API Development and Integration

Our API development and integration service helps you connect third-party apps with your software applications

If your business uses more than one software application to manage its operations there’s a strong chance the applications you use don’t communicate with one another. This means that information has to be shared manually between applications, increasing the risk of human error and duplicating work effort.

One solution to this inefficient arrangement is to use application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect your main business application to your other business applications such as scheduling systems or payment gateways, so that all of your applications communicate with one another and your staff can use a single system to increase efficiency and save many man hours due to not having to do work more than once.

Real life API and integration examples

Most modern-day software applications now live on the web and come with an API as standard. The various applications we use to manage operations here at Atlas all come with APIs and we take advantage of those to automate as much as humanly possible. Examples of the software we use that have APIs include:

• Staff Squared – HR software (Staff Squared API )
• Harvest – tracking time (Harvest API )
• Slack – internal messaging (Slack API)
• Trello – project management (Trello API )
• Teamwork Desk – for customer support tickets (Teamwork Desk API )
• Google Forms – for capturing information (Google Forms API )

The list goes on, there really aren’t many applications we use now that don’t offer an API.

We take full advantage of the APIs on these various software applications to make them communicate with one another. Taking a real-world example…

We use Teamwork Desk to capture tickets raised by customers. If a ticket requires work to be performed internally we ask that our customer support team complete a Google Form. Upon submitting the Google Form as if by magic two things happen:

• A message is broadcast on Slack to various people in charge of second line support to alert them that a customer support ticket has been raised and requires their attention.
• A Trello card is created on our Customer support board which is how we track the internal discussion around the ticket that has been raised. The Trello card is automatically linked back to the original Teamwork Desk ticket for full traceability.

As the Trello card is updated, the Teamwork Desk ticket is updated automatically too, keeping the customer up to speed about the progress of their ticket so we don’t have to remember to manually update them.

APIs as Products

Over time particular ways of configuring APIs have been recognised as very effective and that has contributed to them becoming software products in their own right – you can now buy an API that does a job you need doing since it saves having to develop one from scratch. Sometimes we’ll take advantage of off the shelf APIs to deliver value to a customer rather than starting from scratch.

Our promise to you

As part of our promise to build businesses, and of course software developers, high-quality valuable APIs, we have instilled the following principles in our flow when we work with you to create your API:

• We ensure that what we’re offering doesn’t already exist. If we can purchase an off the shelf API and give you a head start at a fraction of the cost and timescale, we will always take that option.
• The APIs we build are vigorously unit tested.
• The APIs we build are documented and versioned. Documents ensure that all developers who wish to use the API can do so quickly. Often documents include API examples. Versioning ensures that we never make a breaking change without updating the version of the API first.

Although it’s not always obvious as you browse around, the web at this point is incredibly reliant on APIs, allowing web applications and web services to use functions such as online maps and payment gateways.

If you haven’t considered how an API integration or development project could benefit your business, we suspect that there is a chance you’re missing out on a process automation or simplification that could seriously benefit you and your team.

A good API is an incredible asset in developing integrated software applications in any context. Get the design right, and you’ve created a tool that supports the speed and flexibility of the whole system. Think of Olympic athletes – a victory is less likely to come from a whole new approach than it is as the result of many small tweaks to elements of someone’s strategies. A change of angle here, a touch extra energy there, and the cumulative effect is what creates a winning performance. Having helped a few winners past the finish line, we’re more than happy to support your own API efforts.

How Atlas Can Help You

If you’re interested in finding out how Atlas could help you with API development and integration, fill in the ‘Request a Callback’ form below or call us on +44 (0)800 133 7948 for a free no-obligation consultation. We’ll discuss the previous API work we’ve undertaken, and talk broadly about whether an API could benefit your systems and wider business.

Our work

Two of our recent software projects, see Our Work for more Case Studies.