According to a recent research conducted by Coleman Parkes, with 1,770 senior IT and business executives in 21 countries and 10 vertical sectors, 88% of companies are using APIs. Clearly, organizations recognize the importance of APIs to success in the app economy.
But using APIs is just the start. The research defined an “API Maturity Model,” which ranked companies by their progress in taking a full lifecycle approach to API management. How mature is your organization’s use of APIs? Are you an API grownup?
Download the full research report titled “APIs: Building a Connected Business in the App Economy”
https://www.ca.com/us/rewrite/articles/api-management/apis-building-a-connected-business-in-the-app-economy.register.html
2. Yay! You’re using APIs!
According to a recent survey, 88% of companies are
using APIs.
Clearly, organizations recognize the importance of
APIs to success in the app economy.
Research conducted by Coleman Parkes with 1,770 senior IT and business executives in 21
countries and 10 vertical sectors in May–June 2016.
3. APIs are great for a lot of things.
One-third of companies use APIs for
external growth and speed-to-
market.Percent using APIs for:
• Internal application development (42%)
• Integrating back-end systems and data (40%)
• Consumption of third party APIs for innovation and speed-to-
market (34%)
• External partner enablement (34%)
• Drive revenue (33%)
4. APIs help you grow up strong.
54% of companies believe their use of APIs give them
an edge over their competitors.
5. But APIs can be hard sometimes.
Top five obstacles to better use of APIs:
Time to develop an API 37%
Lack of skilled resources 37%
Ability to effectively secure APIs 36%
Ability to scale usage/manage performance 36%
Defining business value 33%
So what to do?
6. Time to step into your big-kid shoes
and take a full lifecycle approach to
API management:
Phase Capability
Strategy & planning Prioritization API investments
Development & integration
API discovery and access by developers
Developer engagement and support
Creation of APIs from back-end systems and data
Testing, deployment & monitoring
Testing of APIs in a production environment before release
Performance and security through runtime API gateway
Rapid response to API performance issues
Measurement
API engagement metrics and measurements
Processes to improve developer consumption of APIs
Security Advanced API security to protect against vulnerabilities
7. The research defined an “API
Maturity Model,” ranking companies
by how many of those capabilities
they had mastered.
Advanced (8-10 capabilities)
Basic (4-7 capabilities)
Limited (1-3 capabilities)
None (0 capabilities)
8. Some regions are not taking full
advantage of “grownup” approaches
to API management.
Global Americas EMEA APJ
Advanced 51% 62% 42% 55%
Basic 37% 29% 45% 36%
Limited/None 12% 9% 13% 9%
9. API management “grownups” are
doing cool stuff:
• 47% increase in partner and customer satisfaction
• 45% increase in transaction volumes
• 45% reduction in IT-related costs
• 39% increase in speed-to-market
Improvement by organizations with Advanced API
management
10. API management “grownups” are
also stronger in so many ways:
• Customer experience (89%)
• Streamlined demand/supply chain (87%)
• Digital reach (85%)
• Leverage of third-party developer innovation (83%)
Those reporting improvement
11. Isn’t it time you grew up?
1. Define your strategy. Take time upfront to define the vision, strategy, and
priorities for what you want to accomplish with your API program.
2. Measure what’s most important. Adopt metrics such as customer and partner
satisfaction and growth in transaction volumes to measure API consumption.
3. Engage management in business terms. Make sure that you can clearly
articulate the business outcomes of your API programs
4. Invest in the right talent. Publishing and exposing APIs to external developers,
and leveraging external APIs, requires different skills, and a different mind-set.
5. Plan for scalability and performance. To maintain a superior user experience as
your API use expands, plan for monitoring and management capabilities to ensure
that performance is not compromised
6. Implement robust security. Make sure that the right users, apps and devices
have the right access and build controls into your API program from the start.
7. Cultivate and nurture your developers. How easy is it for them to discover your
APIs? Do you provide sample code and documentation and support your APIs with
problem reporting and resolution management?