volunteer Activities:  We coordinate ongoing group volunteer opportunities for employees, including volunteer events during new employee orientation, regional volunteer events throughout the year, and one global corporate-wide volunteer day each year. These volunteer opportunities are designed to build team while enabling employees to make a tangible difference in their local community.
  
• Paid Volunteer Time Off: We believe in supporting and sustaining a culture of volunteerism throughout the company by providing eight hours of paid time off each year to jump start an employee’s pursuit of a personally meaningful volunteer activity on company time.

Appirio has contributed over 29,000 hours of community and pro–bono services and has provided over $565,000 in cash and product donations to charitable causes through the Silver Lining.

Appirian Leaders:

Appirio’s leadership team maintains our focus and inspires a relentless commitment to delivering outstanding results for our customers & employees.

Kimberly Heger, Head of Global Worker Experience

Kim spent the first 14 years of her career in corporate HR roles, starting in career development, talent acquisition, employee relations, wellness, and then learning and development. Her focus has always been on the people side of the business. In 2007, she left Corporate America to join a boutique consulting firm called Knowledge Infusion, and leveraged her background in HR to help organizations develop Talent Management strategies with an emphasis on people, process, and technology. In 2012, Appirio acquired Knowledge Infusion and thus her Appirio adventure had begun. She had many successful years in a new practice called Change Enablement, that focused on developing change management strategies and plans to ensure the successful adoption of new ways of working. After building a successful practice and team of 20+ consultants, she wanted to do something different. With the acquisition, a new position was created which Kim stepped into as our Sr. Director of Culture & Change!

Fun Facts:

1. Minnesota Native, transplanted to Indianapolis but never lost her love for hockey. Avid fan and player on a coed league.
2. Crazy fitness guru, loves to run destination marathons or 1/2 marathons.
3. Loves to travel, explore new areas of the world and embrace local culture.

Sherria Reid, Alliance Manager

Sherria Reid has an educational background in Computer Science and Public Health where her dream was to become a pediatric cardiologist. Although that was the goal, she started her career in telecommunications at Nortel in a hybrid engineering and sales manager role. When Nortel was acquired and Sherria was laid off, she took advantage of the opportunity by taking a four month sabbatical where she then got engaged and went on a lengthy vacation. What a great time! She then went on and spent ten years at a small, private software and services company called RWD. For a decade, she worked hand-in-hand with the SAP education and quality risk mitigation in a variety of roles including: pre-sales engineer, channel manager and a direct sales manager. Sherria started with Appirio in March 2017 and ultimately chose Appirio because of the culture and transparency. She was truly looking for a honest employer and after being referred by an old co-worker, she gave it a try. With all her years surfing through Glassdoor, she never saw a higher approval rating for a CEO. In order to truly understand how Chris Barbin obtained such a high approval rating she asked him directly. He shared it was his transparent and appreciative attitude he continually strives to demonstrate to all Appirians.

Fun Facts:

1. Moonlights as an extreme couponer and bankruptcy petitioner.
2. Was married in Puerto Rico and made everyone at the wedding get in the ocean fully clothed!
3. Passionate about Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

Joe Castro, VP & Cheif Architect, Salesforce

Joe is VP and Chief Architect of our Salesforce Practice. He is also a Certified Technical Architect, which means you can usually find him engaging clients to best leverage Salesforce for their complex business needs. Over the past 20 years, he has worked in various development areas, architecture, process design and leadership roles; with the past 10 years focused on Salesforce and SaaS technologies. His accomplishments include business development, advisory, and delivery on 20+ Salesforce projects focusing on large and diverse global user communities and complex integration requirements to enterprise systems. Joe joined Appirio with the charge to organize and develop a world class Salesforce Technical Architecture practice. As Appirio's Chief Architect, Joe focuses on attracting, retaining, and inspiring the top Salesforce Technical Architects in the industry by driving continuous learning practices, by promoting thought leadership initiatives, and by fostering a collaborative environment.

Fun Facts:

1. Married to Susana and father of two boys and two girls.
2. Avid wakeboarder and wake surfer.
3. Enjoys relaxing on the beach in Port Aransas, Texas as well as in Susana's native Portugal.  

Rowena Nicolas, Principal Consultant

Rowena received a BA degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology with a minor in Human Resources Management.  She spent the first 13 years of her career in corporate HR with the focus on Compensation and HRIS.  Upon implementing Workday as a customer she knew that she wanted to spend the next phase of her career doing consulting work particularly implementing Workday.  She started her Workday experience with update 8, which is now up to the 28th update. Rowena has been at Appirio for 6 and a half years being one of the first functional Workday HCM consultants.  Her background with defining processes and needs of an organization to track the workforce population has been instrumental.  She understands where our clients are coming from and what their needs are since she's been in their shoes.  At Appirio, she has been in roles from individual contributor to leadership roles to help grow the practice to where it is today.  Today she is focused on the data architect and data conversion aspect of implementations.

Fun Facts:

1. Travels to Hawaii at least every other year.  Loves the tropical weather, the warm beach nearby, and the local foods.  Her favorite island is Maui.
2. Born and raised in the bay area of California.  Has never left California nor does she plan to despite the crazy cost of living.
3. Still in nostalgia mode of the Golden State Warriors winning the 2017 NBA Championship.