The document outlines the implementation of an API management platform by Veda, a leading data analytics company in Australia and New Zealand focused on credit risk and identity verification. It covers design considerations, technical challenges, and the importance of soft skills for successful project outcomes, highlighting the benefits realized such as reduced costs and improved security. Additionally, it emphasizes the long-term relationship with vendors and the importance of aligning organizational structure with product architecture.

1. Implementing an
API Management Platform
Keith Junius
Solutions Architect
21 July 2014

2. Overview
2
• About Veda
• Design considerations for API management platforms
• Technical and business challenges faced across the whole system lifecycle
• The soft skills required to achieve a successful outcome
• Lessons learned during and after the project
• Benefits realized by the new platform

3. About Veda

4. About Veda
The intelligence provided by Veda helps customer make
decisions on credit risk, verify identity and employee
background, reduce identity theft and fraud, and undertake
digital marketing strategies.
4
Veda is a data analytics company and the leading provider of
credit information and analysis in Australia and New Zealand.
Veda is built on the largest, most comprehensive and current
data source in Australia and New Zealand with information
on over 20 million credit active people and 5.7 million
commercial entities.
From its core credit bureau business established in 1967, Veda has expanded to deliver a suite of credit and
other analytical products targeted to specific industry segment needs.

5. Veda’s Business
Enabling customers to improve their decision making
5
Proprietary data assets
Products and
delivery channels
Intellectual property
and data management
Attractive combination of data assets built up
over a 46 year history
Data collection
and storage
Data cleansing
Algorithms
Matching
Customer focus
Veda proprietary/exclusive data sources
• Credit information on 20 million individuals
• 70 million updates on individuals per annum
• 46 years of historical data and 5 years of enquiry data
• Credit information on over 5.7 million commercial
organisations
• Inivio consumer insights library
• 2.7 million records in tenancy database
• Insurance claims database
• 5 years worth of defaults from hundreds of businesses
Embedded delivery systems and long-term
customer relationships
Powerful intellectual
property/analytics
Products and
solutions
Embedded
portals and
customer linksPublic data sources
• Land titles and property information database
• Personal Property Securities Register in Australia
• Largest repository and reseller of ASIC information
• Comprehensive court judgment default collection
>12,500
business
customers
>470,000
consumer
customers
Products and
solutions
Embedded portals
and customer links

6. Over 40 years of history
6
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
1967
Begins operations as
the Credit Reference
Association of
Australia (CRAA)
2001
Data Advantage merges with Baycorp Holdings to
form Baycorp Advantage with dual listings on the
ASX and NZX
1998
CRAA demutualises and becomes a wholly
owned subsidiary of Data Advantage
2006
May - Baycorp Collection Services sold in May
November - Baycorp Advantage becomes Veda Advantage
2007
Becomes a fully privatised company owned by PEP and MLGPE
Acquisition of Atlantis Group’s marketing division
Acquisition of ABR and NTD from Collection House
2011
Acquisition of
Mirus Online
2009
Acquisition of Secure Sentinel
2011
Acquisition of
Verify
1999
Acquisition of Equigen
2013
Acquisition of
Corporate Scorecard
2013
Veda Group Ltd
(ASX:VED) lists on
Australian Stock
Exchange
2014
Acquisition of
Datalicious
2014
Acquisition
of ITM

7. Over 40 years of IT development
7
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
1967
Begins operations as
the Credit Reference
Association of
Australia (CRAA)
2001
Data Advantage merges with Baycorp Holdings to
form Baycorp Advantage with dual listings on the
ASX and NZX
1998
CRAA demutualises and becomes a wholly
owned subsidiary of Data Advantage
2006
May - Baycorp Collection Services sold in May
November - Baycorp Advantage becomes Veda Advantage
2007
Becomes a fully privatised company owned by PEP and MLGPE
Acquisition of Atlantis Group’s marketing division
Acquisition of ABR and NTD from Collection House
2011
Acquisition of
Mirus Online
2009
Acquisition of Secure Sentinel
2011
Acquisition of
Verify
1999
Acquisition of Equigen
2013
Acquisition of
Corporate Scorecard
2013
Veda Group Ltd
(ASX:VED) lists on
Australian Stock
Exchange
2014
Acquisition of
Datalicious
2014
Acquisition
of ITM
2008
VedaConnect
2002
B2Bay XML

