Credit unions rely heavily on APIs to enhance member experiences. From online banking to custom loan journeys, APIs empower a more member-centric experience that helps credit unions win in the digital era.
Aiming to be “the last branch standing in the communities we serve,” CoVantage Credit Union built more than 100 APIs over 15 years. As time went on, CoVantage began to consider the idea of an API management platform to oversee APIs in a more standardized, cohesive way. That led them to Axway.
The state of APIs prior to an API management platform
For CoVantage, digital innovation and transformation have been key drivers of API adoption. With a desire to create a member-centric digital landscape of products and services, CoVantage had multiple teams build APIs to enable fast growth.
Each API was built ad hoc, with the process taking anywhere from four weeks to five months to develop an API. APIs were created for specific cases, which meant sometimes duplicating efforts to support future functionality.
There wasn’t a standardized approach to API security. In addition to making it harder for CoVantage to enforce controls, this variability also increased the risk of exposing sensitive data and causing financial losses.
These challenges are hardly unique: a new Axway survey of IT decision-makers found that barely a third of APIs are being managed by a centralized operations team. 78% of respondents didn’t know how many APIs they have in their ecosystem.
Other challenges included limitations in displaying the business value of APIs, and a lack of access to data around API performance.
Read the report on the state of enterprise API maturity
Goals of bringing an API management platform into the fold
CoVantage’s decision to invest in an API management platform was rooted in a desire to move beyond mere API connectivity and look at the value adds.
The business wanted to enhance API security, drive consistent API deployment, and empower API reuse to support faster API delivery speeds.
In the following clip excerpted from a recent webinar, Sean VanHandel, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at CoVantage Credit Union explains why Axway’s Amplify API Management Platform answered these needs and more.
From a business perspective, having a centralized framework also meant CoVantage could be more flexible in who they used and deliver cost-effective solutions in less time.
All the while, an API management platform helps open the door to API monetization opportunities that support new revenue streams.
Alongside these benefits, the new CoVantage Assisting Member (CAM) platform drove the push to adopt an API management platform.
While streamlining the account opening process for members, CoVantage saw the need for a staff-facing interface to complement these digital efforts and support staff engagement.
Experiencing the Axway advantage
With Axway’s API management platform, CoVantage has established more of an ecosystem for its APIs.
The business can now organize API security attributes and settings in a single place. Empowering the consistent enforcement of security policies across all APIs reduces vulnerabilities that keep information security officers (ISOs) up the most.
See also: Is it time to reconsider your API security approach?
There’s also the benefit of being able to reuse objects. By leveraging existing assets, CoVantage developers can cut the time to deploy API connections by one-eighth of what it was before having an API management platform.
With Axway, CoVantage has also been able to better demonstrate the value of its API strategy. They now have visibility into business value metrics like the number of API transactions, number of API calls, and actual API usage.
This level of transparency has made it easier to speak the same language as business leaders and get them excited about the value APIs bring to the table. Such metrics have also been helpful in conversations around monetizing APIs.