The Importance of Application Protocol Interfaces (APIs)

In today's world, people and businesses want seamless integration. Gone are the days when people put up with opening multiple systems in order to do their job or facilitate a transaction.

A decade ago it is alright to ask your customers to send payment to your bank account or e-cash wallet and let them send an image copy of their payment to your business email, and they wait for confirmation.

There are business that are still doing that today, but they won't capture tech savvy users who does not have the desire to open up another app just to facilitate a buying transaction or money transfer.

Customers like to do their thing in a single application.

It is the same for corporate applications. Due to the desire of corporations to streamline as much as they can their processes in order to attain cost savings, the need for integration is more pronounced.

Thus, systems should talk to each other and allow one system to access the other system's database, vice-versa or both ways.

These situations highlight the need for Application Protocol Interfaces (APIs) in order for systems to talk to each other.

Example of these implementations are the following:

1. Lazada or Shopee application allowing top-up or cash-ins from GCash without the need for separately opening the GCash app. You can authorize and authenticate a payment using GCash within the Lazada and Shopee applications.
2. Funding your Etoro account using your BPI account without separately opening the BPI mobile app. You can authenticate as well within the EToro mobile app or website.

We live in an API enabled world and all business need to know how to make use of them and integrate them in their systems in order to stay fully competitive.