Monday 29 February 2016

Going Digital

There is lot of attraction around Digital Engagements in Business & IT arena. Every enterprise have either started looking around it or have already started thinking about it. Let's get an understanding around Digital Engagements - What does "Going Digital" means to an enterprise and why they are destined for it. To start with, it's important to understand what Digitalization mean.

What is Digitalization - 

"Digitalization is a technology enablement of a business model that open channels for better business growth by placing prime focus on rejuvenating customer experience."

Does using API mean Digital Business?

Using API's doesn't mean Digital; it's an enablement towards it, hence focus should be to use "API First" approach. There is lot of misconception that using API's mean the enterprise is using Digital business model. Let's get into bit more detail to clear the air -

What are API's - 

I believe everyone know what API's (Application Program Interface) are but in today's world the term is widely being used to reflect REST oriented architecture (ROA) and the API management products facilitate in achieving the ROA. API's in an enterprise can be categorized in multiple ways but for the purpose of the topic I believe that below is what is usually the enterprise uses it for -


If enterprises are just using API's for making partner interaction better apart from using B2B products and SaaS integration API's to integrate with the SaaS applications they have subscribed to, then I think it's just part of the enablement journey towards digital and using the API Gateway product as first line of defense. When organization start exposing the data, content and Business Process supporting functions through API's that is when they reach next level of maturity of using API's and a level up towards the adoption of Digital Model

Multiple vendors have launched API management products for API life cycle management, Analytic around it and Developer/Partner enablement; let's quickly see what API management comprise of -


Most of the enterprise doesn't use the full API management suite rather just leverage the API Gateway for different category of API's. So just adding a layer of security or just using it as a proxy which probably is not the overall purpose of the product. We will see below on how other components of the API management suite adds value to the Digital engagement.

Then what does going Digital means?

Going digital means an engagement that is focused around rejuvenating the customer experience by -
  1. Knowing who your customer is
  2. What type of content customer is after
  3. When to reach the customer
  4. How and where to reach the customer
You can read in detail about above 4 point in here

It's all about customer journey, engaging with customers in such a way that they stay loyal towards your brand and help grow the customer base by further recommendations. To achieve the level of expected services, organizations have to build on below -



User Interface(Web UI/Mobile Apps) + Content Management + Predictive Analytic (fast data) + Digital Marketing & Customer Communications + eCommerce & Marketplace and API (working as a glue) technologies make together the Digital Business Model.

API Management covers the API, Analytic part and also help developers to test the web UI and mobile apps with the help of Community management module. It also provides the predictive information to the Marketing and other department of the enterprise to keep the customer engaged with the relevant marketing and promotions around the products. It's very important to get value out of the data, on-time and accurate, which is made possible by using predictive analytic modules by analyzing the customer behavior from the BigData that enterprise holds. It's obvious that "API First" is building block and definitely needs an early investment on API Management product.

However, Mobile application Platform, User Interface Platform and Digital Marketing product investment are equally important for the digital engagement of an enterprise, to make it true Digital Business.

Digital is Destiny, enterprises without a digital strategy and initiative will be out of the game. Competitors and new start ups with the use of digital technologies will have the upper edge to impress customers and attract them towards the new business model. If you don't change with time then you will not have time to get changed. So what are you waiting for, it's time to GO DIGITAL....


Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more..