Avaap: a Leading Global IT Services Provider

Dhiraj Shah founded Avaap in 2006 to address critical business gaps for organizations that rely on Infor Lawson as their mission-critical ERP. In 2011, Dhiraj made the decision to strategically focus on Infor software solutions. Under Dhiraj’s leadership, the company has experienced significant growth and exceeded its goals every year since its inception. Today, Avaap is among the largest Infor Alliances Partners.

In 2016, Avaap acquired Falcon Consulting, a KLAS-leading Epic Systems implementation and optimization firm. Avaap is the only Infor systems integrator with a dedicated EHR practice, providing healthcare customers with a single source solution for clinical, business and financial applications. Avaap employs more than 400 technology and business professionals across its locations, including offices in Edison, New Jersey, Chicago, St. Paul, MN, Spain, U.K. and Chennai, India. This growth is testament to Dhiraj’s vision and genuine desire to improve customer business practices through strategic partnerships and exceptional software services.

Avaap has earned several accolades including Infor Alliance Partner of the Year in 2014-2018; Manufacturing and Retail Partner 2018, Infor Cloud Partner 2016-2018; Net-New Sales Partner 2016-2017, Infor Services Partner of the Year in 2013 and Infor 2012 Partner of the Year for Innovation. Avaap has also been recognized for its fast growth, including the Best in Biz award in the medium size business category; NJBIZ’s Fastest Growing Companies in New Jersey and a six-year honoree on the INC. 500 list of fastest growing private companies in the U.S.

Prior to Avaap, Dhiraj held several positions at Lawson Software. He was instrumental in developing Lawson’s offshore strategy by helping establish a global center of excellence in Chennai. He has spoken at numerous industry conferences including Inforum, Infor Partner Summit, INC. 500 conference, and the Kaplan Institute.  Dhiraj graduated with honors from New Jersey Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in professional communications. He is an active member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, a global networking organization of successful entrepreneurs.

Dhiraj has the unique talent for leveraging the latest technologies and conceptualizing them into turnkey solutions that drive better efficiency and efficacy for Avaap’s growing customer base. His deep industry knowledge has helped Avaap build a strong presence in the healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and public sector verticals, among others.

Adam Goldstein is general manager of Infor ERP at Avaap, responsible for product architecture, development, support and all Infor software delivery. With 15 years of professional ERP experience specific to Infor Lawson, Adam brings expert-level knowledge of methodologies, processes, and tools to Infor Lawson ERP implementations.

Specialized as an Infor Lawson Solutions Architect, Adam possesses significant experience working on ERP implementations with roles ranging from technical lead to the detailed design and development of dashboards, reports, process automation, interfaces, conversions and extensions. He has deep understanding of Infor technologies and data structures and has worked on many projects that range variably in size and complexity.

Since joining Avaap in 2008, he has been highly leveraged as the architect for Avaap’s portfolio of turnkey solutions and dashboards, built with one key objective to seamlessly integrate with Infor Lawson customer environment. Under Adam’s direction, Avaap’s product portfolio features 12 solutions designed specifically to extend value and capabilities of Infor software.

Adam has an impeccable consulting track record due to his strong technical expertise and hands on approach. Most recently, he has defined a methodology to reduce the complexity of migrating to the cloud and adapted Avaap service delivery and consulting to support customer modernization efforts.

Prior to joining Avaap, Adam served as a senior consultant at Bearing Point, a multinational management and technology consulting firm, and as a Technology Consultant at Lawson Software. Adam has received numerous awards for his work and spoken at industry conferences such as CUE and INFORUM.

Dave Schoettmer is the general manager of Advisory Services at Avaap, which includes responsibility for all Prosci©, Oracle, SAP, Tableau, Cloudera, Alteryx, and Snowflake engagements. He has dedicated his career to helping customers optimize performance and create value through enterprise technology.

Prior to joining Avaap, Dave was the founder of Navigator Management Partners (now Avaap) and held a variety of positions in engineering, operations management, and consulting with United Technologies’ Pratt & Whitney, ABB, and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). While at Accenture, Dave was a recognized thought leader in packaged software implementation and process reengineering.

Dave is an active corporate citizen. He is the board chair for the American Heart Association in Central Ohio.  He has previously held leadership positions with Mental Health America and Goodwill, and has made significant contributions to the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, the Groundwork Group, The Ronald McDonald House at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, The Ohio State University, and the OSU Wexner Medical Center.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton and a Master of Business Administration from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business.

Jim Carr is general manager of Workday at Avaap. He brings deep functional and technical proficiency with more than 25 years of enterprise software and business consulting experience. Jim is an established thought leader with a reputation for challenging the status quo and driving efficiencies in software deployments. Jim brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in creating innovative approaches to delivering consulting services.

