‘Full Life Cycle’ API Management Can Drive Competitive Advantage

As APIs become a popular part of digital transformation, adopters are finding API management across the ‘full lifecycle,’ adds to business impact and ROI.  IDN looks at the study from CA Technologies and Coleman Parkes Research.

by Yves de Montcheuil (@ydemontcheuil)

Tags: analytics API, API management, apps, CA, integration, lifecycle, mobile, security, study,

As APIs have become a core component of delivering projects for the digital economy, API adopters are increasingly investing in ‘API lifecycle management’ to better exploit their power, according to a recent survey.

 

A study commissioned by CA Technologies (and conducted by Coleman Parkes Research Ltd.) found 88 percent of surveyed organizations say they use APIs. Of those, an astonishing 51% reported that “full life cycle API management” support contributed to the business success of their API project. This contrasts with results for those using “basic API management,” where only 37% reported similar business success.  

 

“The group of most advanced organizations are seeing advantages in digital reach, time-to-market with new apps, transaction volumes and better customer experiences,” Rahim Bhatia, CA’s general manager for developer products and API management said in a statement.  Bhatia detailed several benefits from “full life cycle” API management, noting users can more easily:  

  1. Connect legacy and current systems
  2. Rapidly create APIs in order to safely expose data, integrate with back-end data and legacy apps
  3. Protect integrations with the appropriate levels of security
  4. Accelerate mobile app development
  5. Unlock the value of their “digital ecosystems” through analytics and monetization

 

These technology-related benefits from full life cycle API management also drove better business outcomes, the study found.  Among them:  

Better ability to drive competitive differentiation

 

Increases in both customer and partner satisfaction


Improved customer experience 


Greater transaction volumes


Expanded digital reach


Capable of more easily leveraging third-party developer innovations


Reduction in IT-related costs

Bhatia also noted the survey reveals that as APIs continue to be an important way to modernize a company’s IT architectures, APIs are showing they are the keys to drive business growth and competitive advantage.  "When the competitive differentiation is almost doubled with advanced use, it becomes clear that going the extra mile and investing in advanced capabilities throughout the full API life cycle results in the greatest value and success," he said.

 

In a recent blog post, Jackie Kahle, CA’s vice president of research and content marketing, explained the survey sought to explore this growing“competitive advantage” dimensions of using APIs.  

[The] recent research we conducted with Coleman Parkes not only confirms the business benefits of using APIs, but explores those who are most advanced in their use of API management and what results they are achieving. By learning what these advanced users are doing differently, we can map out a clear roadmap to improving business results using APIs.

According to the study, some three-quarters of respondents believe APIs have “significantly enhanced their customer experience” (75 %) and “digital reach” (73 %).  Beyond that, roughly one-third use APIs both to drive revenue (33%) and improve speed-to-market and innovation (34 %), Kahle noted.

“These results clearly show that API usage has evolved significantly, and organizations are now recognizing how critical APIs are to their external customer and partner initiatives.”  Kahle added.

 

The CA / Coleman Parkes survey gathered responses from 1,770 senior business and IT executives from large enterprises across 21 countries and 10 industry sectors.  Questions focused on how enterprises are leveraging APIs to amp-up their business to meet opportunities (and challenges) for what the company calls “the app economy”.

 

The full study “APIs: Building a Connected Business in the App Economy” is available for download.




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