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OPEN APIs:
TURNING BUSINESS
STRATEGY INTO REALITY
OCTOBER 2016
www.tmforum.org/open-apis
CONTENTS
Author
Joann OBrien,
Vice President,
Open APIs & Ecosystems
jobrien@tmforum.org
Editor
Annie Turner,
Senior Director,
Editorial
aturner@tmforum.org
Advisors
Pierre Gauthier, Chief API Architect, TM Forum
John Wilmes, Director, Open Digital Ecosystem Project, TM Forum
2016. The entire contents of this publication are protected by copyright. All rights reserved. The views and opinions expressed by individual authors and contributors in this publication are provided in the writers
personal capacities and are their sole responsibility. Their publication does not imply that they represent the views or opinions of TM Forum and must neither be regarded as constituting advice on any matter whatsoever,
nor be interpreted as such. The reproduction of advertisements and sponsored features in this publication does not in any way imply endorsement by TM Forum of products or services referred to therein.
EBOOK
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
Platform-enabled businesses and business models have
reshaped many global sectors in the last decade and will
profoundly change many more. The purpose of this ebook
is first to show how APIs are a fundamental, strategic asset
for every business whether a startup or incumbent, a
multinational or a government department, a digital health,
Internet of Things/Everything (IoT/E) or smart grid provider,
among others.
The second aim is to show how to
ensure that APIs are used consistently
and strategically in support of
business goals. Just how fundamental
this is to a platform business was
demonstrated by Google buying
Apigee for a reported $625 million in
September 2016.
Two of the most important attributes
of a platform-based business are that
they are modular and facilitate
interconnectivity with third parties.
Modularity allows systems to be
assembled, disassembled and
reassembled quickly, cheaply and
easily, while external interconnectivity
allows for easy, rapid connectivity
outside the organization.
APIs make this possible they are the
interfaces used by Google Maps, the
New York Stock Exchange, Salesforce,
Thomson Reuters Eikon, Twitter and
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EBOOK
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In this market,
if companies can
overcome their
organizational
inertia,
incumbents
actually have
every opportunity
to be the big
winners in each
industry with
APIs.
Sam Ramji, VP, Strategy, Apigee
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CHAPTER 2: API
STRATEGY IS INTEGRAL
TO BUSINESS PLANNING
Weve established that APIs are strategic assets, not tactical
fixes, and they must be aligned with the business strategy to
make it happen. Googles acquisition of Apigee, the enterprise
API management company, on September 8, underlines this.
The acquisition cost a reported $625
million and is one of Googles largest in
recent times. Apigee will play a vital
role in advancing Googles cloudbased services for enterprises. An
article in Forbes, claimed, It will
become the crucial bridge between
the massive Google developer
community and its cloud platform,
and concluded, This move from
Diane Greene [Vice President, Cloud
Platform, Google] will be remembered
by the industry as the masterstroke.
Where to begin?
Value
Rareness
Imitability
Organization
EBOOK
Scenario A
XYZ Telco Role
Partner
XYZ Telco as
operator /
service provider
+ other SPs
integrated
services
Content
service
provider
or distributor
Enduser
Scenario A
customer relations are managed end-to-end by DSPs
Scenario B
Partner
XYZ Telco
Content
service
provider
or distributor
XYZ Telco as
operator /
service provider
+ other SPs
integrated
services
Enduser
Scenario B
customer relations are managed end-to-end by CSP
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Current market
New products
New market
Current products
EBOOK
These Ansoff
strategies (except
for market
penetration)
demand companies
adapt quickly to
seize the
opportunity and
get to market fast.
Contract
Responsibility
aka TR211 Role
Scenario
Integrate
Sell To
Reseller Of
Sell Through
Sold Through
Sell With
Distribute
Co-sell
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1. Platform architecture
Platform architecture underpins the
platform economy. As with any
significant change-management
project, one of the first activities is to
create a vision of the future. A welldefined platform architecture is a
representation of how the business will
achieve the agility it needs to realize
that collective vision.
TM Forum is developing a Digital
Platform Reference Architecture
(DPRA), under strategic direction from
the Board of Directors Collaboration
Subcommittee, which includes
executives from several of the worlds
largest communications service
providers. It builds on the Forums
Frameworx suite of standards-based
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Pragmatic, real-life
contributions
For example, Vodafone is a key
contributor and leader in TM Forums
Open API project, and has contributed
its exemplar platform architecture to
that work. The architecture has a
modular structure and clearly shows
the critical role of APIs in enabling
business agility (see Figure 3-1).
