API management made easy - an interview with the Syncier marketplace team

First things first: What are APIs, and why are they so important for companies?

APIs are programming interfaces that can connect third-party programs to software and allow the exchange of information between programs.

An example: An identification service needs implementation in a sales journey of an insurance company. In this way, the sales journey developers can use the identification tool and its required functions of a third-party provider like IdNow without having to reinvent those functions from scratch. This saves both development and maintenance costs.

Our marketplace offers a broad portfolio of existing and curated API services to integrate seamlessly into any existing IT infrastructure.

Who are the users of a marketplace in the company?

Our marketplace supports providers of innovative services and consumers of these products, such as product owners of insurance companies. The primary advantages for both parties are the increased transparency of the available services and the simplified implementation. We also provide support on contract, billing, and operational issues, enabling insurance companies to become providers of 3rd party products.

How do APIs make insurance better?

An API strategy's significant advantage is flexibility enabling insurers to react quickly to changing customer requirements or other external factors. You can fall back on a solution that has already been tried and tested on the market and integrate it quickly via API.

The big challenge is a professional API management. You can lose track of all available internal and external APIs as well as their function and performance. Developers often have no chance to get an overview of public services, especially across projects and divisions, so we developed the private area.

What makes the private area in the marketplace so unique?

The Syncier Marketplace is the central platform of an ecosystem for insurance-related API-based services. As mentioned, services can either be made available for the entire insurance industry on our marketplace or only within a company - in the private area, allowing companies to make their internally developed APIs transparent. As a result, all areas of the company can benefit from existing services, and resources can be saved or allocated according to the services' performance and usage.

Besides, special internal services can be made available for strategic external partners and monetize them this way.

What makes the Syncier marketplace unique?

In addition to APIs' scalability within the company, the Syncier Marketplace offers support for operational tasks in billing, contracts, and monitoring. Furthermore, our Marketplace team follows a multi-cloud approach. Services can be hosted and implemented on any cloud.

The Syncier Marketplace supports the digital transformation of insurers by promoting creative exchange. The focus is on both consumers and providers within the insurance industry. Syncier filters in advance, which API providers offer the best solution, and creates a clear overview of the USPs, technical specifications (Swagger), and the respective services' pricing structures. The in-depth knowledge within the insurance world allows the Syncier marketplace to respond to the industry's needs. It remains a marketplace for insurers by insurers.

Have we piqued your interest? Then get in touch with our Head of Sales, Paul Rusu! paul.rusu@syncier.com