Updated No Excuses Guide To Innovation With Apis

_posts/2020-11-13-no-excuses-guide-to-innovation-with-apis.md

@@ -4,28 +4,27 @@ date: 2020-11-13 00:00:00 Z
 categories:
 - godds
 - UX Design
-author: godds
-image: godds/assets/featured/apis.png
-layout: default_post
 summary: Nothing is preventing your organisation from innovating today in order to
   keep pace with user expectations, because properly using APIs helps you escape from
   the bonds of your legacy estate.
+author: godds
+image: godds/assets/featured/apis.png
+layout: default_post
 ---
 
 I’ll start with a bold statement: nothing is preventing your organisation from innovating today in order to keep pace with user expectations.
 
 You may think you’re being held back by things like your IT legacy estate, but you’re not. When escapologist [Harry Houdini](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Houdini) used to unshackle himself from handcuffs, his astonished audiences thought it must be magic. However, the real explanation was that Houdini was a talented lockpicker and freed himself with a universal key hidden about his person.
 
-Similarly, there’s no magic involved in escaping from the bonds of your legacy estate – just the proper use of another everyday tool that you’re already using: the humble API. 
+Similarly, there’s no magic involved in escaping from the bonds of your legacy estate – just the proper use of another everyday tool that you’re already using: the humble API.
 
 I’ll go on to explain how, but first I’ll give you a sense of the benefits your organisation is currently missing out on.
 
-
 ## In with the new...
 
-“Done properly”, APIs enable you to build digital services in a different way, one that gives you much greater flexibility and agility. Think modules rather than monoliths. Instead of large-scale systems that are very expensive to build and prohibitively expensive to change, you can build small-scale features and product increments. You can bring these rapidly to market, enabling you to test new propositions with a greatly reduced investment of time and money. All of which allows you to refocus your attention on where it should be – the needs of the user. 
+“Done properly”, APIs enable you to build digital services in a different way, one that gives you much greater flexibility and agility. Think modules rather than monoliths. Instead of large-scale systems that are very expensive to build and prohibitively expensive to change, you can build small-scale features and product increments. You can bring these rapidly to market, enabling you to test new propositions with a greatly reduced investment of time and money. All of which allows you to refocus your attention on where it should be – the needs of the user.
 
-When I say “done properly”, I mean using APIs strategically, as “first-class” citizens – not as tactical, one-off technical solutions to meet an immediate business challenge. In this way, you can shape your IT to serve your objectives, rather than shaping your objectives based on the constraints of your IT. 
+When I say “done properly”, I mean using APIs strategically, as “first-class” citizens – not as tactical, one-off technical solutions to meet an immediate business challenge. In this way, you can shape your IT to serve your objectives, rather than shaping your objectives based on the constraints of your IT.
 
 And by building API services strategically in line with common industry standards, you begin to solve future technical challenges in advance, saving time and money for future projects and allowing you to innovate in response to demand.
 
@@ -37,7 +36,7 @@ Similarly, the Government’s ability to launch the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ sc
 
 ### Mining more minds in banking
 
-All of this has been made possible thanks to the common standards in accordance with which these API services were developed. Building to common standards in this way helps to break down silos – both technical and business ones – within and between organisations. Our client NatWest Group was initially compelled to build its Open API services in compliance with the [Open Banking Initiative](https://www.openbanking.org.uk/). However, it very quickly began to see the vast opportunities its APIs presented to create new propositions, and to unify existing ones along with the disparate, monolithic systems that support them. 
+All of this has been made possible thanks to the common standards in accordance with which these API services were developed. Building to common standards in this way helps to break down silos – both technical and business ones – within and between organisations. Our client NatWest Group was initially compelled to build its Open API services in compliance with the [Open Banking Initiative](https://www.openbanking.org.uk/). However, it very quickly began to see the vast opportunities its APIs presented to create new propositions, and to unify existing ones along with the disparate, monolithic systems that support them.
 
 The connections could go even further, to the benefit of customers – that’s the promise of Open Finance. If it takes off, Open Finance could build on Open Banking and result in innovative services that use Open APIs to connect a much wider range of financial products and services – including pensions, mortgages and consumer credit. This could give customers much greater visibility and control over their finances. And in the next five years or so, the UK’s energy sector is likely to go through a similar transformation.
 
@@ -49,20 +48,19 @@ In this new ecosystem, the UK’s banks are realising that they don’t have to
 
 Open APIs generate a similar scale of innovation and value generation in the public sector too. About ten years ago, Transport for London made large amounts of its non-personal data – such as timetables, service status and disruption – available for anyone to use free of charge via Open APIs. In 2017, [Deloitte measured the economic and social value](http://content.tfl.gov.uk/deloitte-report-tfl-open-data.pdf) generated for Londoners by these APIs and quantified it at £130M a year in benefits and savings.
 
-
 ## ...Out with the old
 
 I started by saying that all of this potential for innovation is available to you today, and I meant it. The colossal scale of legacy IT makes it appear a dead weight, to escape from which would require a vast effort. But used strategically, APIs offer the equivalent of Houdini’s concealed key.
 
-The problem is that for a long time, APIs have just been used tactically – a kind of salve offering a temporary relief from the chafing of the handcuffs. Using APIs to prolong the life of a legacy system simply adds to your organisation’s dependency on the legacy system. 
+The problem is that for a long time, APIs have just been used tactically – a kind of salve offering a temporary relief from the chafing of the handcuffs. Using APIs to prolong the life of a legacy system simply adds to your organisation’s dependency on the legacy system.
 
 Over time, these legacy system lifelines become a tangled mess, increasing your maintenance overheads. So, what’s the solution?
 
 ### Liberation through isolation
 
-The solution is to use APIs not to integrate with legacy systems, but to isolate them. 
+The solution is to use APIs not to integrate with legacy systems, but to isolate them.
 
-Clearly, this does not free you from legacy in a single bound. But your mind is instantly freed, allowing you to plan without your thinking being in any way constrained by legacy. You use APIs to isolate part or all of a legacy system, abstracting away from it and introducing control as you develop new features, products and services. Rather than using an API to expose value from the legacy system, the API itself becomes the value driver. The legacy system remains unchanged, meaning that no new dependencies are added. 
+Clearly, this does not free you from legacy in a single bound. But your mind is instantly freed, allowing you to plan without your thinking being in any way constrained by legacy. You use APIs to isolate part or all of a legacy system, abstracting away from it and introducing control as you develop new features, products and services. Rather than using an API to expose value from the legacy system, the API itself becomes the value driver. The legacy system remains unchanged, meaning that no new dependencies are added.
 
 In this way, APIs become a key tool in your incremental migration from your legacy systems. They allow you to maintain a level of service from your isolated legacy system even as you replace it, thereby unshackling you from lock-in.
 
@@ -72,8 +70,4 @@ And with this control, you’re free to innovate and experiment. You can test ou
 
 ## Get started today
 
-To help you get started in using APIs properly, have a read of my new white paper, [Open your eyes to APIs]({{site.baseurl}}/godds/assets/white-papers/open-your-eyes-to-apis.pdf). 
-
-You can also [access recordings here](https://www.scottlogic.com/apis) of some of our recent webinars on the topic, and find out how we can support you on your journey.
-
-
+To help you get started in using APIs properly, have a read of my new white paper, [Open your eyes to APIs](%7B%7Bsite.baseurl%7D%7D/godds/assets/white-papers/open-your-eyes-to-apis.pdf).