Prior to joining Avaap, Jim co-founded and launched one of Workday’s fastest growing service partners, after nearly 11 years at Workday. While at Workday, he was the third consultant hired and worked with Workday’s first 125 customers. Jim helped launch the Workday professional services organization and served in a variety of leadership roles during his tenure. Jim was instrumental in creating the sales and services methodologies as Workday prepared to go public. He also co-created the Lifecycle Deployment Program (LDP) focused on Workday’s medium enterprise market segment. This approach has been leveraged by 1,000+ Workday customers.

Jim received his Bachelor of Sciences degree in Material Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University.

Larry Stabler is Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Avaap. As CFO, Larry is responsible for all aspects of Avaap’s finance and accounting functions including treasury, risk management, financial planning, analysis and reporting, payroll, accounts payable, and taxes. Larry has more than 25 years of experience in finance roles with multi-practice, project-based professional services firms.

Prior to joining Avaap, Larry was CFO at Optum Advisory Services, a division of UnitedHealth Group that provides consulting and information technology services to healthcare providers. Larry’s previous roles include CFO for Evidera, a healthcare economics consulting firm, the vice president of financial planning at OAO Technology Solutions, a former private equity-owned provider of information technology services, and the vice president of finance at Fluor Daniel GTI, a former publicly traded environmental services firm.

Larry has extensive experience working closely with executive leadership teams in a collaborative manner to develop actionable recommendations for streamlining processes and driving continued revenue growth. Larry holds a master’s degree in finance from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, earned his undergraduate degree from Middlebury College, and is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).

Melissa Prusher is Vice President of Global Marketing where she oversees all aspects of Avaap’s global marketing, corporate communications, brand, content, digital, and sponsorships.

Melissa brings a strategic mindset and more than 25 years of experience planning, developing, and executing marketing initiatives that authentically connect with customers and prospects through the sharing of brand stories that engage, inspire, and motivate. Under her leadership, Avaap’s marketing campaigns and approach to content have driven strong results in global brand growth and recruitment efforts.

Prior to joining Avaap, Melissa spent thirteen years in private practice as a content development and marketing strategy specialist for enterprise software vendors with an emphasis on best-of-breed HCM solutions, as well as supporting organizations in the healthcare, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and beauty and fashion industries. Her work has been featured in the Human Resource Management Journal, Workforce Magazine, Wall Street Journal and other business publications. She is the recipient of numerous awards including best business blog by American Business Awards, the prestigious Davey International Award for best feature writing, and a Platinum MarCom award.

Rebecca Workman is Vice President of Operations where she is responsible for the effectiveness, accuracy, reliability, security, usability, and updates of Avaap’s enterprise systems and architecture. She works collaboratively with marketing, finance, account leaders, client teams, project managers, and others to oversee enterprise operations, including commercial and delivery processes, analytics, performance metrics, and operational reporting.

Rebecca brings more than 20 years of consulting delivery, systems, operations, and recruiting experience. Prior to joining Avaap in 2016, Rebecca worked at Accenture (previously Andersen Consulting) and as an independent consultant for various businesses. Her professional training includes project management, client interaction and presentation, estimating, leadership, quality assurance, business process design, PeopleSoft, and human resources.

Rebecca received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Management, and French, with honors, from Albion College.

Robin Irvine is General Manager, Global Manufacturing at Avaap, where he is responsible for the sales strategy and delivery execution. A 25-year industry veteran and chairman of the M3 User Association for UK, Ireland, and Benelux, Robin brings deep IT and Infor M3 experience, with emphasis on the food and beverage and consumer goods manufacturing industry. He also brings experience in the oil, recycling, bio diesel, and pet food industries.

Prior to joining Avaap, Robin served as the global CIO for ABP Food Group, a multi-agriculture group based in 14 countries. Over the course of his career, he has delivered more than 30 Movex/M3 projects and served on the Infor Customer Advisory Board.

Robin was educated in Perth, Scotland up to college level, where he received his IT technical HNC certification and went into the industry to receive hands-on manufacturing and production experience.

Steve Eckert, CFCHE, FACHE, is general manager of Avaap Healthcare IT, where he is responsible for all Avaap HIT operations. Steve brings more than 25 years of senior- and executive-level leadership experience in healthcare, including strategic planning, organizational operations and transformation, system selection, total cost of ownership analysis, and enterprise-wide comprehensive system implementations. He has led successful growth and operations at multiple industry-leading healthcare organizations, building effective organizations, business units and methodologies while managing complex, long-term client engagements across the U.S.

Steve is passionate about driving positive organizational culture through integrity, trust, friendships, and “all hands on deck” work ethic. Prior to Avaap, Steve held executive roles at several leading healthcare consulting and services firms. In this capacity, he managed cross-functional leadership teams and worked with provider hospital and healthcare delivery systems across the U.S. providing multi-tiered, complex HIT strategy, advisory, and implementation services.

Dedicated to improving healthcare, Steve currently serves as Director on the Foundation Board of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), is a Fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE), and is a long-time member of Hospital Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).