Customer Service
APIs
Service
Managemnet APIs
Charging APIs
Service Inventory
APIs
Service Order
APIs
Service Catalogue
APIs
Resource
Managemnet APIs
Resource
Inventory APIs
Resource Order
APIs
Resource
Catalogue APIs
Marketing
APIs
Analytics
APIs
Enterprise
APIs
Common
APIs
Management
Customer Order
APIs
Resource
Partnering
APIs
Service
Customer Loyalty
APIs
Management
Customer
Management APIs
Management
Management
Product Catalogue
APIs
Customer
Business
A critical
advantage of
platforms and
APIs is that they
provide an
evolutionary path
from the current
telco operating
model to the
future networkas-a-service
model.
Source: Vodafone
BT adopts platforms
Similarly, BT has been working to
consolidate operational and business
support systems (OSS/BSS) during the
past six or seven years, reducing the
number from 4,500 to 1,798.
We started this work to transform
ourselves internally, but then a few
light bulbs went on and we realized it
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2. Open APIs
The successful platform organizations
we have looked at in this ebook all have
an API strategy at their core. TM
Forums Open APIs can provide the
foundation for APIs in all kinds of
business ecosystems, whether the
need is to expose core capabilities,
drive agility and operational
improvement, or simplify and speed
partnering. The Forums Open APIs
can save vast amounts of time and
enable interoperability across and
between ecosystems.
Free to
Use
Strong
Community
Copyleft
Available
Source
Code
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TM Forums suite of Open APIs can unlock a range of growth opportunities, including:
+ {open}:apis+ +{open}:apis
{open}:platform
+ {open}:platform
Eight leading technology ecosystem participants DGIT, EnterpriseWeb, Ericsson, Huawei, IBM, BearingPoint/Infonova, Oracle
and UXP Systems have officially endorsed TM Forums suite of Open APIs for digital service management. These visionary
companies follow in the footsteps of nine of the worlds largest communications service providers Axiata, Bharti Airtel, BT,
China Mobile, China Unicom, NTT-Group, Orange, Telefnica and Vodafone who made a similar commitment in May 2016.
+ {open}:apis + {open}
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3. Streamlining business
processes, using a common
language
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Centralized
governance will
ensure that the right
APIs are developed
and that they are
used in a consistent
manner to further
business goals.
a transaction-based fee
is charged by the platform
provider for every transaction
carried out on it
All three could be involved in a single transaction with different parties, as well as perhaps a subscription fee, such as
Amazons Prime for the end customer: Amazons sellers are the companys customers as well as the end buyer.
C
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CHAPTER 4: THE
INNOVATION CULTURE
It is ultimately
people and culture
that will make the
difference between
success and failure.
The key to a pragmatic, successful strategy is not to reinvent the wheel, but to leverage APIs and other proven
tools including TM Forums suite of business ecosystem
Open APIs. The ProgrammableWeb is also an excellent
source of over 15,000 APIs.
While the platform architecture, API strategy and API management systems are vital
to realizing a business strategy requiring a high degree of agility, it is ultimately people
and culture that will make the difference between success and failure. As business
guru Peter Drucker pointed out long ago, culture eats strategy for breakfast.
If an organization continues with business as usual, or reverts to the way things
used to be, it will kill innovation, including the potential for leveraging
infrastructure. The choices are, according to McKinsey, Grow fast or die slow.
STRATEGY
CULTURE
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Innovation at work
TM Forum has taken its own advice by
in recent years launching an
{open}:hack an integrated platform
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Get started
straightaway by
joining TM Forums
Open API Project team
where you can help
build and crowdsource
the common APIs your
organization needs to
transform to a
platform-based
business.
This across-the-board discipline has to
start now and extend to legacy systems
and services too, which can still be
exposed in an intelligent and useful way
through APIs. Get started straightaway
by joining TM Forums Open API Project
team where you can help build and
crowdsource the common APIs your
organization needs to transform to a
platform-based business.
See the Ecosystem to Ecosystem
Catalyst which will be presented at TM
Forum Live in Asia, in December 2016.
For open innovation opportunities,
where you can bring your developer
and product teams to mash up new
innovative services for your company,
see TM Forums Open Hack series.
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APPENDIX 1: TM FORUM
OPEN API ROADMAP
Similar to the copyleft approach, all we ask is that you engage with our community
share your experiences, amendments for improvements and extensions.
Open API Roadmap
Trouble Ticket API
Customer Management API
Product Catalog Management API
Product Inventory Management API
Product Inventory Management API
Billing Management API
Party Management API
SLA Management API
Usage Management API
Activation and Configuration API
Performance Management API
Privacy API
Onboarding API
Agreement API
Service Qualification API
Quote API
Address API
Appointment API
Service Quality Management API
Test Management API
Change Management API
Resource Order API
Service Ordering API
Resource Catalog API
Resource Inventory API
Entity Provisioning API
Service Catalog API
Service Inventory API
Digital Service Management API
Location API
Loyalty API
Shopping Cart API
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Available
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Early Adopter
Beta APIs
Update
Planned
Coming
Soon
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