Business Q&A with Appirio

Appirio is a global cloud services business. We recently spoke to Lori Williams, General Manager for Appirio’s European operations, to find out what inspired them to start their business, the main challenges they've faced so far and whether there's any advice they would like to pass on.

Hi Lori! Tell us a little bit about you and your business...

Appirio’s 600,000-member [topcoder]™ community and crowd-sourcing platform, combined with the company’s business and technical expertise within it’s 800 employees, have helped 700+ enterprises confidently use technology to increase innovation and transform business.

Founded in 2006, Appirio is a trusted partner of companies such as Apria, Coca-Cola, eBay, Facebook, Japan Post Network, L’Oreal, NetApp, The Four Seasons and Virgin America.

What inspired the founders of Appirio to start a business?

We were founded with the intent of disrupting the systems integration market and are doing that through providing innovative project models and crowdsourcing.

At what point did you decide to move into an office space?

When we moved to London, back in 2012.

What are the benefits to your business for using a serviced office space?

The ability to have the services of a larger office without the overhead of managing it ourselves, and the flexibility to add space as we grow.

What has been the most difficult obstacle you have faced so far?

When we founded our UK office in 2012, a number of team members moved to London to work from our corporate headquarters in San Francisco. Ensuring we followed the systems and protocol needed of us by UK Immigration to enable us to live and work in the UK was a real challenge!

What has been your biggest lesson learnt while you have been working for Appirio?

Hire good people and keep them challenged – and have fun together.

What has been your biggest success to date?

Landing several very large UK-based customers.

What’s the best business advice you’ve been given that you’d like to share?

Always hire people that are better than you!

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