Q3) How are firms using APIs to transform from being a product to being a platform? How can APIs and web services enhance a firm’s competitive advantage?
Firms are leveraging on APIs in transforming their products into platforms by making changes in 2 key areas - People and technology.
People - The APIs ensures that the firms' personnel together with processes undergo major re-orientations so that they can perform as platforms. This ensures that the end products are changed into platforms.
Technology - The technology used in the production of the products is being bridged to the new technologies from the old ones and this ensures the products become a platform.
The web services and APIs enhance competitive advantage of a firm in that these technologies permit interaction and sharing of information among the firms at a scale which is unprecedented.
The web services and APIs are used by firms to create information repositories on the behavior of customers so that the marketing strategies can align with the customers behaviors. This ensures that maximum sales are realized as goods are tailored when customers need them. Firms are able to exploit or leverage on the repositories in order to predict precisely the consumer behaviors and this ensures they are able to produce products and services that meet their preferences and needs. All these ensure that these firms are able to gain competitive advantage over other firms when it comes to production and satisfying consumer needs.
Q3) How are firms using APIs to transform from being a product to being a platform?...