Simplifying Technology (APIs, etc) for Business

[#1]

Pearson is in the middle of a digital transformation and the biggest challenge we’ve faced is connecting business to technology. There is a tendency to focus on technology for efficiencies rather than innovation. My assumption is this directly relates to the understanding of technology, i.e. it's easier to understand what has been done than what can be done.

Pearson is rich with talent and many of these people's familiarity with technology is from an efficiency perspective (editors, publishers, educators, administrators, etc). The question is how to unlock this traditional talent by showing technology as a tool to create rather than repair or simply automate.

I’m hoping to find examples of how technology has been presented in ways that anyone can understand, provides relevant metaphors/analogies, and shows simple ways in which technology is used for innovation.

[mleppitsch]

@Allen.Rodgers, this is an important topic!

Looking at this in another light, I find relevance in Peter Drucker’s definition of innovation, which includes “... the means by which the entrepreneur either creates new wealth-producing resources or endows existing resources with enhanced potential for creating wealth.”

In my mind, we’re talking about a spectrum - from pure art with little practical utility, to purely copycat ripoffs with no originality at all. In between are innovative solutions with many dimensions, and efficiency is an aspect of all of them. Tying this back to your thought, I’ve always thought that automation in producing, curating, etc. actually unlocks higher order creativity. Freed from the grind of repetitive tasks and minutiae, people can spend more time on design, communication, usability, customer satisfaction.

Perhaps in part because of this effect, many of our customers on that journey now uncovering a new challenge: that of cultural change. Employees have become comfortable over the years, for example formatting files to transfer between systems, or emailing and FTPing data sets to their customers using jerry rigged productivity software (yes, spreadsheets and such). APIs enable the easy automation such dreary administrative or repetitive programming tasks, on paper unlocking resources to pursue more fulfilling and creative work.

Turns out, some people do delight in their ability to move forward and create new products with new and more agile methods, or support customers in new and innovative ways. However, many others feel like they are becoming irrelevant, and resist the change altogether. AT&T is going through this, as in this article http://bit.ly/DTSPress207. So while enterprise executives now more clearly see a path to the future for their products and customers, the people and creativity side of the equation you bring up here is more complex than initially meets the eye.

My response is a bit tangential to your query, but in any case, thanks for the opportunity to comment!

[apaterson]

I've talked about it to business people by giving a couple of benefits that APIs bring, an analogy around how an API program can enable innovation and some examples that are bound to be remembered.

What will always be true and fundamental to your core business?

When working inside the corporate four-walls every day, it is easy to see things from the internal systems and processes out to customers via products and services (inside-out). I ask them to think instead about what their customer's are trying to do; what problems are they trying to solve?

Bank customers will always want to know their balance, regardless of device or channel or whatever-may-come. Airline passengers will always need to know what time they depart, at what gate. These things will always be true for those businesses.

APIs are a control point in a continually changing environment

Further to the above, the explosion of devices and screens and wearables means that the presentation or consumption of this information will always be changing. Netflix content is presented on over 250 devices. Backend systems are moving to the cloud.

These channels and systems are going to continue to change: good APIs will not.

APIs are the ingredients for Innovation

I like to imagine an inventive chef who grows up in England in the early 17th century. They have access to a great number of traditional English and French recipes and lots of great ingredients across Europe. Maybe they invent interesting new recipes themselves, however they will always be limited by the ingredients they have at hand.

Then in the mid-1600s the East India company comes along and suddenly they have access to spices and plants from far distant lands, and there is an explosion of creativity around food.

Today we are seeing companies leaning on the growing palette of APIs out there to build extraordinary experiences; while not always practical, they are certainly innovative. For example when you walk into a Starbuck and open the Starbucks app it can show you the song playing in store right then and you can click to add that song to your Spotify playlist. Or Emirates NBD's Fitness Account, that tracks steps via Apple Watch and links to interest rate: the more you walk the more you earn!

Thanks @Birute Awasthi

[ceber]

One of my favorite quotes:

“If you want to increase innovation, you have to lower the cost of failure” – Joi Ito, MIT Media Lab

APIs, done right, lower the cost of failure.

Joi Ito has a ton of great content that I think you could pull analogies from. Here's a fairly recent talk that has quite a few: https://www.ted.com/talks/joi_ito_want_to_innovate_become_a_now_ist?language=en

[dcouldwell]

One theme I've seen is how APIs can help you focus on 'what you're good at' vs 'what you're known for'.

As all industries get disrupted we'll see more and more cases of this e.g. Telecoms losing SMS market share and companies will need to focus on how they unlock their 'other' assets. This might be the data assets e.g. anonymised customer shopping patterns, infrastructure assets e.g. hosting to something else that they have built up as a core competency while they have been delivering 'what they are known for'.

Do you remember when Amazon was just known as an online book store?

[bkirschner]

I have been using the shipping container as an analogy. Prior to the invention of the standard shipping container, packing and unpacking resources or finished goods was a lengthly and specialized process. It made their global exchange time- and cost-prohibitive.

Prior to the modern web API, exchanging digital data or services (e.g., something as s simple as sign in with Facebook, pay with Paypal, or as rich as AI as a service) either took too long, involved too much specialized knowledge, or both, to be viable. It added too much of a tax on the data or service.

Like the standard shipping container, this standard way to "move" resources and services made that tax for all practical purposes disappear. Much like the container did for physical assets, modern web APIs enable any company to "source or sell" their digital assets anywhere.

[#7]

Good question, @Allen.Rodgers

Keying off your need for something anyone can understand, here is a metaphor that I use that combines the hotel experience and a broad definition of 'services'. Key concepts in quotes.

Picture yourself planning a trip to your favorite resort or hotel. You want to plan your stay to 'optimize' your enjoyment so you work with the concierge. He or she has access to services 'internal' to the hotel, like the restaurants and spa, and has 'external partner' relationships to use for activities outside the hotel, like event tickets and tours.

In this example the concierge and hotel are like an API and API management system. They bring together the required services no matter where they exist in an efficient way that meets your business need - pleasure.

Now picture the need to build an app for prospects and customers. You certainly want to 'optimize' how you go about it for efficiency and cost. Part of the functionality resides in 'services internal' to your company originating in its back office systems. Some of the functionality may reside in 'external partner' services as in payment providers and logistics. In essence, APIs and API management enable the easy and efficient use of services anywhere to build apps (or anything else) that meet business objectives.