- Mckenzie Wright
- January 12, 2017
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit” - Aristotle
Investment in your people is an investment in the success of your business. A huge part of all the great moments and milestones we’ve experienced at Apptio are the people behind the scenes that make them happen. It’s our people who ensure that Apptio will continue to deliver excellence.
Each year, we like to celebrate our top performers at Apptio and showcase how they’ve impacted our business. We are proud to recognize Jim Li, Sandy Daniels, and Samantha Roehl with the 2016 Apptian Superstar award. They exemplify what it means to be a truly dedicated employee, peer, and professional.
Congratulations Jim, Sandy, and Samantha!
Jim Li
Role: Senior Software Development Engineer
Years at Apptio: 4 yrs.
Jim took the idea of a simple platform check and developed a robust customer service platform. To help our customer-facing teams share basic details about their customers’ environments, Jim and his team increased efficiency and efficacy of the system, completely transforming our methodology for servicing customers.
What do you do at Apptio?
For the last 5 years at Apptio as Senior Performance Engineer, I've focused on automating performance related to testing and supporting live-site escalations on the Customer Engineering team. The last 6 months or so, I've focused on developing Apptio internal tools, such as the Platform Check currently used by all Customer Service Managers and the Flagship Apptio Data Exchange (a production usage data mining tool) used by various teams. In the near future, I will be officially transitioning to a Senior SDET role for Apptio Internal tools.
What makes Apptio different from other companies you’ve worked for?
I enjoy the challenges and opportunities provided by Apptio to learn different technologies and problem-solving techniques. I also enjoy the innovation generated during our bi-annual Hackathons—a lot of the internal tools I've been building stem from Hackathon events.
What is your favorite part of being an Apptian?
The people and culture.
Sandy Daniels
Role: Manager, Customer Success, Enterprise
Years at Apptio: 3 yrs.
Sandy is driven to continuously make the impossible happen. She's built a winning team from the ground up and worked daily to ensure the continued success of her teammates and department. A natural born leader, Sandy is a proactive problem solver with a particular knack for sticky situations.
What do you do at Apptio?
A lot of different things! I manage a team of customer success managers who are passionate about helping our customers adopt Apptio and expand their use cases. This role has also given me opportunities to engage in many other areas of the business and to collaborate across many teams and regions. Recently, I've been involved in helping build out the customer experience map for our IT Planning application.
What makes Apptio different from other companies you’ve worked for?
The Apptio culture has been a big differentiator for me. Even though it is an established company, we still maintain a start-up vibe. I've been given the opportunity wear a lot of hats, solve interesting problems, and grow my career in a fast-paced environment.
Also, Apptio is different from other companies I have worked for because previously I was the "partner" and not working directly for the software company. It is really fun to see the interworkings of a software company and to be part of an organization that both develops and services their products.
What is your favorite part of being an Apptian?
My favorite part of Apptio is learning something new every day while helping our customers succeed.
Samantha Roehl
Role: Field Marketing Manager, East
Years at Apptio: 2 yrs.
With an outgoing and take-charge personality, Samantha ensures that the needs of her team are front and center and aligned with the organization. With a contagious energy, she drives continued engagement and results around each program. Samantha is incredibly results driven and, on average, exceeds 100% completion of all personal and professional metrics quarter over quarter.
What do you do at Apptio?
I am the Field Marketing Manager for the Southeast Region. However, during my first year, I covered two regions—Southeast & Federal.
What makes Apptio different from other companies you’ve worked for?
At Apptio, there have been a few slogans that have resonated—“Bleed Orange” and “The Orange Army”—and I feel both of those references are what make Apptio’s culture so special. You feel proud to work hard and bleed orange because everyone’s contribution counts tremendously. Our CEO, Sunny Gupta, always says something like, “We can’t do this without each and every one of you putting in the hard work to make this happen” and I believe in that. We are an orange army and every person plays such a significant role. I don't feel like only one person is working to make a difference. Here, you see everyone pushing the boundaries and putting in 110%, and that creates a culture that elevates and encourages us.
What is your favorite part of being an Apptian?
The people and our leadership. A unique thing about Apptio is that there is an equal emphasis placed on exceptional people and the involvement of leadership. Employees at Apptio work hard, encourage one another, genuinely care about those around them, and want to make a difference. The Apptio leadership team listens and empowers us, rolling up their sleeves to work with us to get the job done and consistently leading by example.
We are proud to honor these employees and look forward to the amazing feats they will accomplish in their careers here at Apptio.
Congrats!
