Application Programming Interface (API) integration is not a new trend and is adopted by multiple contemporary institutions, ranging from financial organisations and IT professionals to government institutions.
As businesses start using multiple platforms to improve their operations, connect with customers, and utilise big data to identify multiple opportunities, API integration is becoming a key requirement to ensure smooth, sophisticated operations and to connect these disparate platforms.
The benefit of API integrations is that they allow all sorts of technologies and systems to communicate with each other quickly and easily, reducing the time and money you spend on your repetitive business processes.
APIs are far more efficient to use than developing an entirely new code for a new business process. Tech teams and developers can easily integrate an API into the existing code and have multiple platforms synced.
Latest reports reveal that nearly 90% of developers are using APIs in some capacity.
Here are a few ways how API integrations enhance your business processes.
Saves your time and money
The cost and effort of using an external API to connect to your internal platform are always lower than developing new features you need to perform business functions on your own.
Developing a new programme requires investing huge amounts of money and time, which you can easily re-allocate for more value-added tasks when using API integration.
Using an API may require you to spend some extra time on the implementation process, but in the long run, it saves a significant amount of time and money as developers can get most of the software functionalities they need to create new features from the APIs, without building them from scratch.
Think of having a new feature to track your sales. You can use an API to connect and transfer your sales data with an enterprise resource planning system. You can have better insight into every stage of the sales process, monitor inventory, and track which units are going out.
Even without a brand new programme, you can track your sales performance and get the necessary insights to complete more sales.
What’s more? Innovative APIs sometimes provide navigable interfaces that don’t require a developer at all, which means you have better control in processes like selecting mapping rules and connecting your data in a matter of minutes.
Automates your processes
Many API management platforms allow developers to templatise and automate the creation of APIs and remove the redundant work related to the development and deployment of new programmes.
But the business automation benefits of APIs don’t end there.
Other manual processes involved in managing multiple applications—like switching between tasks, going through hoards of customer applications, or sorting through multiple enquiries—take a lot of time to finish.
API integration helps address such issues by creating an effortless and smooth switch between all interconnected applications, making business processes easier to complete.
The enhanced connectivity between your multiple applications helps you automate and integrate your business’s manual tasks—you can ensure a smooth and seamless transition between the linked applications.
Enhances connectivity and collaboration
Contemporary businesses rely on countless new applications to carry out many different activities. But a disadvantage of dealing with multiple systems and platforms is that they provide disconnected data sets that hinder connectivity and collaboration between your teams.
APIs sync data from multiple sources so you can effectively communicate vital information among multiple platforms you use for business processes, enabling data sharing among various systems and applications.
The result is smoother workflows and better collaboration between your teams as they will have a single source of truth to look up to when carrying out their responsibilities.
Makes data-driven decisions
The more access and visibility you have into your processes and your performance, the easier it’s to understand how you can improve your business.
APIs have real-time access to relevant data that simplifies the business decision-making process—this means in-depth analytics into your existing operations, market insights, and views into your audience’s behaviour.
Thanks to the increased transparency and access to data, you can maximise your future opportunities, identify your bottlenecks, make accurate and sharper decisions, and ensure your business is always one step ahead of your competitors.
Provides a better customer service
APIs offer improved services for your customers with innovative platforms offering over 100 different services.
As APIs accelerate the interactions and functions of your applications—aka. the digital products your customers will interact with, like your website, e-commerce site, virtual assistants, or chatbot—your customers can experience a faster service.
Think of virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa known for their faster response time.
You can also make your website run more efficiently by integrating already existing programmes through APIs. As APIs take away the need to burden your website with programmes that make it load slowly, your website will be faster than ever without frustrating visitors.
Integrating multiple payment platforms into your website also enhances the customer’s experience and encourages more customers to buy from you.
Get your wheels turning in sync with API integrations
Merely investing in multiple applications and tools isn’t going to cut it in today’s market, especially if you have to deal with disconnected systems and disarrayed data that confuse your teams.
With an API in place, you can ensure that all of your systems are working in harmony, and thereby, build a seamless network of operations.
If you’re interested in learning more about how APIs improve your business processes, don’t hesitate to schedule a free consultation with our experts today.