An API is an application programming interface that allows programs to request services from operating systems, software libraries, or other services. APIs standardize how different software applications interact, enabling communication between multiple platforms. The presentation discusses how APIs can help address issues like data silos, reduce costs from automation that relies on graphical user interfaces, and enable end-to-end process automation. Examples are given showing how Amazon transformed into a services-first company by requiring teams to expose data and functionality through APIs, and how Bosch has used APIs between systems to reduce manual work and errors.

1. WHAT ARE THOSE “APIS” AND
HOW DO THEY HELP US?
Antonius Gress (GS/PJ-DIA)
Dominik Hein (GS/ACE8)
Jens Kuenzl (CI/ACM-CP)
Excerpt of presentation from 10/2018

2. WHAT ARE “APIS” –
AND HOW DO THEY HELP US?
Motivation Digitization Pain Points
Overview What is anAPI?
Best Practices Learningfrom others

3. WHAT ARE “APIS” –
AND HOW DO THEY HELP US?
Motivation Digitization Pain Points
Overview What is anAPI?
Best Practices Learningfrom others

4. What are those "APIs" and how do they help us?
Internal|CP/PJ-DIA|2018-10-16
©RobertBoschGmbH2018.All rightsreserved,alsoregardinganydisposal,exploitation,reproduction,editing,distribution,aswell asintheeventof applicationsforindustrial propertyrights.
4
Initial Situation -Digitization Pain Points
Digitizationand AutomationofProcesses oftenspan across manyinternaland external IT Applications
 Hundredsof data silos (ERP, non-ERPdatabases, shareddrives, Excel
workarounds,…)
 No centraloverview on what data is available where
 Every Digitization / Data Analytics / Process Automation project starts with the
same problem:
A long, frustrating and expensive journey on where tofind and how to get
the needed dataand accesses.

5. What are those "APIs" and how do they help us?
Internal|CP/PJ-DIA|2018-10-16
©RobertBoschGmbH2018.All rightsreserved,alsoregardinganydisposal,exploitation,reproduction,editing,distribution,aswell asintheeventof applicationsforindustrial propertyrights.
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Digitization Pain Points – Solution “RPA”
 Risky (changeof user interfaces) and costly inbot adaption effort
incase of user interface changes
(e.g. new SAP release that affects all SAP Bots)
 Security, that the bot does not fail, when user interface changes
is expensive
 Maintenance& support costs high
Solution 1: AutomationviaGraphical User Interface
(oftenusedinRobotic Process Automation)

6. What are those "APIs" and how do they help us?
Internal|CP/PJ-DIA|2018-10-16
©RobertBoschGmbH2018.All rightsreserved,alsoregardinganydisposal,exploitation,reproduction,editing,distribution,aswell asintheeventof applicationsforindustrial propertyrights.
6
Digitization Pain Points – Solution “RPA”
 Systems already inplace or in ramp-up(DaLi, REDLake)
and contain various data sources in (near) real time
 Main scope of these systems is BI, not process automization
 Only Read Access, no data can be updated insource systems
Solution 2: Usage ofCentralData RepositorytoAccess Data fromvariousSystems
App 1 App 2 SAP
REDLake
Additional Integration Method is needed!

7. What are those "APIs" and how do they help us?
Internal|CF/ACE8| 2018-10-16
©RobertBoschGmbH2018.All rightsreserved,alsoregardinganydisposal,exploitation,reproduction,editing,distribution,aswell asintheeventof applicationsforindustrial propertyrights.
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Current Set of Automation Levelsand Methodsin Accounting
Hybrid Automation Approach
Excel,Catalytic, ….
GUI XT, API,…
Automation of manual accounting tasks happens on different layers and requires RPA today.

8. WHAT ARE “APIS” –
AND HOW DO THEY HELP US?
Motivation Digitization Pain Points
Overview What is anAPI?
– Theory
– Advantages
Best Practices Learningfrom others

9. What are those "APIs" and how do they help us?
Internal|CP/PJ-DIA|2018-10-16
©RobertBoschGmbH2018.All rightsreserved,alsoregardinganydisposal,exploitation,reproduction,editing,distribution,aswell asintheeventof applicationsforindustrial propertyrights.
9
What is an API? - Theory

10. What are those "APIs" and how do they help us?
Internal|CP/PJ-DIA|2018-10-16
©RobertBoschGmbH2018.All rightsreserved,alsoregardinganydisposal,exploitation,reproduction,editing,distribution,aswell asintheeventof applicationsforindustrial propertyrights.
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What is an API? - Theory
An Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of functions, procedures, methods orclasses used by computer programs torequest services from
the operating system, software libraries orany other service providers running on the computer.

