API

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Appli­ca­tion Pro­gramming Inter­face (API) economy

Enabling new business and delivery models through APIs

API ecosystems enable the Right-Speed-IT and new business models by exposing internal and external assets in a standardized, well documented manner.

API is fueling digitalization

Digitalization is forcing companies to revolutionize the way they do business. Increasing customer demands, new industry players, and stiff competition present business and IT departments with new and quickly changing requirements to which they must respond or face shrinking market share and reduced revenue. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are helping companies respond to these challenges. And their importance will only continue to grow in the years ahead as new technologies and ecosystems, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), proliferate.

Application Programming Interface (API) Video

API for the Business

To stay ahead of the curve, companies must be able to quickly develop new ideas and products. Using a fail-fast approach, companies can accelerate this cycle by conducting an early proof of concept for their best ideas without committing too much time and money. Unfortunately, gaps between business and IT make it difficult to achieve this goal. Both have strict processes, such as demand and portfolio management, with long release cycles that delay the availability of results. APIs can play a key role in overcoming these obstacles. By providing standardized and well documented access to data and other assets within the company, APIs can allow the business to create new services or products with less overhead and reduce the time needed to move from idea to implementation.

API for the IT

IT has the responsibility of meeting the new needs of the business while also managing the legacy world. This double duty can result in delays, leading frustrated business departments to turn towards third-party cloud solutions that seem to offer greater flexibility. But this approach entails hidden work for IT, as integrating these cloud solutions into the legacy IT system only further complicates the organization’s IT landscape. APIs provide a solution to this problem. By creating an orchestral layer between the front and back end, APIs provide IT with standardized flexible interfaces to quickly implement business requirements using their own or third-party applications. By providing a reliable and stable interface, APIs can help IT win back the trust of the business, facilitate innovation, and establish a “right-speed” IT organization that balances fast changing user requirements and slower factory IT.

APIs are thriving

APIs are not just for today’s most trendy internet players. Companies across all sectors are using different types of APIs to modernize their IT landscapes, save precious time and resources, and adjust to the fast pace of the digital era. For instance, publically available open-APIs have allowed companies to exceed the capacity and creativity of their own developers by enabling thousands of external developers to create new applications. Internal APIs have also helped companies develop new products in a leaner and faster fashion by quickly incorporating feedback from the business.

Where Deloitte can help you

The API economy is growing fast, and there are many mature and enterprise-ready solutions available for implementing API management layers. But leveraging them most efficiently, and avoiding the creation of yet another integration layer, will require a proper understanding of your business and IT strategy, your as-is situation, and market and technology trends. Based on our broad cross-industry experience, we can help you implement your API layer by:
• Defining API enablement strategy
• Evaluating API architecture readiness
• Planning API migration
• Selecting API platform
• Realizing API enablement

 

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