While just about everyone agrees that there is something akin to a new economy emerging around application programming interfaces (APIs), finding ways to effectively monetize those APIs has eluded a lot of organizations.
To address that specific issue, Apigee is rolling out today an extension of its API management platform that gives organizations the ability to set terms and conditions around who gets to use what API for how long during a given period.
According to Anita Paul, Apigee director of API products, Apigee Enterprise-Monetization Services is a financial management application wrapped around the Apigee API management platform, specifically designed for business users charged with managing a company’s digital business strategy.
While IT professionals have been familiar with API constructs for years, Paul says business users have not had access to tools to manage the business relationships those APIs enable. Apigee Enterprise-Monetization Services allows business users to create rate plans, manage limits and notifications, configure reports and billing documents, and modify the system to maximize API program value, including providing the ability to create custom a business plan consisting of different fixed, variable, revenue sharing and premium business models.
While adoption of APIs to drive new digital business models has varied widely across different vertical industries, it’s clear that APIs are emerging as a new channel through which organizations can share and monetize data. The challenge now is giving business users the tools they need to manage those relationships in ways that can dynamically respond to changing business conditions and requirements.
Of course, just because something can be changed dynamically doesn’t mean making those changes is necessarily a good idea. As a fledgling ecosystem, the API economy needs a strong dose of stability. As such, most organizations would be well advised in the short term to focus on not only making sure their APIs are stable, but also that the terms and conditions wrapped around those APIs are consistently reasonable.