Transform your Business with Innovative Technology

Innovative technologies are changing the nature of how businesses are run. Even small-scale tech adoption can make a huge impact – the use of readily-available APIs in particular are a great option for many small businesses. Because of their easy implementation, APIs can help enhance your products and services without added strain on your tech team.

APIs are playing an increasingly crucial role in small businesses, particularly in helping them offer a better customer experience, enhancing the way they collaborate and innovate, as well as simply streamlining business operations. They facilitate much of what customers do online – whether placing a food order, making a holiday booking or even rating a product. In short, APIs help us with much of the online interactivity we often take for granted.

For the uninitiated, APIs – or Application Programming Interfaces – are a list of operations that developers can use, with short descriptions of what they do. For example, if your company is developing an iPhone app which allows users to take photos with the iPhone’s camera, you don’t have to write the camera interface from scratch. Instead, your developer can use the camera API to embed the iPhone’s built-in camera within your app.

Improving the customer experience

Similarly, APIs available in the market can go a long way in helping smaller businesses provide their own customers with a better user experience. APIs allow small businesses to identify areas in which they can better serve their own customers, and to better understand what makes their customers tick.

For example, when browsing rental cars for a road trip, users would usually indicate the number of passengers, rental dates and the type of vehicle they wish to rent. When a user clicks “search”, the website will interact with the APIs of each car rental company, before presenting them with options that suit their needs. APIs are essentially responsible for sharing information between applications, databases and devices.

By providing functions that provide greater convenience and access to more information, small businesses can empower their own customers to choose products and services that best suit their needs.

Encouraging communication and collaboration

The number of publicly-available APIs has been growing rapidly year after yearⁱ – a trend that shows no sign of letting up. The advent of new, innovative APIs means businesses have more options to choose from than ever – and the ability to access and share vast amounts of information with one another.

Some DBS APIs, for example, provide access to information such as transaction analytics – which include customer spending patterns over specified time periods – while others provide demographical information on users. Such APIs are a valuable resource which help to foster communication and collaboration between companies, which in turn drives more innovation.

Innovation for a better customer experience

This is particularly significant as companies with a culture of innovation have a valuable competitive edge over their rivals: their continued ability to serve their customers well.

APIs allow companies to respond swiftly to changing customer needs and to provide them with up-to-date, timely information. Businesses in the finance industry, for example, could find it valuable to provide real-time access to financial market information such as forex rates. There are also APIs that enable the exchange of information between systems such as payment confirmations – this means companies can manage their workforce efficiently to focus on higher value tasks and responsibilities. Without the inconvenience of reinventing the wheel by writing their own interface, businesses can free themselves up to do what they do best – creating innovative products and services that appeal to their customer base.

Embracing technology for business transformation

To take advantage of readily available technologies such as APIs, it’s important to think about the goals you want to achieve through technology adoption. These could be anything from boosting sales or improving customer service to providing more data to your customers.

Next, you’ll need to figure out how to integrate these new technologies with your existing systems. It’s essential to think about the types of systems you are working with, the policies you will need to implement, and whether your IT team will be able to work successfully with your management team to deploy and maintain them.

Even a small-scale tech trial could transform some of your company’s operations. With their ease of implementation, APIs can improve your products and service offerings without much fuss at all.

DBS Bank has a large repository of APIs which can easily be integrated with your systems. Whether you need real-time forex updates, payment solutions or even mortgage information, you’ll find what you need here. Check out our full API list today.

ⁱ“APIs show Faster Growth Rate in 2019 than Previous Years” ProgrammableWeb