The concept of developer portal is to provide the technical information necessary to configure and manage communication between an API and both internal and external systems. Originally, it was not intended as a tool to generate business for the companies that adopt them. Rather, it was an interface between the API, SDK and other digital tools and their administrators.
However, over time, many elements of the developer portal have caused friction for partners and have resulted in higher costs for the company providing data via API.
An alternative option to replace a developer portal is a Hybrid Integration Platform (HIP), a simple system connect solution that has the potential to generate more business by coupling ecosystems directly, efficiently and at a lower cost.
Troubleshoot potential developer portal issues
The main cause of friction within a developer portal is the amount of time it takes to create and support it. Quite often, an integration is delayed because the company providing the API is stuck waiting for the support of the people it is working with.
To meet the demand of consumers in different stages of maturity, companies that provide APIs later realized they needed to provide more data, new business cases and different mappings and transformations.
Once the portal and APIs adapt to the system, three key factors are needed to provide a good user experience in the developer portal:
- Complete and easy to use documentation.
- Actionable and effective solution options.
- Fast response times.
Often, isolated and disconnected business challenges complicate developer portal implementations. To avoid such challenges, these questions need to be answered before the implementation process takes place:
- How can you ensure that the company will benefit from connecting with partners, suppliers and customers?
- Is it possible to become more efficient, have lower integration costs and improve the time for implementation and adoption of technological solutions?
- How do you unlock innovation when previously unavailable data and services are made available internally?
When approaching systems integration, it is essential to develop a solution that considers business results first, before simplifying or removing any glitches. Solving predicted problems before they become problems only wastes time and diverts attention from the goal of making your business more efficient and profitable. However, many times we see the opposite happen: companies tend to spend too much time solving problems before they even occur.
