API Software continues expansion

API Software continues expansion

New campus will accommodate planned company growth
Hartford, Wis. – In 1982, Luis Garcia was working at General Robotics and was struck by the entrepreneurial spirit to create a company to automate the old-fashioned time clock, still found in many businesses today. Twenty-two years later, he employs 225 people in Hartford, Wis., and is expanding his recently renamed healthcare software company with the addition of a $7 million corporate campus. The first building on the campus will be 76,000 square feet.
Garcia started the company in a small office he rented for $250 a month in this rural Wisconsin farm town. Founded as Automated Peripherals Inc., the company was profitable within six months after landing its first contract with a Sheboygan, Wis., nursing home. Amoco Oil invested $250,000 in Garcia’s company in 1984, and within two years he was able to buy his shares back and regain full control of the company. His initial products caught the attention of large companies like NCR, Woolworth’s and JC Penny, who saw the advantages of automated time and attendance record keeping. But the challenges of doing businesses with big retailers caused Garcia to change his focus to the healthcare industry.
Today, API is considered an industry leader in developing payroll, human resources, time and attendance, and employee scheduling software for hospitals nationwide. The company has over 400 healthcare clients ranging in size from 500 to more than 30,000 employees, including Affinity Health System in the Fox Valley and Ministry Health Care in Milwaukee. According to Garcia, API’s president and chief executive officer, API Software had sales of $25 million in 2003.
Garcia is a humble man who is well respected and honored by local business and government leaders. He attributes his company’s success to “the quality of life and hard-working people in his local community.” He continually praises the loyalty of his employees and takes great pride in the training and careers he has provided to his homegrown developers, sales and customer-support staff.
Hartford’s mayor, Scott Henke, says, “API is the success story of Hartford.”
Garcia has big plans for growth, as the new facility will house up to 500 employees. This is double the size of the company’s existing office located at 310 North Wilson Ave and is now the third building in its history.
“We needed to expand to accommodate our planned growth over the next five years,” Garcia said. “We are proud to have called Hartford ‘home’ for the past 22 years, and as we continue to grow, we look to the local community to fill our professional and technical jobs. In return, we offer competitive employment packages and a stable family environment that boasts never having to suffer a single layoff during our corporate history.”