At Axway, we believe in an “Open Everything” world: that the best digital experiences will be built on open API platforms, as well as API-fueled MFT and B2B/EDI solutions, which make participation in an ever-expanding ecosystem frictionless. From Open Banking, to Open Healthcare, to Open Everything, those who have the courage to modernize and open up their business have something to teach us about being open to opportunity.
Here are op-eds and company news you may have missed in February, along with top API and digital transformation stories from around the web.
Top API Stories
Axway released a global consumer survey in February that finds people are willing to open up their data if it leads to better experiences. It reveals a consumer appetite for freer data exchange – but only if individuals can retain ownership and security. Outlets from around the world dove into the numbers in their coverage:
85 percent of UK consumers do not trust businesses with the privacy and security of their online data, but 50% are prepared to overlook these concerns in favor of a better user experience. (via Business in the News)
The survey underlines that the French are in favor of a freer exchange of data, provided that they can retain ownership and security of their data.
“Regardless of the industry, companies need to stand out and deliver exceptional digital experiences to their customers while complying with industry requirements for data privacy and security,” said Yves Lajouanie, General Manager EMEA at Axway. “On the consumer side, however, is good marketing, a good interface and a seamless customer experience enough to win them over? That’s what we set out to find out with this survey of more than 1,000 French people.”
And in Germany, reporters note that customers generally trust Open Banking, and are looking for more freedom of movement.
“The results suggest that consumers are increasingly receptive to the opportunities open banking offers. At the same time, customers fear a loss of control over their activities and data when third parties are involved,” adds Lajouanie.
The survey also highlights some interesting regional differences, such as in regards to trust in data security, and especially when it comes to enthusiasm for Open Banking.
Read more about it here, and learn why Axway CTIO Vice Padua says securely opening up data while building on heritage infrastructure can help craft the digital experiences people have come to expect – while allowing companies to give us the privacy and security we crave.
Nordic APIs shares “20 Impressive API Economy Statistics,” and number two is especially telling: developers spend 30% of their time coding APIs. As the author points out, this statistic “reveals the necessity of tools like API testing and no-code or low-code programming environments.”
Axway Catalyst Brian Otten shares some ways tech can make supply chain solutions more agile in Toolbox:
“We can see the ability to package up business capabilities with APIs as the first step to automation. We often preach API-first ecosystems because they are intrinsically linked to digital strategy and the means to ensure that you merge your business model with the technology. Creating a digital platform where you can take your world-class products and services and make them consumable and reusable means you can extend your products and services and make them all easier to work in new ways.” — Brian Otten
As the global API ecosystem rapidly expands, Michael Isbitski discusses how companies are wrestling with the problem of API sprawl. He cites Axway’s report on API complexity, which shows the average enterprise uses three different API management offerings, with the number expected to grow to five for some organizations by 2023.
If, however, organizations manage to tame API complexity, an API-first approach can help them build APIs in hours or days rather than weeks or months, enabling them to deliver over 40 digital projects in a year. Read more on Security Boulevard.
The Business of APIs
We’ve been saying it for a while now: it’s not about API creation or even management anymore: it’s about driving their consumption.
As Axway CEO Patrick Donovan wrote, “When you treat APIs as a product, you realize that it has no value if it just sits unused in a repository somewhere. Its value doesn’t really surface until it is discovered and starts being consumed.”
And consumption leads to real value. Matthias Biehl of API University shares a crash course on how to make money with APIs, suggesting 5 Patterns for API Monetization.
In an op-ed, Mourad Jaakou explains how APIs can help modernize your IT more efficiently, without needing to replace everything:
“Companies need to have a clear interface strategy in place that makes it easy to create, manage, and consume APIs,” says Jaakou. “As with modern IT architectures in general, the goal should be to stop building systems and start cultivating ecosystems. In other words, centralize as much as necessary and decentralize as much as possible to deliver more value to the business through application interactions.”
Read the full article on ZDNet.fr.
Learn why centralized control can help combat the API complexity that is real, growing, and holding enterprises back.
Finally, in an IDG Connect profile Axway CTIO Vince Padua and discusses what makes an effective tech strategy and why, in the future, Chief Technology Officers will need to be very in tune with what the business expects, to grow and ultimately deliver a great customer experience.
February Events
For the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on February 11th, Ann Lloyd, VP Customer Success & Experience at Axway, discussed what it will take to create a more female-friendly tech industry.
“At Axway we champion the incredible women working with us and in our industry. We challenge businesses to join the discussion, to open the conversation up to their employees and share ideas on how we can improve as a sector and support women and girls who hope to enter the industry,” said Lloyd.
Read what practical steps Lloyd and other STEM leaders believe we can take to make meaningful progress for gender inclusivity in the article by DiversityQ.
Axway participated in the international Data Sovereignty Conference in Warsaw, organized by OVHcloud, on February 17th. The event focused on data security, data sovereignty, and digitization in the healthcare sector. The conference gathered many experts, and during the meeting there was also a competition for Polish startups from the eHealth industry. Axway’s Radovan Kratky participated in a panel discussion about challenges, difficulties, and forecasts for data processing in healthcare. Read more here (in Polish).
