Why Use B2B Data Integration APIs When Building Your App?

Today, plenty of us have a huge app and web experience as users (mostly), to a degree that we start taking the way things work for granted. A lot of people don’t even realize how often they use APIs in their professional or leisure digital experiences. Nevertheless, APIs now do respond for an enormous share of the actions we perform.

In the B2B environment, APIs are the ‘paths’ via which companies generate and organize data from various sources to serve it to the user in a way that would be most comfortable to him or her, and would answer the exact given question or request of the user. In this article, we’ve decided to reveal a few advantages of applying data provided by business directories and corresponding APIs.

What is B2B data integration

We are not going to dig deep into the technical aspects of the topic. However, for the sake of being on the same page, we’ll briefly explain the API definition.

The acronym stands for Application Programming Interface, and it’s given by the set of defined methods of communication between various components of a program. Similarly, when a search query is made in a browser, APIs are responsible for passing the request to the browser and then to the corresponding source database, prior to delivering the result back to the browser and to the user. With the use of artificial intelligence on the rise, APIs gain more and more importance, as these are a significant part of any AI technology, system or service.

B2B data integration best practices

One of the most common API data integration used by companies which implies B2B data providers is the one that assures data enrichment of the preferred CRM software. In this case, contact information for the decision makers of the companies you filter out directly in your business directory is loaded to your customer relationship management software. For example, Global Database integration with Salesforce enriches data with the help of an API that GETs the data from the directory and delivers them into the CRM.

The approach and process are a bit different when you have an app in mind. If you are looking into building an app that would need data integration as a service, you may consider applying to a business intelligence platform subscription. In the case of a high-quality data provider, such as Global Database, all the listed information is updated on a regular and frequent basis, assuring its relevance to the final user. Thus, a subscription becomes the best solution for yourself as a developer or as a developing company, and you can be secure about the value that you provide to the users of your product. The process of website and/or application and data integration is accomplished with the help of APIs.

No matter what type of app you are thinking of, one that would simplify the process or provide B2B integration solutions, or one that would imply integrated data analysis, without a business intelligence database it would be hard to accomplish, especially if you are thinking about big data integration. Moreover, aside of the time and money you'd have to waste on 1) collecting the information you’d need and 2) on formulating a sound data integration strategy to base your API application on, and 3) only then build the API itself, you might also miss the business opportunity that has made you start the entire process in the first place, especially if a competitor does that faster than you and enters the market before you do.

The good news is that the latest B2B integration trends show, that the API data integration architecture is built in a more friendly way so that it becomes a lot easier to apply to data integration solutions without too much hassle, or oftentimes without any trouble at all. Business directories’ APIs, most often, are ready-made for both web data integration and mobile data integration, generally being qualified for immediate B2B data exchange. How else could you deliver value to your target users, if you don’t offer them what they need right away? Of course, giving it all at once may not be that smart of a business decision unless you have a continuous monetization system (affiliate and/or subscription-based). Otherwise, the service you provide would bring you nothing else but losses.

Therefore, with data provided by business intelligence platforms, you get a white label solution for the application you are willing to build, cutting-off resources and time allocated to collecting, continuous updating, loading, verifying, improving the quality of data as well as from many other actions you’d need to perform. As the quality of company data is the providers’ job, and as the APIs implied usually deliver integrated data solutions, you can focus on the improvement (if needed) and sales of your app.

To sum up…

Building an app is never easy, and requires a big bunch of resources. However, B2B data providers come up with data integration solutions, by offering both information and API data integration. When applying to company directories, you save time and money (especially in the case of big data integration) and can redirect your business efforts towards the enhancement of the features of your app as well as towards its marketing and sales.