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BUSINESS BENEFITS OF APIs
Here are some business benefits about APIs
Table of contents
APIs are more than just an interface that sits on a server and accepts requests and delivers responses. It’s not just about what they do or how they do it; we need to understand what it enables (business value).
Business goals (the goals you want to achieve using an API) - Digital Reach (the extent to which your API scaled) - Business Results (how well you achieved your objective) - Data-driven Insights = API Digital Feedback Loop.
Business Benefits
New Revenue: APIs can be a new business channel to offer monetized access to data and services. E.g., google, Twilio etc. It is possible to generate new revenues, but it is not easy.
Reach and Retention: APIs allow content and service providers to reach captive audiences where they spend their time. Being able to embed your services on any channel(devices). E.g., NPR, eBay etc.
Faster Partnerships: Well-documented, usable APIs allow partners to onboard themselves in record time. E.g, kayak, green button alliance, etc.
Mobile and omnichannel: Offering services through APIs is the best way to provide a consistent digital experience across all channels. Also known as having an omnichannel. Provide comprehensive APIs. You can seamlessly switch from one device to the other without losing your data. E.g., American eagle, capital one, etc.
Interaction analysis: Having customers and partners access services through APIs creates a digital feedback loop, allowing real-time analysis of user behaviour. A lot of value in APIs comes from understanding your customers better. E.g., MasterCard, etc.
Outsourced innovation: Providing a public API can lead to unanticipated innovation from third-party developers. When developers start using, they might identify more uses of your API. E.g., Netflix, etc.
Self-service Integration: An API-enabled enterprise allows more rapid integration of disparate business capabilities and the assembly of new products. E.g., amazon etc.
Organizational Agility: Adoption of an “API First” engineering philosophy along with a microservice architecture maximizes delivery speed, system stability and scalability. You can reduce dependencies in the organization and makes it easier to scale systems. E.g., Netflix, HBC, SoundCloud etc.
Case Study
Amazon
API became the means of connecting the entire organization. Frontend designers could easily look up the available endpoints without asking backend developers for access to the code. That is why documentation is important. Every team had to decouple and define their resources to make them available via an API; each team became a partner of the other. It made them able to branch out into different aspects with ease, from a book retailer to the biggest company in the world.
Disney magic bands
The magic band is just a chip, all the magic happens at the API level. Omnichannel benefits of API.
Conclusion
By exposing your data as an API-enabled asset, you can gain a new route to market, new methods of customer engagement, and new revenue streams.
Other values of APIs come from how you can understand your customers better through their use of your APIs.