On February 16th, Axway’s Open Business Factory members met at the Ritz to discuss digital marketplaces.
How to reposition your business by developing your own marketplace? What collaboration should you have with your ecosystem? “Business as a service” and/or “Business as a platform”? Emerging technologies? If you’re wondering about how to navigate these topics, contact the Axway Catalysts.
The group will meet again on Wednesday, April 13th for a breakfast debate at the Ritz on the topic of “Managing the ecological transition.”
While we’re on the topic of sustainability, Axway’s Eric Horesnyi hosted a fascinating discussion last month about the uptick in green fintechs using APIs to create solutions that directly address the impacts of technology on the climate, the need for environmentally friendly solutions, and a move to a circular economy. Read up on the topic here, or catch the replay on demand here.
Axway is also proud to be included once again in the SOLAINN 300 benchmark.
More than a list, the SOLAINN 300 is an initiative for digital suppliers and customers that highlights more than 500 solutions from 300 French companies. It is the most complete repository dedicated to solutions developed by French companies.
Open Banking & Finance
January 13, 2018 was the launch date of Open Banking in the UK after years of wrangling between banks, regulators, and fintechs, and it’s now been four years of Open Banking in the country.
Charlotte Crosswell, Chair and Trustee of the OBIE, Eyal Sivan, Axway’s Head of Open Banking, and Yasamin Karimi, Head of Product at Codat joined a roundtable discussion on the Money Talks podcast where they looked back at the successes and shortfalls of the project, and consider the next four years of the ambitious plan to unlock our financial data.
Listen to the Money Talks episode here.
Another milestone: Open Banking now has more than five million users in the UK. FinExtra reports that in part, tax payments through “Pay by bank” are driving the growth in numbers, taking the total number of payments made via open banking to 3.86m in January 2022 – an increase of 19.3% from December 2021.
Sivan points out it’s an incredible milestone for UK Open Banking, and the tax payment use case is a wonderful example of open banking’s practical real-world benefits – and helping to accelerate adoption.
He also offers some recommended reading on how to measure the success of open banking overall. “Birch shares some fascinating stats about the open banking movement in recent years, contextualizing the information with plenty of insights,” says Sivan.
“The success of Open Banking should be measured not by account switching but by the growth of the ecosystem. Here, the data shows significant growth at every point in value network. The number of API calls was 60 million or so in 2018, six billion or so in 2020 and I am sure the 2021 figures will show further substantial increases.” – David Birch
Read the article here on Forbes.
Healthcare
Fierce Healthcare reports that healthcare data breaches hit an all-time high in 2021, impacting 45M people. Reporter Heather Landi notes a silver lining however: that number declined slightly over the second half of 2021, although it’s unclear yet whether the trend will continue.
It is interesting to note that the actors being targeted seem to be shifting. While most breaches were historically reported against healthcare providers, HHS data indicate:
- Attacks against health plans jumped nearly 35% from 2020 to 2021
- Attacks against third-party vendors increased nearly 18% from 2020 to 2021.
- Cyberattacks against providers actually declined slightly after peaking in 2020.
As the interoperability rule and other regulations continue to roll out in the United States, Axway VP of Healthcare Ruby Raley stresses that healthcare partners must transform how they think of integration.
As cybersecurity risks continue, they are going to need proven API Management systems that can secure APIs and manage traffic, as patients come to expect more connected services.
The risk is likely to go up for organizations that aren’t implementing API security practices from the start, but there is also immense opportunity: according to Grandview research, the global healthcare API market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6.3% from 2020 to 2027.
Security & Quality
As Francois Lascelles says, “Zero Trust principles should dictate that every API be classified as public, since the perimeter can no longer constitute the basis of security.” On Medium this month, Saber Omrani expands on the theme, arguing developers should design private APIs as if they are public.
Victor Ionascu, engineering manager at Axway, spoke about how measurements can be used to create a better testing strategy at QA Challenge Accepted 2021. He explained how introducing a measurement called “defect mass” helped a project find the most impacted areas by developments and decide how many tests should be run for each impacted area. Info Q dives deeper into the topic with Ionascu with a Q&A here.
And to wrap up the month, Axway’s Emmanuel Methivier pens an op-ed where he discusses the ROI of APIs, important governance principles, and how to reinforce API security.
“Within the framework of an extended IT system, security principles are bound to evolve. Platform operators, who are responsible for the data and processing carried out by their ecosystems, must propose new tools and processes to ensure compliance with regulations (GDPR, confidentiality), without compromising the use of exposed services,” says Methivier. “Opening up systems in this multiplication of digital exchanges and partnerships (via APIs) makes reinforcing the security level of the platforms exchanging this data imperative, as they are positioned as the fuse box of your IT.”
That about covers it for our February API News roundup, thank you for reading, and stay tuned for more API and digital transformation headlines next month!
You can always find the latest Axway news in our Newsroom.
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