APIs have been a crucial tool for programmers for a long time. Starting from the simple “Hello World!” program that uses the Standard Output API to display text on a monitor without worrying about hardware intricacies, we have been relying on APIs to avoid reinventing the wheel.
Wikipedia defines Application Programming Interface (API) as a connection between computers or between computer programs; as a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. Unlike a user interface (UI), which connects a computer to a person, an API connects computers or pieces of software to each other. Removing this “User” factor, brings about a huge potential when it comes to automation, accuracy, and reusability.
In the past, APIs faced limitations such as runtime environment restrictions, complicated remote execution protocols, and exclusive data exchange formats. Thanks to the emergence of open standards such as XML, JSON, HTTP, REST, GraphQL, and OpenAPI, the internet-based Web API ecosystem has become more inclusive, allowing for a more democratic consumption of APIs. Due to these open and relatively simple standards, APIs can be produced and consumed conveniently by different forms of computing devices like mainframes, cloud backends, personal computers, mobile phones, TVs, wearable devices, IOT devices etc.
APIs present a significant opportunity for businesses to deliver value to their customers and generate revenue due to their versatility and adaptability across many use cases. According to a 2015 Harvard Business Review article (https://hbr.org/2015/01/the-strategic-value-of-apis), Salesforce.com generated 50% of its revenue through its APIs while Expedia and eBay did 90% and 60% respectively. The significance of APIs is increasing, and companies such as Expedia and eBay are reaping the benefits from them. Even traditional businesses are recognizing the worth of APIs.
It’s all about Digital Transformation, the process of using digital technologies to create new or modify existing business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements.
“Digital transformation relies on an organization’s ability to package its services, competencies, and assets into modular pieces of software that can be repeatedly leveraged” – APIGEE Status of APIS 2021
With virtually every company striving to be digitally enabled, having a superior User Interface like IFS Cloud, which would make lives easy for regular system users, is definitely a big plus. But in the rush to Digital Transformation, customers need to “repeatedly leverage” the pieces of software and data in their possession to create different types of value offerings to their stakeholders. It’s evident that a traditional UI based system is at a disadvantage to cater to these different needs at the same time. Modern APIs and surrounding technologies are much more capable in fulfilling this diverse set of customer aspirations due to their inherent ability to be tweaked, reused, and repackaged with relative ease.
IFS Cloud provides easy to use APIs based on open standards out-of-the-box. This helps speed up the pace of digital transformation for our customers who can leverage these readily available APIs instead of developing them on their own to communicate with other software systems in and outside their organization.
IFS continues to focus and improve its API offering and provide customers the required building blocks to speed up their journey of Digital Transformation
SOURCE : Wickramasinghe, W. (2023, June 16). Why APIs matter. IFS Blog. https://blog.ifs.com/2023/06/why-apis-matter/
