Why are more and more organizations using APIs?

The term “API” is coming up more and more in companies that need to organise data. And yet, there are still a lot of misconceptions about what it means to start using APIs. In this blog, we will be showing you the value that APIs can add for companies and individual departments.

Whether it’s data and services in web apps, mobile apps, IoT sensors, or any other touchpoints, APIs are the backbone of the business models of today. With an end-to-end API management platform, you can share your APIs safely and securely with your internal and external developers and manage the entire life cycle of your APIs.

The role of APIs

The role that APIs can play in your business can be very broad, because APIs are the links that keep our digital ecosystem together. They are equally critical for the consumer, the vendors, and the internal organisation. And now they can also be a new channel for products and services.

The added value of APIs for companies

Data integration via an API will save many departments in your company time and money.

IT
A lot of people think that getting started with APIs will mean an endless cycle of IT projects, and that making any change in the API will mean a lot of downtime for all systems. But actually, APIs start making things easier from day 1. With an API, you can get systems and components communicating even if you don’t understand all the complexity of your own systems.

Finance
With APIs, the finance department can fully automate accounts receivables management and make sure that all invoicing data is always up-to-date. You can, for example, set up an API to automatically send any outstanding invoices still open after X days directly to a collection agency. Credit checks of potential new customers can also be automated.

Customer Service
By linking the call center system and your CRM system, you give the customer service department instant access to the most up-to-date customer information, so they can be helping your customers better right away.

Marketing
The quickest and easiest way to supercharge your analyses and campaigns is to enrich prospect and customer data with an API. And this will also give you real-time access to the key business information of your customers and potential customers, which you can then use for marketing actions.

Sales
Potential leads from marketing campaigns become available to the sales department, and can be automatically delivered to the right account manager. And that puts them in a better position to negotiate on payment conditions, because thanks to APIs they also have full transparency on the company’s creditworthiness.