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World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) API Days 2023 Ecosystem-focused API strategy

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This is a summary of Marjukka Niinioja's talk.

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Watch the presentation as video

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Enable innovation and data flows

What is your goal: Modernize legacy architectures and organization?  Grow business profitably?

• Improve API and data quality
• Improve development speed and quality
• Clarify operating model: roles, processes and ways of working around APIs and data
• Innovate with APIs and data
• Leverage new technologies like cloud, AI/ML, IoT, OT, blockchain
• Develop ecosystems
• Enable online and hybrid sales channels
• Bring more revenue with the right API-enabled business strategy
• Understand the required capabilities and bottlenecks in your current information architecture to enable ecosystems and online channels
• Help attract the top talent for APIs and digital development
• Improve communication and collaboration with your internal and external stakeholders about API, data and collaboration capabilities
• Monetize APIs and data
• Cut costs due to faster and more efficient practices
• Invest in or innovate with the right startups

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What are your strategic goals?

From a global societal and economy point of view, how can we make APIs more widely adopted?

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Why should we care about how widely the APIs are adopted?

Because: 

The amount of APIs correlates with Global Startup Index and economic growth areas.

APIs thrive in cultures where user-centered design is dominant. 

Mashups combining several APIs require certain amount of co-location and mindset for marketers and developers to co-create. 

APIs can create co-dependencies between economies - to drive positive or negative impacts

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APIs enable scaling and distribution of products, services and organizations

Internal API development causes organizational changes from within.

APIs provide possibilities to use external parties as innovators and service providers. This enables and forces organizations to open up and think of ways to collaborate with external developers, ecosystems and API providers.

Ecosystem and platform orientation creates opportunities for external developers to voice their needs to development roadmaps, both business and technical.

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API strategy or strategy to use APIs?

What are we aiming to achieve with our strategy? Who are creating it?

Technical capabilities and efficiency vs.  Customer,  partner  and employee experience?

Cost savings vs. revenue generation?

Regulation vs. innovation?

API is...

• Important feature of a tangible product
• Productized service
• Part of a digital or real-world service
• Customer-specific service
• Interface to resources
• Interface to platform (boundary resource)
• Part of an integration

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How to design API products collaboratively:

APIOps Cycles is an openly licensed (CC-BY-SA 4.0) method of lean and business-oriented API development. It promotes collaboration, easy and fast methods that enable business, product and technical experts to collaborate and communicate on new API and feature discovery, reuse and improvements.

What are the goals of the water services ecosystem? (Example from a customer case)

<- 2018 “We provide water with legacy systems"

2020 “We provide service, also digitally” with customer portals and apps

202X -> “We provide enough and safe utilities with data- and API-driven partner ecosystem!”

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Business models and business model canvases are well known by the business people and designers

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Everyone hates NFRs so why not make them as easy and business user friendly

Let’s make some more dots on the map with the open APIOps Cycles method – for a more sustainable future and more equal growth

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