At four years old, most children are just learning to run without tripping over their feet or skinning their knees.
Likewise, the Applied Tech office in southeast Wisconsin – celebrating its fourth year serving Milwaukee, Waukesha and surrounding areas – is getting up to speed.
Getting to Know Brew City
With almost two decades of service, Applied Tech is well known in Madison and Dane County. Steadily growing from a single person, founder and president Kurt Sippel, the company now has more than 60 employees. AT is known throughout the region as a thought leader and reliable business partner for small and medium-sized companies who want to get the most out of their business technology. Today it supports all types of businesses by being a full-service outsourced IT staff for smaller clients and a supplement to larger business for a variety of other IT tasks.
But all that success also brought growth in customers as far away as Milwaukee, Rockford and Stevens Point. To better serve them, AT opened offices in Stevens Point and in Waukesha to serve Milwaukee and the surrounding area.
“We had little to no recognition in Milwaukee, no one knew who we were or what we do,” said Sippel of his decision to expand east. “It was challenging, after working so hard to become a force to be reckoned with in Madison over the past 15 years, and then having to start fresh. It was not easy.”
Grunt Work Paying Off
But the hard work and dedication to serve customers in Milwaukee is starting to pay off with recognition and results. That’s why the office has just grown to six employees with a wide range of expertise to serve any and all IT needs.
The team includes James Higgins (systems specialist), Dustin Schumi (system specialist), Roman Gawell (senior systems admin), Zach Saunders (business application developer and business intelligence specialist), Brian Lach (business development manager/sales and marketing) and Leslie Moran (senior account executive).
(Leslie Moran not pictured)
One of the biggest challenges Applied Tech has faced since expanding to Milwaukee has been simply getting their foot in the door.
“Our name is known in Madison. When people ask for recommendations on whom to use as their IT provider, chances are our name will be brought up because we were first to market,”
Sippel stated.
Planting Roots
Brian Lach, the newest sales member of Applied Tech in Milwaukee, has run into this problem numerous times, but sees the progress that the team has made and how they are becoming a factor.
“We have been called the best-kept secret in the Midwest. While we take this as a compliment, it is important for Applied Tech to continue our effort towards creating a presence in the greater Milwaukee market. We want to grow with our customers, and we are going to have to work to do that.”
Asked about the status of the Milwaukee branch today, Sippel said: “Things are definitely better than they were even just a few months ago in Milwaukee. It took a little time, but every day we are getting stronger and stronger in Milwaukee and our customers are taking notice.”
After recently being named Microsoft’s Midwest Partner of the year and being named one of the top 500 world’s best managed service providers, it is only a matter of time before Applied Tech becomes an IT leader in Milwaukee as well.
“We are here, and we are here to stay,” Sippel said. “We have the confidence in our abilities as a leader in IT. We know we will go the extra mile for our customers and provide the premium services people need. Because we are great at what we do, we are becoming a factor in Milwaukee.”
