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The starting point is to ensure your APIs deliver on business goals. After all, isn’t the ultimate objective of any technological initiative to maximize value to the business?
Sync up with the business
Far too often, the API strategy loses sight of its business objectives. Sometimes it’s implemented altogether without business goals in mind. Like many other technological investments, API initiatives are often driven by IT rather than business requirements—making them hard to justify from an ROI perspective. As the API technology footprint grows, IT leaders risk ending up with runaway API portfolios that produce little value for the business. Worse still, many don’t even measure business value, leaving themselves unaware and exposed.
Encourage IT to report on business KPIs
Once the IT team has streamlined their API strategy to target APIs that deliver on business goals, you’re primed to foster a culture of effective communication between IT and business stakeholders.
Achieve this by encouraging IT teams to regularly report on API performance in terms of value to the business. Not only does this encourage a business-first approach to APIs, but it also empowers your IT teams to fully own these KPIs and the associated business value—giving them the leverage to secure the funding and recognition they deserve. On the flip side, you also ensure that they are held accountable and are delivering consistently for the business. It’s a win-win!
Reaping the benefits of API management is simple if you begin with the right strategy. Consider how APIs support your overall business profitability, not just direct or indirect revenue. Think about how APIs make business processes more efficient, save time and money, and support or speed up innovation. Which KPIs can you implement to measure the overall contribution of your API program to the business?
An important step is empowering your IT department with a solid API management solution that delivers against both IT and business requirements. What does that look like from a technical perspective?
- Peril-proofing. Given the high degree of exposure that an API-first digital strategy entails, security is non-negotiable table stakes for any business’s API management strategy. Enterprise quality security protects your investments and ensures that your API initiatives are the topic of boardroom discussions for all the right reasons.
- One-stop mission control. With the right API solution, your IT team should be able to connect to and get value out of existing systems without having to rip and replace legacy investments. Not only does it equip the team with a single platform to run everything while surfacing previously inaccessible data and insights—it also unlocks new revenue streams.
- Comprehensive, end-to-end lifecycle support and governance. Given the tendency for APIs to pop up like weeds after a spring rain, it’s critically important to have a centralized governance and end-to-end lifecycle management model that ensures there is no duplication or gaps in the system.
- Optimize the API strategy for business value. Once you have the IT aligned with tracking business KPIs, you want to start making sure that they are boosting the broader API strategy to deliver business value. Business goals differ across organizations, but two that cut across most are (1) to reduce costs for efficiency, and (2) to increase revenue for growth.
