Do I need the API Platform?

[kbudurka]

It's time for my renewal of licensing, and originally I thought I would need the API Platform, but now I am not sure.
I assumed the API Platform was needed if I was going to have someone from the outside contact my ERP behind an on-premise agent.

For example: If I dispatch a tech for a night call, and he wants to check if he has the necessary tire in stock at the shop, he could use a lookup we would write that would make a database dip and return the inventory amount.

Tech would be using a cell phone on the public internet.

All of the other recipes we've built initiate the connection, and as such, I think I am using the vendor's API platform to leverage this, not my own API Platform running on Workato.

Hoping someone could make sense for me of what I need the API Platform line item for on my renewal.

Thank you, Keith

[philip-rigazzi]

Hey Keith,

If you don't currently see a use case for making data or functionality available to the outside, the API platform can also make your data/functionality available to other systems within your business. It can be used it to build components for data/functionality that your operations or processes can access. You could use it to enhance existing APIs/services by gathering more information, enriching data, and adding business logic around them. Or use it to focus your existing services down to only provide access to parts of what are available in the base API or service. 

With a centralized and easier way to build in Workato, the API platform allows you to tailor what you make available to other systems in a scalable way.

I know you might be looking for someone other than Workato to tell you how the API platform feature is valuable, but hopefully this adds to your thoughts on it.

Does anyone else have some good examples of how the API platform can be useful or has been useful for you?

Phil