Digital transformation will help stimulate the adoption of application programming interfaces (APIs) in the enterprise sector, according to a recent survey.
The survey, entitled "APIs: Building a Connected Business in the App Economy", was conducted by Coleman Parkes Research from May to June 2016 and sponsored by CA Technologies.
It found that Thailand ranked second in Asia-Pacific in adopting API, trailing only South Korea.
"Some 95% of respondents said they use APIs as part of their digital transformation strategies," said Nick Lim, CA Technologies' vice-president for Asean and Greater China.
The survey queried 799 executives from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
Use of API, which is a set of subroutine definitions, protocols and tools for building application software, is increasing as more enterprises' legacy systems require API as the glue for their digital transformations.
APIs let organisations launch new micro services quicker, in weeks instead of months.
"Those enterprises who need to compete with rivals and quickly respond to customer needs are adopting API," Mr Lim said.
He said they can also increase new sources of revenue by charging their partners.
Some 55% of respondents in Thailand said they can reduce the number of compliance audit failures, decreasing IT-related costs, while 53% said customer satisfaction is improved and transaction volumes are increasing because of API use. Some 52% said partner satisfaction has increased. The average in Southeast Asia for each measure was 44-45%.
But Thai respondents were lacking in terms of getting their products to market quickly, recording only a 16% improvement in the time taken to develop, test and release new apps into the market.
"Success in the application economy means connecting products to customer needs, customers to experiences, apps to devices, and organisations to their ecosystem partners," Mr Lim said. "APIs are the building blocks of digital transformation, the central nervous system that allows these connections to be made quickly, accurately and securely."
