The Problem: APIs Often Do not Generate Business Value

Most companies already use APIs to open up legacy systems and make data available in real-time. Yet, once the APIs are technically in place, they struggle to get back any business value.

The Reason for that Is Simple: Missing Transparency and a Bad API Experience

Exposing APIs in a way that makes it easy for customers to re-use them is often a long and painful process. However, missing transparency and a bad API experience leads to low adoption rates and decreased scaling opportunities within and outside your organization. 

The Challenge: Moving Away from Solely IT Operations

Nevertheless, most traditional API management solutions (APIMs) mainly focus on IT operations (e.g., API design & deployment) neglecting fundamental business requirements such as a marketing-oriented service description, simple contracting, and automated billing. Therefore, more and more companies like Daimler or Deutsche Bank have decided to build custom portals on top of their existing APIM solutions.

The Solution: an API Portal

An API portal allows companies to easily publish and share APIs, so that consumers can gain access to specific data and functionalities. By exposing those APIs to a broader audience, companies can open up new revenue streams (e.g., embedded insurance & finance) and even monetize their existing assets by a pay-per-use or subscription model. 

On top of that, there are many indirect ways which create business value: you can attract new talents by allowing users to interact with your latest technology or let external companies and developers build additional value on top of existing services.

How to Get Started 

1. Ensure transparency: Create an appealing and business-oriented API service catalog with a strong focus on your APIs as products, not as pure IT tools.
   
   
2. Improve your API experience: Offer a business oriented self-service flow to consume and publish APIs and enforce curation processes to ensure high-quality API services.
   
   
3. Reduce complexity: Standardize your API documentation, integration, and onboarding processes of your developers, partners, and customers.
   
   
4. Increase API adoption: Promote your portals internally and externally and link them to other already well-established API ecosystems like apinity marketplace to maximize your market reach.
   
   

Build or Buy? Our Recommendation.

• Build: Effort of about 10-20 people over 18-24 months
  
• Buy: out-of-the-box, instantly ready to use
  
  

Based on industry insights building such a portal in-house requires a team of around 10-20 people over a time period of 18-24 months. Therefore, out-of-the-box portals such as apinity exchange are a quick and efficient way to bring your API management solution to the next level without any development efforts.