Digital transformation is nothing new, but the last two years have taken on a new urgency. It is critical for businesses to get started in digital transformation as it benefits the organization with stronger network infrastructure, increased opportunities, greater efficiency, reduced costs, and higher ROI. For businesses to go ahead with the digital transformation, they need to develop their own connected experiences in order to fulfill the customer expectations. API lies at the heart of the digital transformation that allows businesses to achieve all of this without having to commit large amounts of time and resources, allowing product and engineering teams to focus on other critical issues and business goals.

APIs provide free, secure, and efficient ways to seamlessly exchange your data and help to reduce the burden and simplify your business workflow. API is not just a technical interface but also a new business model and is a means of generating revenue as it has all the ingredients such as demand, resource, data, innovation, and adaptation. APIs also eliminate the need for the manual exchange of information across platforms, thereby ensuring that your valuable information gets exactly where it needs to go and when.

Here’s how APIs play a major role in digital transformation

Brings Automation

APIs reduce manual work, which otherwise requires a lot of human intervention. For instance, when businesses use the WhatsApp Business Platform, all the repeated customer queries which used to require a customer agent are now managed with the WhatsApp Chatbot. It eventually helps to improve digital transformation outcomes through technical efficiency, API innovation, and work innovation.

Easy Access to Data

API fills the gap for information or to the specific data which you may not be getting currently. APIs pave the way for interoperability, which includes accessing and exchanging data in real-time. It simply improves the efficiency of data that is actually made available for you. The data which you will gather gives you more clear insight into key metrics that will help you improve your business efficiency.

Enables Flexibility

One important outcome of the automation enabled by APIs is flexibility. APIs bring flexibility to businesses for agile digital transformation; they play an important part in the digital transformation journey and are becoming increasingly popular among businesses as a way to also speed up innovation.

Cost-Effective Technology

Businesses eliminate human mistakes (and human expenditure) from operational procedures by automating them. Even if a repeatable task is well-documented with a defined protocol, it is possible that different outcomes will occur when human workers conduct the task. On the other hand, if that recurring process is automated, it will be completed in the same way every time, boosting operational reliability and resulting in operational efficiency. API-enabled platforms are forcing a complete rethink of how we manage IT; we’re swiftly moving away from a process-driven, reactive world and toward an automation-driven, proactive one. This makes it a cost-effective technology for businesses.

Boost Operational Efficiency

APIs are revolutionizing the way businesses are operating as they also provide access to relevant risk intelligence data. By amalgamating the data from various sources, dispatchers can reduce the number of screens that they need to monitor. Businesses can leverage data and services of other organizations, lowering costs of obtaining and applying third-party resources through protocols and standard usage models. Organizations can improve transaction volumes by participating in external markets, which is a wonderful way to generate revenue.

According to recent technology trends, firms that move their data and apps to the cloud save money and increase accessibility. The world revolves around application programming interfaces (APIs), which connect to the telecom resources on the cloud. Building APIs and using them has never been easier thanks to cloud infrastructure. Most businesses are digitizing their assets and developing APIs to support them.

With all the emerging technologies such as APIs, IoT, artificial intelligence, blockchain, natural language processing, and many more, we know that there’s an enhanced focus on digital transformation. APIs help businesses to unify and structure data from across multiple communication platforms, leveraging it all to build more productive workflows, speed up innovation and features to the market. Eventually, this helps build modern user experiences for customers.

About the Author: Tushar Agnihotri is the Country Head India & Regional Head APAC at Route Mobile Limited, a leading Cloud Communications Platform service provider.

Published in Cioandleader –
How APIs play a role in digital transformation