Strategy Services

This post, part of a guest blog series on platform success strategies, originally appeared on Programmableweb.com.

Photo courtesy of printedelectronicsworld.com

APIs play a huge role in the B2C arena. For example, a retail API allows access to pricing data, product catalog, support and purchases.  These outward APIs ease the creation of apps, integrations, and robust consumer experiences.  Not to mention the ability to track usage and see trends with API management.

With the Super Bowl/awards season now officially over, we can look back and assess how this year’s season compares with last years in terms of social engagement and second screen usage.  Not surprisingly, social media engagement grew for all the major events this year.   The Super Bowl drew 30 million mentions/comments in the social media space, while the Grammys and the Oscars drew 19 and 18 million, respectively. 

Several lucky Masherites, including me, got to spend last Thursday and Friday at the API Strategy & Practice Conference in New York City.

For those of us who live in cities, transportation networks are vital to our day-to-day activities.  Since I don’t have a car, I am wholly reliant on New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).   Thank god they have an API.

This post, part of a guest blog series on platform success strategies, originally appeared on Programmableweb.com

To round out my discussion of enterprise API strategy, I want to focus on how enterprise’s can use APIs for internal usage.  I have already discussed how enterprises can benefit from exposing some of their data to the general public as well as customers and partners.  Those are the standard target audiences for API programs. 

Photo courtesy of zegosoft.com

I recently discussed what data/content enterprises can open up to the public through APIs.  This week, I want to discuss the customer and/or partner API tier.  This tier covers data that is too important to the enterprise to be made public, but is very useful to its customers and/or partners. 

The Yellow Pages Group (YPG) has experienced an incredible journey from phonebook supplier to online communications and marketing giant. And since releasing an API, the Canadian company and its business partners continue to enjoy even more growth.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about an API strategy specific to enterprise needs.  The strategy discussed in that post is one of dividing data into tiers.  Large companies have virtual landfills full of data, but not all company data is the same.  Some is public, some is for customers only and some is for internal use only.  The API strategy should reflect that.  It should have different tiers that are meant for different users.

Large companies have been a part of the API game from the start.  Ebay and Amazon have had APIs since the early 2000’s.  And now, more and more enterprises are developing API programs.   Large companies in industries as varied as retail (BestBuy), hardware (Cisco) and distribution (Coca-Cola Enterprises) are all creating successful API programs. 

Last week, Mashery Platform Strategy Director, Chuck Freedman, wrote about a few strategies to help your API platform achieve its business goals.  This is part two of that post, covering strategies 4-6 from Chuck’s Business of APIs talk, which he presented earlier this fall. 

4.  Establishing Effective Partner Engagement

Companies that back their API offering with a strategic approach can experience a measurable success. We guide companies with existing and new APIs to understand their business goals and implement or create strategies that drive success.

Talk of the cloud has been around for several years now.  Up to know, however, the majority of cloud usage has come from “transformational companies” (11% of companies accounted for 44% of cloud adoption in 2010).  This is beginning to change, however.