Demystifying the Role of APIs in Enabling End-to-End Visibility for Shippers

If you work in IT or software development, APIs—short for Application Programming Interfaces—are a hot topic of conversation. But if you're running transportation or logistics for an enterprise shipper or 3PL, you’re plenty busy trying to meet strict OTIF demands in an environment of dwindling carrier capacity and rising costs. You don't have the time to read up on the minutiae of every enabling technology.

So what do you need to know about APIs? Here’s a quick synopsis. They play a critical role in connecting your most important systems so that you can gain the visibility you need to lower your operating costs, improve on-time performance and deliver the great experience that your customers expect and deserve. APIs vary by tech provider, so it’s important to know how to evaluate each provider’s approach and capabilities.

What Is an API and Why Should You Care?

An API is a set of software components, tools and protocols that let two or more systems or applications talk to each other. APIs are not a new concept. Any enterprise system worth its salt publishes a set of APIs to enable two-way communications with other systems—e.g., one system can push data to another for processing, or pull data out of one system and into another to perform analytics and enable better decision making. The difference between cloud-based software platform providers is which sets of APIs they can offer, based on what they’ve developed through industry partnerships, and how frequently they fine-tune those APIs so other systems and apps can most effectively interact with them.

Consider a typical shipper deploying a visibility solution. They will want to integrate that solution with their Transportation Management System, their ERP system, perhaps their warehouse management system or payments systems, along with their carriers’ dispatch systems and the telematics systems on each fleet. APIs enable that connectivity.

Look for Depth, Not Breadth, of API Offerings

If you were building a table that required seven very specifically-sized screws, would you go to a hardware store or a general convenience store? It’s a no-brainer: the hardware store, with hundreds of screw types and sizes to choose from. The same principle holds true when choosing a transportation visibility partner.

As anyone in shipping knows well, we work in a highly fragmented industry—500,000+ trucking companies, millions of shippers and retailers, countless telematics types and new technologies springing up daily. What that means for a technology provider, and what we at FourKites see born out every day in our customer engagements, is that no two customer environments are identical. As a result, the combination of APIs that one shipper needs in order to gain real-time supply chain visibility will often differ from the combination of APIs that another shipper needs, based on the types of TMS, ERP, telematics and other systems each shipper has in place.

As a shipper, you likely need 7-10 APIs to gain real-time visibility, but because at least some of those APIs are different than what other shippers need, you need a visibility partner with hundreds of visibility APIs on the shelf, ready to be deployed, to gain true end-to-end visibility.

That's why having a deep collection of APIs built for real-time visibility is paramount. There are technology providers that offer a handful of APIs across a wide spectrum of transportation functions – from pricing to routing to tracking. But don’t be fooled; a solution that touts its breadth of transportation APIs without evidence of depth in any area is unlikely to have all the APIs you need. And without all the APIs you need, you can’t capture the value of transportation visibility. It would be like building a table without screwing in two of the legs.

Because FourKites is the visibility solution with the world's largest network of shippers, and has built and implemented so many APIs for customers' unique systems and workflows, we have the industry’s deepest library of tracking-specific APIs -- hundreds of them. Where we identify gaps, we take on the custom development work, and our API library continues to grow.

APIs Built for One Shipper Should Benefit Every Shipper on a Robust Network

Today's technologies (APIs being a case-in-point) have given us the ability to connect a vast network of shippers with systems throughout their complex supply chains. Cloud computing gives us the ability to push software updates and enhancements to everyone in the network—and this includes updates to APIs.

The more enterprise shippers in your technology provider’s network, the more you should benefit from the innovation and custom API development work done for any shipper in that network. Network effects play an important role here. You want to select a transportation solution with a deep bench of enterprise shippers so that you gain 1) a turn-key collection of APIs critical to a fast and seamless implementation, and 2) the ability to leverage the enhancements and innovations developed for every other shipper on the network (at no additional cost), producing continuously monitored and updated APIs.

Much of my early professional experience was spent on the front lines of TMS implementation projects, so I can quickly (sometimes too easily!) go deep into the technology. For shippers and 3PLs, you shouldn't have to. Look for technology partners with deep libraries of visibility-specific APIs, large networks of enterprise shippers, and extensive expertise integrating into shippers' systems, with clear and specific methodologies for pushing the latest and greatest innovations to everyone.