API, a sustainable competitive advantage through connection
The opportunities that APIs offer to your business
Let’s face it, today “each company is a technology company”.
This quote by Peter Sondergaard, in my opinion, sums up well today’s context where an ever-increasing demand for connectivity and the need for immediacy of information from the public has led all companies, regardless of their field of expertise, to have to evolve in this direction.
This transformation, on the one hand shows the numerous opportunities for growth, on the other hand often provides for a substantial redefinition of relationships with suppliers, partners and above all customers. Facing a competitive environment like never before, companies have to plan their strategy well, to leave the easiest path and go through the most profitable to ensure a sustainable competitive advantage.
In some cases these two paths coincide.
A concrete example is the API (Application Programming Interface).
As many know, APIs are an interface that allows the developer to interact with a program, a website or with parts of them to create a specific action within it and/or to obtain certain data and information from them. An API is, therefore, a set of procedures and functions that allow to perform specific tasks such as interacting with a program and a software platform or allowing applications to access data and services within a network.
What makes an API so important?
The production and constant diffusion of APIs in every sector allows developers to create and expand applications much more quickly.
In fact, corporate IT developers can create APIs that allow other developers to reuse back-end data in new web and mobile applications.
In situations of digital disruption, then the APIs are used to engage the developer ecosystem, improve speed and increase internal efficiency, with obvious benefits for profits.
So how can I use the APIs for my business?
This is a question that I believe many have asked, even those who do not yet have a well-defined activity.
APIs are divided into private or open, depending on whether they are used only by developers within the company to create apps for internal or external use, or that are made public, accessible to external developers authorized to use them to create their own apps. In terms of economic advantage in the short term, private APIs allow significant cost savings while, if you look at the real business opportunities, open APIs are certainly those that offer larger ones. By making their IT resources available to third parties, companies can benefit from a consequent increase in their software usage.
So to go back to the question… Everything depends on the goals we set.
If we want to generate extra profit, we can use the API to facilitate the creation of pay-to-play or e-commerce apps, and also to offer existing services on new platforms, with the objective of increasing the customer portfolio or improving the company offer. APIs implement new commercial and marketing strategies, if they are used to realize new functionalities related to the “digital” field. Finally, they can promote technological innovation and, consequently, economic growth, if they are used to develop new systems that diversify the company offer.
In other words you can:
► Achieve a better customer experience
► Reduce costs and risks associated with IT
► Faster release of applications with high potential for increased turnover
Are APIs a perfect recipe then?
As we have seen, the use of APIs generates a clear advantage for your business, but it is not enough just to create APIs and wait for them to produce results. It is necessary to manage them, monitor them and guarantee a high level of security for themselves and their customers.
Moreover, the specific knowledge that allows the development of APIs is not easy to learn and often even professional developers have obvious difficulties.
My advice
As we have seen, we could therefore have some problems in the implementation and use of the APIs. But this should not discourage us or at least we should not let these possible issues do it, because, as we have seen, the growth opportunities that the APIs offer us are truly incredible.
My advice then, is:
► Clearly define the business objectives of your company,
► Define a budget that you are willing to spend according to your needs
► Hire a back-end developer or contact a platform that builds custom APIs.
► Start enjoying the endless opportunities offered by the use of APIs
If instead… you need a tailor-made offer and support for the whole life cycle of the API feel free to visit yourapi or send us an email.
We will be pleased to find the best solution for your needs together.
