Companies, big and small, are like sharks – they can’t stop moving, otherwise, they die.
Now, this doesn’t just mean you must continually grow your business. To survive and thrive, you need to constantly innovate, to constantly be on the move.
And Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) might just be the next move you need to make.
APIs are there to help you harvest the potential of the internet’s interconnectivity, to give you an edge over your competitors, and to digitize your business even further.
In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know about APIs and how they can influence your business strategy. Also read about resource management.
What Is An API Exactly?
Application Programming Interfaces or APIs can fully integrate you in the digital era. If you were to define them in one word, it would be “links.”
An Application Programming Interface links computer systems. Once a link has been established, these interfaces can access, manage, and use a digital platform’s data to fulfill a specific action.
In other words, while a user interface facilitates communication between the user and certain software, APIs enable communication between applications.
We can roughly divide APIs into three categories:
- Public APIs
- Internal APIs
- Partner APIs
If you ever spent more than 5 minutes online, you’ve stumbled across a Public API.
For example, have you ever logged into a certain app or website through your Facebook credentials?
An API did that. And that kind of API is public because anyone can use this software.
Internal APIs are specific programs used by one specific company and, perhaps, its subsidiaries.
Nobody else should have access to this software besides certified employees. They are usually there to speed up some development processes or internal operations.
Partner APIs are similar to internal APIs, except they are restricted to two (or more) companies that have already agreed upon their use.
These allow for a unified library of information and processing that can help minimize confusion and facilitate easier cross-company communication.
Now that we’ve briefly defined what APIs are, let’s jump to the next section in this guide and explore the reasons why you should use them and a couple of examples of what they can do.
How Do APIs Help Your Company (With Examples)
The crux of this guide will focus on just how useful APIs actually are.
By the end of the article, you should have a strong understanding of why having an employee or hiring professional web development services to implement APIs is so beneficial.
Better Logistics And Automation
There is nothing worse than boring grunt work. Filling out spreadsheets for hours, inputting data that, while vital, gets tedious pretty quickly. An API can handle that for you.
For example, let’s say that one part of your accounting department is gathering employee payment information while another is processing it.
Instead of investing in an expensive app, an API can connect these two parts, automate some of their processes and give your accounting department some breathing room.
Automating data management not only leads to more free time for your employees but also minimizes the chance of human error.
A Better User Experience
Let’s explore an example you are probably familiar with -—online shopping. What was once innovative is now the standard, thanks to APIs.
An API can make the shopping experience easier. Connecting a data-gathering app with your eCommerce platform allows you to give better recommendations on your app.
Some banks use APIs to make it easier for people to find an ATM. Other companies provide their customers with a personalized experience, automatically tailoring their offerings to their customers’ browsing and/or shopping experience.
A personalized experience helps people save time, make the entire buying process easier and less confusing, as well as provide info customers might not have had access to previously. All this can lead to 16% better sales results.
Gathering Data Is Much Easier
Since we’re already talking about customers, let’s see how APIs can help you learn more about your target audience.
By using APIs, companies are able to gather more data on customer preferences.
Connecting predictive analytics with data gathering applications can give you better info on who is buying what on your site, and why.
You get a better sense of your customers’ demographics, what products they prefer and what they avoid.
You can learn that people of a certain age buy several similar products together. One simple example is customers who always buy a set of skis together with a pair of winter goggles.
This can give you an idea about setting up special deals, bundles, and discounts.
However, you can also gather data on your company itself. Remote employee hours, their activity levels, and performance data can all be compiled into a single report.
Instead of your HRs getting five different PowerPoint presentations from five different departments, they can get all the info in one place.
Greater Collaboration
APIs can be extra useful for intra-departmental and intra-company collaboration.
Modern companies use more than 400 of their own applications. Sharing information between departments, and even within the same team can be very difficult.
Let’s say you want to have smooth and easy communication between your financial and your marketing departments.
Each uses its own app to track and generate relevant data. An API can connect them easily, allowing the departments to present info to one another without the fear of losing valuable information.
Easier Marketing
No company has unlimited resources. However, every company needs to grow and penetrate other markets and locations.
A translation API can make penetrating foreign markets much easier while minimizing localization costs.
Everything is connected in a company, and an API emphasizes this connectivity. Through the easier collaboration, we’ve mentioned above, you can get a new product out much faster, with its own marketing strategy already implemented.
As an example, let’s say you’re launching a new website. Instead of working from scratch, you can use an API to immediately connect your website’s checkout system with your accounting department.
It’s also much easier to connect social media platforms to your website with an API since you already have an older established connection.
Cost- And Time-Effectiveness
This point includes all the previous ones. A better user experience leads to more purchases, which means greater revenue.
Improved logistics help your employees save time, allowing them to focus on generating revenue in other areas.
Instead of getting third-party companies to handle your data, a properly implemented API can give you raw information on your targets on a regular basis.
On a more technical note, having API connections in place lets you save on the costs that come with developing proprietary apps for your company.
Instead of starting from scratch, your developers already have a library of resources they can pull via an API.
Potential Issues
Nothing is perfect. There are certain common API issues that you need to take into account.
Their severity varies, depending on your company’s needs and the resources you have invested in API integration and development.
The problems below can be circumvented with proper planning and resource management.
Dependency
One of the core problems with APIs is that most of your applications will become reliant on their performance.
In other words, if something happens to your APIs, it will affect all apps that are connected to them.
For example, let’s say you have an in-house PTO tracking app, connected to time management and a tracking app for your remote workers.
If the API glitches, it can mess with both, giving you incorrect data.
Management
Every API needs to be managed by a professional.
Having 10 to 20 simple APIs isn’t that big of a deal, but companies have, on average, around 360 APIs. While you don’t have to have that many, the issue stands.
The more APIs you have, the more resources (both man-hours and money) you need to invest in them if they are to be managed properly.
And management doesn’t just entail tracking. They need to evolve, get debugged, and scaled in line with your company’s growth.
Potential Security Risks
Due to API’s dependency issues, if your framework gets breached, it can leak out data of the apps that are connected to it.
In 2018, around 60 million users had their data leaked. This occurred due to a weakness in an API used by the U.S. Postal Service.
Improperly implemented, APIs do make your company a soft target for breaches.
However, we need to point out that listening to experts can help you avoid this issue.
The USPS situation could have been prevented if, as was reported, the people in charge listened to the experts who had been warning them of this issue for more than a year.
Conclusion
APIs are powerful tools that benefit your company in a multitude of ways.
Everything from collaboration to reduced costs, from innovation to a better customer experience, you can expect it all from an API.
Of course, the level of integration you can hope to achieve hinges on the capacities and capabilities of your company.
Still, investing in an API infrastructure could be a strategically wise idea for your business. You may read reviews of API infrastructure to get further understanding.
Author Bio
Rick Seidl is a digital marketing specialist with a bachelor’s degree in Digital Media and Communications, based in Portland, Oregon.
With a burning passion for digital marketing, social media, small business development, and establishing its presence in a digital world, currently quenching his thirst through writing about digital marketing and business strategies for DigitalStrategyOne.
