The New Age of Business Process Outsourcing

Application programming interfaces, or APIs, open up new opportunities for revenue, and the industry is seeing more API that is being offered at the application layer and companies are accessing API through business process outsourcing.

Some companies have had great success in offering their software packages as API. Amazon, for instance, has nearly three-dozen such services that touch on a variety of business processes, including messaging, storage and networking, according to this ZDNet report.

One thing the application engineers will never get away from is the basics of application development that are the foundation for the high-level business processes, which some companies are accessing through business process outsourcing.

Not everyone is on board with business process outsourcing, but year-by-year the industry is seeing additional conversion to it as companies realize the potential of not having to install or manage the software they need. The quality services that a business relies on are increasingly being pushed onto the software service providers who provide business process outsourcing solutions.

Business process APIs are different than the infrastructure level APIs in the on the business process side. APIs don’t require much programming and pretty much ready “out of the box,” so to speak. Business process APIs are also directly tied to revenue generation because they focus on expense management and payment processing. And more developers are able to use business process APIs.

The highest use of business process APIs is directed at mapping, searching and messaging. While these services are generally free to use and don’t bring in a lot of money, the other API categories that see a lot of use include shopping and telephony, which could drive more revenue, and there is an “other” category where many varieties of services are compiled, many of which are revenue generators.

Business process outsourcing is a natural progression from the packaged software of old. SaaS (News - Alert) is no longer a strange word. And while the business process outsourcing is still young, efforts are being made to bring the world’s largest companies to the table. Business process API providers are finally making their mark.

The reason this area is showing more promise is because it doesn’t require much cost to access. Some of the larger companies using business process API include Workday, ZooZ, Coupa, Rubicon, Alfresco and FinancialForce.

It wasn’t long ago that most in the industry didn’t think business process could be offered as API. Slowly but surely, that train of thought is changing one business at a time.