11. What are those "APIs" and how do they help us?
Internal|CP/PJ-DIA|2018-10-16
©RobertBoschGmbH2018.All rightsreserved,alsoregardinganydisposal,exploitation,reproduction,editing,distribution,aswell asintheeventof applicationsforindustrial propertyrights.
11
What is an API? – Advantages
 Automation will becheaper and safer => stable APIs can be integrated into processes instead ofRPA
 Reducing complexity of architectures by having one central point for accessing the data
 Applications can consume fromother applications without user interaction (E2E Automation Enabler)
 Easy integration with external applications / partners
 Applications with APIs are scalableandhave real-time content capability
 Externalizable Revenue / Economies ofScale
 Cross unit synergies enormous (CP +CF e.g.)
 Reusability of APIs for multiple use cases

12. WHAT ARE “APIS” –
AND HOW DO THEY HELP US?
Motivation Digitization Pain Points
Overview What is anAPI?
Best Practices Learningfrom others

13. What are those "APIs" and how do they help us?
Internal|CP/PJ-DIA|2018-10-16
©RobertBoschGmbH2018.All rightsreserved,alsoregardinganydisposal,exploitation,reproduction,editing,distribution,aswell asintheeventof applicationsforindustrial propertyrights.
13
Learning from others -Amazon
Extractletter Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos 2002toAmazon employees
All teams will henceforth expose their dataand functionality throughservice interfaces (= APIs).
[…]
Anyonewho doesn't dothis will be fired.
This led to a transformation into a services-firstcompany and into the big platform Amazon is today.Platformsonly work with service-
oriented architectures. AWS (Amazon Web Services = Amazon Cloud = Cashcow of Amazon) was built from scratch with this approach.

14. What are those "APIs" and how do they help us?
Internal|CP/PJ-DIA|2018-10-16
©RobertBoschGmbH2018.All rightsreserved,alsoregardinganydisposal,exploitation,reproduction,editing,distribution,aswell asintheeventof applicationsforindustrial propertyrights.
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Learning from others -MSC
MSC– Mediterranean Shipping Company (2nd biggest ocean carrier worldwide)
 MSC interacts with >90% of their suppliers via API, earlier MSCused EDIFACT
 Changewas a strategic decision (between the lines: “no-brainer”) – as therewas muchless effort seen on both sides of thesupplier / customer
relationship (significant manual work reduction). Unfortunatelybenefits havenever been quantified by MSC.
Every company is different – Benefits have tobe checked case bycase.

15. What are those "APIs" and how do they help us?
Internal|CP/PJ-DIA|2018-10-16
©RobertBoschGmbH2018.All rightsreserved,alsoregardinganydisposal,exploitation,reproduction,editing,distribution,aswell asintheeventof applicationsforindustrial propertyrights.
15
Learning from others – own experiences at Bosch
Special Freight - SoFa (Sonderfahrten)
Save
working
time
The Past:
3differentSystems
DataismanuallyinsertedintoLISA*
Increase
dataquality
Time savingper SoFa
Decreasingnumber of errorsperSoFa
iSTAR
Map
&
Guide
LISA
2.0
iSTAR
LISA
2.0
Map &
Guide
LISA
2.0
Map &
Guide
iSTAR
The Present:
1System
AutomateddatarequestwithAPI
Reduce
leadtimes
• Savings: 1.5 FTE
• Map& Guide +iSTAR API
meanwhile used in 5 other
usecases (counting) APIs are
unlocking further (not
foreseeable) inno& efficiency
gains!  enable innovation
over cost mindset forfront-runner
project
*LISA: Live Intelligent SoFa Assistant(Toolfororganizing SoFas)
Map&Guide: Program forcalculatingdistancesand timesdepending on Truck types

16. THANK YOU