API Best Practices Blog
Engage customers where they are - at the edge of your enterprise »
Wayne Gretzky has this great quote -
A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.
A few days ago I had a great conversation with a big retailer (and with many other customers since then) about engaging customers on the edge of the enterprise and think it's worth sharing.
Today our systems of record in enterprises are ERP and billing systems. That will continue to be the case but the problem is that all these systems of record represent where the puck has already been - what has already happened.
We'd like to predict where the puck is going to be. Today, lots of information can be gathered and analyzed quickly, and in real-time. So you can know what your customer is doing right now. Based on what they are doing now, or have just done, you can predict what they will do, or want to do next.
We're talking about figuring out how to play where the puck is going.
Imagine, you are a leading retailer. A customer walks into your retail location. If they check in (Foursquare, Facebook, Google+, . . on their mobile device), and you have their credentials, you can know their profile and recent history.
Where have they been? Did they just leave Walmart or Tiffany? Their spending patterns will obviously be different.
Can you know from their Twitter stream whether they were grocery shopping or anniversary shopping? Knowing this, and correlating it with what they've already bought from you, gives you a perspective and clues to their intent.
Imagine if you can make this information available to a sales person on the spot? Now you've provided that sales person a context in which to interact with the customer. They're equipped to provide a great and customized experience.
The only way to make this happen is if your enterprise is interacting with all of the different streams of data that are available and correlating this data with what you already have inside the enterprise.
Use it all - data in the core enterprise, from outside the enterprise and most importantly from the edge of the enterprise (mostly mobile apps) - to make context-sensitive interactions for customers.
That's what engaging customers on the edge is.
Beyond the Browser: The API web »
Maybe it was because I was reading it on my new iPad, but really enjoyed this post by John Doerr and partners on TechCrunch last week.
Was struck by the phraseology 'beyond the browser' and that we're quickly moving " beyond web sites limited by browsers… to interactive, connected applications with incredible simplicity, speed, and fluidity.... that will transform everything."
Couldn't agree more, especially when we consider the next 5-10 billion devices sold (via Mary Meeker's amazing Web 2.0 deck below, slide 32) will not be PCs with browsers but connected devices - from the iPad to your Xbox or Tivo that don't use browsers but instead connect to content providers with APIs.
We are moving beyond the browser to the "API web", where much of your company’s web traffic will come from a non-browser source. Enabling the API web is our mission.
Considerations for ‘open data’ API programs »
In my last post I wrote about how the book digitizing effort is trying to monetize underutilized books online.
For anyone contemplating exposing data or capabilities via APIs to create new revenue streams, there are some important implementation lessons that can be learned.
Have control
In Norway’s Bookshelf project, their free online books can only be read online and only in Norway, and cannot be downloaded or printed out. Similarly, with APIs you need to have a way to control who can access your data and from where. API Identity, API authorization and other API security considerations are a must.
Make it (at least something) free
Google must operate under copyright laws, but it has found a way to freely expose extracts or snippets under ‘fair use’. Similarly, you cannot expect uptake of your content or capabilities if some of it cannot be consumed easily and en gratis. Give at least some of what you offer away for free to spur adoption. Technically, this means being able to control what can be consumed at a granular level.
Get started!
Google, Bookshelf, and Europeana have ideas about how they’ll monetize books they put online, but they are still experimenting with the right business models. Executives shouldn’t wait for an iron-clad business model to present itself… you won’t figure out the right model unless you are ‘in the game’.
Consider an API to unlock ‘dead data’ »
Book digitizing made the news last week, as Google announced a deal to digitize up to a million books from Italian libraries. Despite some author and publisher resistance, similar efforts are proceeding in Europe, including Norway’s Bookshelf project and Europeana.
What is the motivation for digitizing vast libraries of books?
Yngve Slettholm of Kopinor summarizes it well, “The vast majority of books are out of print and can be considered commercially dead.” “This creates an extra source of revenue for older books.”
What does this have to do with APIs?
How much ‘commercially dead’ data, content, or services is your company sitting on? Are you fully monetizing your assets? If you gave yet-known 3rd parties access to data or content locked in your company, what new business opportunities and revenue streams would be created?
That’s what an open API does. It unlocks data and content, giving it the potential to be consumed in new, innovative ways, and monetized. Via an API you can get the broadest possible distribution for the lowest cost.
One example of this is BestBuy’s Remix program; BestBuy opened the Remix API and now BestBuy can be accessed via mobile apps and in new ways and places where its customers are. Another example is Sears which has opened it's vast product catalog, and TransUnion, which made its core credit report and credit monitoring services available to 3rd party financial companies.
It is not always clear who will use the capabilities you expose or how. But one thing is for certain, if they are not accessible, they will not be used.
The book digitization efforts also hold some lessons for how to manage such a program, which I’ll cover in my next post.
SXSW discussion on API trends and adoption »
Ross Turk shot a great video panel at SXSW on trends in developer and API adoption.
Sam Ramji and Greg Brail from Sonoa, Laura Merling from Alacatel-Lucent, and Martin Tanlow from 3scale talk about what they're seeing in world of APIs, from the latest mobile and social apps to Alcatel-Lucent's Open API strategy for developers building on service provider networks.
Cloud computing is a double play »
Joe Weinman recently wrote that any business-focused CIO must first ask: Why do cloud from a business perspective?
Joe makes the great point that technology will only be important if the business value is clear and compelling. CIO's have a small number of projects that they can really focus on in any given year, and major initiatives must have a compelling rationale or won't get supported by senior leadership.
What could be more compelling to senior leadership than finding new revenue streams?
While senior IT leaders may still be concerned about being viewed as a cost center, and look to the advantages of cloud computing to reduce IT cost, savvy IT execs will find a way to help create new revenue streams for their company. A great way to do that is to create new business channels by opening APIs.
So why not get a double play?
You can do both… have a more business-relevant discussion with senior leadership about how to spur new revenue growth, as well as start to utilize cloud computing. Sonoa’s API management solution is helping companies like TransUnion Interactive , SilverPop, and MySpace create new revenue streams by opening their APIs, and Sonoa is available both on premise as well as a ‘cloud service’.
