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Let's Talk About APIs - Part 4 - CLIEDIS API Strategy

News / Sep.11.2018

Let’s Talk About APIs Series
Part 4: The CLIEDIS API Strategy

(This is the fourth and last of a multi-part series on APIs with CLIEDIS. Read Part 1: Defining ‘API’; Part 2: The Yin and Yang of APIs and Data Feeds; Part 3: Why API Standards)

The first three articles in this series made the case for API standards for this industry. The final question is “How will CLIEDIS move this work forward?”

There is tremendous interest in this work amongst the CLIEDIS community. Whenever we bring up the topic, many ideas for APIs are tossed about. It is fun to think about the possibilities.

While we need to define the “what”, we also need to define the “how”.  And we want that “how” to be consistent across any API we might define.

CLIEDIS is embarking on a two pronged approach to the definition of API standards, separating the technical requirements from the business requirements.

The technical work will focus on API interface and security requirements in absence of a specific request.

Business discussions will create an industry roadmap for APIs and make the business case to industry partners.  We will then delve into the business requirements for the first API on the roadmap.

These efforts merge to deliver the first set of APIs to the industry.

On both paths, we will first identify what is in use already, including the API technology in back offices, APIs available for other audiences, and design decisions made by other organizations in this space.  This will give us a jumpstart in our requirements and increase the likelihood of adoption. CLIEDIS member insurers are being surveyed right now for this information. We are also meeting with industry partners that already have APIs accessed by multiple companies. We can learn a lot from them.

Two separate groups of subject matter experts will define the technical design and business requirements.  This work will be shared with the broader CLIEDIS audience for review and feedback to refine the definitions. The efforts of the two groups then intersect to create the initial API specification.

The schedule is aggressive and timely. API are on companies’ digital roadmaps in 2019. We need to be ready.

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In June 2018, CLIEDIS announced a major effort to develop API standards for the insurance industry. To learn more about this initiative, come to our next webinar on September 26th .

For more information on the API work being done by CLIEDIS, contact Tana Sabatino, Implementation Services Specialist at CLIEDIS: tsabatino@cliedis.ca, or Darlys Corbitt, Executive Director at CLIEDIS: dcorbitt@cliedis.ca.

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