Issue link: https://resources.axway.com/i/1025054
Chapter: API Use 8 API for the sake of agility. By utilizing APIs, developers can fix or improve a product without disrupting the entire system. Example: Suncorp Group Suncorp Group offers banking, insurance, and superannuation (pension) services in Australia. In August 2017, the company shifted its business strategy from a federated brand model to one of customer centricity. In order to realize this vision and provide convenience and simplicity across their multiple products, the company invested in Suncorp Marketplace – a single portal where customers could access all Suncorp products and those of their partners. The goal was to join together a "network of brands" and provide ease of use, most often on a mobile device. To deliver this vision, Suncorp used API technology to bring together what was previously siloed automation. It was necessary to build a single user interface across multiple back end systems. The company wrapped their core platforms in a series of API layers that progressively decoupled existing front-end interfaces from their legacy transaction engines. Over 400 APIs were built to encapsulate all the core functionality that the backend systems provided and expose them to a new front end. Working in parallel streams, the various IT teams were able to deliver the new functionality in nine months. This environment serves as the foundational architectural layer upon which future digital solutions will be built. INSURANCE AS A PLATFORM API infrastructure also acts as a common platform on which insurers and partners can develop. Insurers white-label their platform for other insurers to decrease the required time to market; insurtech firms connect to an insurer's platform to leverage the provider's insurance license and access their risk capacity. Using an API approach to provisioning insurance services for third parties provides a single gateway to interact with many connected partners. Example: Slice and Legal & General Insurance Legal & General Insurance used the Slice Labs platform to develop an on-demand homeshare insurance in the UK market. The insurer provides the risk capacity, and Slice provides the automation. The API-enabled digital insurance platform facilitates real-time, contextual, and conditional transactions for the on-demand insurance market. 2 INNOVATION The use of digital technology has resulted in customer expectations of minimal hassle in the buying process. Additionally, they expect providers to offer new combinations of products and services that better meet their expressed, and unexpressed, needs. API technology reduces the costs involved in such innovation and allows for new combinations of customer solutions among and across industries. Example: SoFi and Ladder integration For example, Social Finance (SoFi), the fintech unicorn best known for its lending products, now offers life insurance to its customers through a partnership with Ladder, a Palo Alto, California, startup. Customers are eligible for fully underwritten term life 2 Legal and General Announces New Partnership https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180220005285/en/Legal-General-Announces-New-Partnership- Technology-Partner