When Luis Garcia started his company, Hartford-based API Software Inc., in 1982, he entered a crowded and competitive marketplace.
The personal computer boom was just beginning, and more than 30 firms competed with API.
API Software has outlasted almost all of those competitors, as only two or three remain.
API has survived by delivering new, specialized products, along with the technical support and customer service needed to keep clients happy, Garcia said.
The company specializes in creating software to track employee time and attendance, scheduling and other human resource needs for hospitals and health care institutions.
"Hospitals and their unions can sometimes have a hundred different rules for how to pay people," said Garcia. "That complexity adds value to them for our software. We specialize in health care, so we dig deep into the needs of our customers. It’s a big advantage to be an expert in the field."
API generated more than $29 million in revenue in 2004. The company has been profitable every year since 1986, and Garcia says revenue has increased by about 20 percent each year.
"Our employees are behind 90 percent of our success," he said. "We sit down with our clients and find out exactly what it is that they need, we make out a detailed implementation plan. Sometimes the plan lasts for 6 months to a year for everything to be implemented."
As the plan is executed, API stays in contact with the client to ensure that everything is working smoothly, Garcia said. If the client has trouble, API also has a 24-hour support line.
"We also guarantee that if it doesn’t work, you get your money back, and we’ve never had to do that," Garcia said. "We tend to cost more than some of our competition, but we have a great reputation for service."
Some of API’s growth has come from drawing business away from competitors by offering a high level of service instead of the lowest price.
"Sometimes I’ll talk to a client, and they’ll say a competitor does this and that for this much," Garcia said. "I tell them that I won’t lower my price because I won’t lower my service."
API Software Inc.
Location: 1550 Innovation Way, Hartford
Year established: 1982
Main products/services:
Provider of time and attendance, scheduling, human resource, productivity management and access control software for the health care industry.
Number of Employees: 244
Web Page: www.apisoftwareinc.com
June 24, 2005, Small Business Times, Milwaukee, WI
