Any good case studies of the effectiveness of public APIs?

[Peter Robinett]

Hello crafters,

Can anyone recommend a good case study or two documenting the business benefits of creating a public API? I'm talking with a potential client about exposing some of their existing public web-based services through public APIs, and while they're interested in doing it, they're also looking for assurance that there will be a business benefit. Does anyone here know of any published examples of companies creating public APIs and financially benefitting from them, particularly from non-technology companies?

Related to the first question, and giving you more idea of where I'm coming from, what kind of APIs would you like to see as an API user from a postal or shipping company?

Thank you,

Peter Robinett

[Dan Schlossberg]

Benefits? - how about they get to stay in business instead of being crushed by some one who does. 

Dan Schlossberg 

Chief Software Craftsman

www.softwaresingularity.com

(m) 678.361.6960

Sent from my iPhone.

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[Sam Ramji]

I thought PriceWaterhouseCoopers did a good job on their 2012 study: "The Business Value of APIs".  

It's a free download, based on interviews with enterprises and startups, and has some useful frameworks for communicating with business owners.

http://www.pwc.com/us/en/technology-forecast/2012/issue1/download.jhtml

Cheers,

Sam

[mehdi medjaoui]

Hi Sam, 

I think you wanted to share this link : (issue 2 is on APIs)

http://www.pwc.com/us/en/technology-forecast/2012/issue2/download.jhtml

Mehdi

2012/10/25 Sam Ramji <sra...@pobox.com>

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Mehdi Medjaoui

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@Maitre_Aliboron  

[Sam Ramji]

You're exactly right, my mistake.

Crafters, please use the link Mehdi posted: http://www.pwc.com/us/en/technology-forecast/2012/issue2/download.jhtml

Cheers,

Sam

[MattM]

Hi Peter,

I think Kin's blog (http://apievangelist.com/index.php) and guide (http://apievangelist.com/business_of_apis.php) are great stating points covering the business of APIs and the practical considerations on getting started.

Here is a good webinar from Kin and Elastic Path on this topic (Elastic Path has very good experience leveraging their API to great business effect) - http://www.elasticpath.com/company/news/2012/api-webinar

Regarding postal and shipping services, I've worked with a few companies.  Here are some interesting examples...

Canada Post has APIs for Rating, Contract Shipping, and Tracking - http://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/developers/home?execution=e1s1

UTi offers integration services for Order Management, Analytics and other functions - http://www.go2uti.com/

A number of Telcos offer APIs to be used for location services relevant in M2M-enabled vehicles - http://www.orangepartner.com/content/m2m-api

Thanks, m@

[Kin Lane]

Thanks for support Matt.

Also if anyone is looking for case studies on specific companies or industries, I'm happy to do the work.

It's what I do, and can generally get the access I need with most companies to do.

Thanks!

Kin Lane

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[Peter Robinett]

Thanks, Matt, those are a lot of very useful links. And Kin, nice work. Who knows, maybe I'll be in touch soon. =)

Peter

[Peter Robinett]

Thanks, Sam, that's very useful.

Peter

[Romain Bessuges-Meusy]

Woah ! The PwC doc is amazing... A must-read.

[mehdi medjaoui]

Hello Peter, 

We made a non tech evangelization slide deck about APIs with concrete case studies about open API ROI :  http://fr.slideshare.net/faberNovel/6-reasons-why-apis-are-reshaping-your-business

Our partner presented it at APIdays conference in Paris the 3 of December, the video is here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX7lS6BCEzM

It may be late for your customer of the 25oct but may be useful for the next ones ! ;)

Cheers, 

[mehdi medjaoui]

PS : All the content in this study is under Creative Common BY-NC-SA Licence, to allow for further contributions in the coming months and spread APIs paradigm as far a possible in the society.

[Romain Bessuges-Meusy]

These are really good materials to work with. I intend to present the business value of APIs to my board in mid january. I'll surely update that post with the keynote and documents I'll come up with.

Le samedi 22 décembre 2012 22:16:21 UTC+1, mehdi medjaoui a écrit :

[voiper]

Great slideshow!