8. Design Considerations

9. API Management Platform
Architectural Design Considerations
9

10. Basic VedaConnect Use Case
10
Mainframe
API
Gateway
Request
Transform
Response
Transform
Client
XML
XML Text
Text

11. API Management Platform is more than a box
11
• Networks
• Firewalls
• Load balancers
• Monitoring systems
• Servers
• Storage
• Applications
• Etc.
Systems
• Customers
― Business Staff
― Technical Staff
• Network engineers
• Server and storage engineers
• Application developers
• Testers
• Information security officers
• Etc.
People

12. Challenges

13. Legacy B2Bay Gateway
IBM AS/400
13
• In-house proprietary code
• Written in RPG + Java
• Developed & Maintained in NZ
• Monolithic single schema API
• Slow to change
• Expensive hardware platform
• Only vertically scalable
• Located in core network

14. Geography can be architecturally significant
14
XML
Text
XML
Text

15. To validate, or not to validate
15
Level of Message Validation0% 100%

16. Soft Skills

17. Soft skills
17
• Selling the vision – to everyone, repeatedly
• Passion – no one will believe in the vision if you don’t
• Context switching – between many complex facets of the project
• Pragmatism – know the battles you need to win, and those you don’t
• Negotiation – find the common ground between the parties

18. Remember people are part of the platform
18

19. Skills
19
Either
Ensure your teams already have all the skills required to build and operate
your API management platform
Or
Plan to acquire the required skills via training, new hires or out-sourcing

20. Know Conway’s Law
20
Melvin E. Conway (April 1968)
Organizations which design systems … are constrained to produce designs
which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.
Eric S. Raymond (October 1996)
If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler
James O. Coplien and Neil B. Harrison (July 2004)
Make sure the organization is compatible with the product architecture

21. Lessons Learned

22. Key learnings
22
• Choose a vendor who will support you over the long term
• An API Management Platform has many touch points
• Design the platform with people in mind, not just technology
• You must sell the vision, continuously
• Don’t assume customers are using your API’s the way you intended
• Always look for new ways to use the platform to get more value from it

23. Don’t assume
23
What the …! This is lemonade!
Where is my culture of amoebic dysentery?

24. Transaction Monitoring
24

25. Benefits Realized

26. Key Benefits Realized
26
• Reduced operational costs
• Increased security
• Increased reliability
• Horizontal scalability
• Improved real-time transactional monitoring
• Real-time API configuration management

27. Melbourne Cup
27

28. Real-time API configuration management
28
• IDMatrix - real-time Electronic Verification Services through VedaConnect
• Online betting agencies use IDMatrix to comply with AML legislation
• On Melbourne Cup Day, traffic spikes over an order of magnitude higher
than average
• During the course of the day, service capacity is reallocated between
customers

29. Questions
29

30. Appendix

31. • Consumer Credit Risk: credit bureau business that provides consumer credit
reports & analytics to assess, monitor and manage credit risk
• Fraud & Identity Solutions: helps validate identities and detect fraud
• Decisioning & Scoring: assists customers in making credit decisions based on an
applicant’s risk profile.
• Collection Services: assists customers to segment and optimise debtors to
improve receivables management
• Verify: provides an employee verification service for employees
• Commercial Credit Risk: provides credit reports, payment behaviour and ongoing
credit monitoring for lending purposes and assessing supplier risk.
• Commercial & Property Solutions: the access of third party data sources from
ASIC, AFSA, PPSR, Court & Property registrars.
Business Overview
31
Consumer Risk
& Identity
Commercial
Risk &
Information
Services

32. Inivio provides marketers with a range of services, tools and capabilities that
maximise their marketing effectiveness. Helping them to target their most
valued customers across all their marketing channels, when they are most
open to an offer
Your Credit & Identity: providing consumers with access to their personal
credit information and VedaScore as well as the ability to receive updates to
their credit profile when changes are made.
Secure Sentinel: Helping consumers protect themselves against identity
theft and assisting them in recovering their lost or stolen items.
Car History: providing the history of a used car for consumers and car
dealers. Highlights if a vehicle has finance owing, is stolen, written off, or
has had the odometer rolled back.
National Tenancy Database: tenancy verification and identification service
Business Overview
32
Business-2-
Consumer
Marketing
Services