Digital Transformation

Summary: "APIs Aren’t Just for Tech Companies"

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"API" in center of the image connected to different aspect of technology

Application programming interfaces (APIs), the building blocks of digital transformation, enable mobile experiences, connect companies on the web, and enable platform business models. While APIs power digital giants like Amazon, Google, and Facebook, they also benefit small to midsize companies by allowing them to offer products and services through emerging platforms and are an opportunity that exists in every industry.

In “APIs Aren’t Just for Tech Companies”, a Harvard Business Review article, Tiffany Xingyu Wang and Matt McLarty discuss how companies that have been successful with APIs share common thinking patterns and practices, that is, the “ways of the API”:

  • The Unbundling Way: Dismantling and Rebuilding Business Capabilities through APIs

    Define the API-enabled capabilities and infrastructure needed to deliver innovative solutions, e.g., APIs helped Netflix achieve screen ubiquity and accelerated Uber’s move into food delivery.

  • The Outside-In Way: Designing and Developing with the API Consumers in Mind

    Analyze customer experiences and identify digital opportunities. Many fast-growing companies overload their consumers with too many product features as they bring new ones to the market. Stripe avoided this problem by continually evolving its API products to streamline the developer experience.

  • The Ecosystem Way: Cultivating a Digital Ecosystem with APIs

    Define target business models and external dependencies. Digital innovators use ecosystem thinking to chart strategies for sustainable growth and use APIs as conduits for value exchange within the value network, e.g., Airbus launched an API-enabled data platform called Skywise to help airlines reduce maintenance issues and prevent technical delays.

It is projected that organizations will spend $6.8 trillion on digital transformation between 2020 and 2023. The best way to get started with APIs and API thinking is to:

  • Start small and iterate

  • Form small, cross-functional teams of business and technology experts

  • Use the above-mentioned “ways of API”

  • Measure, apply learning, and repeat

Read more about APIs and how companies are utilizing them.