Understanding APIs with Phone.com's EVP and CTO Alon Cohen
Today’s entrepreneurs have no doubt become increasingly tech-savvy. Companies have gone beyond standard email to tap into other technologies and tools that will help streamline their business, including cloud storage and project management applications, customer relationship management (CRM) software, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions, and even social media.
But despite being proficient in various business technologies, some business owners have yet to tap one solution that presents a big opportunity for growing a business in new and creative ways. And this powerful solution is expressed in just three letters: API.
If you’ve heard this acronym before but aren’t quite sure how these three little letters can impact your business, then you’ve come to the right place. In this article, Alon Cohen, the EVP & CTO of Phone.com, an industry-leading cloud communications and business phone service provider, will help to demystify what APIs are and discover ways that they can help push a business forward.
What is an API?
API stands for Application Programming Interface (API). It’s an interface that allows different programs, applications, computers, and services to communicate with each other and exchange data (as long as the requesting program is authorized to access the program providing the service).
Consider Phone.com’s API, for example. The Phone.com API is a web (REST) service that allows programs to use telephony related functions like sending and receiving SMS messages, changing various account settings, and many other possibilities. It gives businesses the ability to build phone features into their applications, and further customize Phone.com’s communications solutions in order to suit their changing and unique business needs.
Who uses APIs?
It’s not solely communication solution providers that use APIs. According to Cohen, “APIs are responsible for the rapid growth of new services that we see in the market. A developer can now build services that mash together different APIs from different companies with very little effort.” Services like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Uber, Yelp, and more, have APIs to allow other apps to piggyback onto their offerings.
In the case of Yelp, for instance, it displays nearby restaurants or establishments via a Google Map on its app. It’s the APIs that make it possible for one business (like Yelp) to plug into the value that the other business (Google Maps) has created. APIs do this by giving other applications access to the program’s internal functions and data, albeit in a limited fashion. The popularity of APIs could be due to the fact that users these days are demanding increasingly personalized products for their needs.
Why are APIs important for business?
APIs benefit businesses in multiple ways. Primarily, they allow businesses to innovate by changing things and creating new functionalities or integrations that complement their needs. When it comes to VoIP communications, APIs can help businesses achieve the following:
Save money and resources - According to Cohen, “the use of APIs reduces the need to license and maintain different components of any applications that use specific types of functions. Thus, reducing the cost to maintain and the time to develop and reach the end goal of the service.”
Enable integration with other systems - APIs, like Phone.com’s offering, allow businesses to create integrations between multiple services, the most popular of which is CRM integration. The ability to tie all of your systems together helps bring efficiency and productivity to your organization.
Extend telephony features - Phone.com’s API lets businesses boost their phone solution by extending Phone.com’s features. “Instead of requiring the developers to write code to handle every event on every call (essentially building a full phone system from scratch), the Phone.com API allows developers to describe via the API how they want Phone.com to handle the calls for them,” says Cohen.
Automate processes - Another benefit of APIs is the ability to automate processes and workflows to save you hours of manual effort. For example, with an API you can confirm or cancel appointments by using events from your calendar to trigger a phone call. Based on the time of day, businesses can also set up a simple call center to route after-hours callers to their helpline.
Final Thoughts
APIs are having a growing impact on business as well as on our everyday lives. APIs make business processes simpler and smoother by allowing organizations to innovate and connecting complementary solutions with ease. And with so many businesses embracing API tools, it only makes sense for companies (no matter the size or industry) to explore APIs and what they can mean for business.
Interested in learning more about Phone.com’s API? Visit their website for more information.
About Phone.com
Founded in 2007, Phone.com has always been dedicated to providing businesses a reliable communications services at the lowest possible pricing. This mission coupled with their robust solutions are the reasons why Phone.com has been hailed as the #1 small business phone company.
Phone.com offers a complete and reliable suite of enterprise-grade unified communication services ideal for entrepreneurs, home offices, small businesses and individuals but at an SMB price. Their VoIP business phone service includes over 40 standard PBX features, award-winning support, plus a 30-day free trial. Phone.com also offers a fully customizable JSON-based REST API that allows its customers to tailor their phone system to fit their business.