Yatin Mahandru, head of public sector and health at Cognizant, discusses the priorities for harnessing the full potential of application programming interfaces
Application programming interfaces (APIs) have become a fixture of the digital infrastructure of the UK public sector, but there is still a sense of frustration over the limits of their use.
UKAuthority and Cognizant have investigated the situation in a recent research project on APIs in the public sector. Coming five years after they first looked at the issue together, it has shown that some significant restraining factors have not yet been overcome, and that more needs to be done to create a new momentum for the deployment of APIs.
This would involve a number of efforts to overcome the main barriers identified in the report.
There is a growing appreciation of the value of APIs as elements of software code to enable data sharing, especially with the growing deployment of internet of things technologies and the immense potential of AI. In both cases, they provide an appropriate channel for the transfer of high quality data, in real time for some applications.
There has been an increase in the volume of APIs available, but progress has not been as fast as many digital leaders have hoped, and this has restrained the transformation efforts of many public sector bodies.
Legacy supplier resistance
A major problem has been the reluctance of some legacy system suppliers to provide APIs, and imposing heavy charges if they are prepared to do so. In addition, they sometimes claim ownership of the data or the intellectual property rights of an API.
The public sector has to respond to this with a more aggressive approach to its procurement of digital systems. It would involve an insistence on strict clauses in contracts to ensure the provision of APIs, early exit clauses in case a supplier does not respond to the need for changes, and possibly contracts with shorter durations.
It would be a challenge to make these stick, but the public sector has the potential to use its combined buying power through more standardised contracts, collective procurement, and the scope to ensure the clauses are within the terms and conditions of procurement frameworks.
There have also been calls for the central mandation of including the right to APIs within contracts, although this would come with legal and political issues that may be difficult to resolve,
Overall, these measures would do a lot to redress the market balance that has restrained progress over recent years.
Need for more standards
Another factor has been the need for stronger standards, both for the quality of data and the defining and cataloguing APIs, which would make them more easily discoverable for re-use and adaptation. There are standards available, such at the OpenAPI specifications for HTTP APIs and the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources standard for sharing healthcare data, but there are often claims that more are needed specifically for UK public services.
Developing this would involve resolving some very complex issues around processes and operating models, differences in the language used by different organisations trying to work together, the classification of standards and the need for examples of those that work effectively. Also, it is accompanied by the question of whether any central body is ready to take the lead in implementing standards, and even forcing suppliers to adopt them.
It requires a lot of work on building a consensus on what works best, and a recognition of the need for flexibility rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach. There are possibilities for different standards for different sectors, and two sets of standards for how APIs behave and how they are integrated with other systems.
It comes with the need for the further development and use of any API catalogues available in the public sector. There is a resource available on GOV.UK but few bodies outside central government have added their APIs, and a survey for the research indicated that most respondents use it seldom or not at all.
Organisations can increase the value of catalogues by adding their own to any that seem appropriate and thereby build a momentum in which they could benefit from those created by others. There is also a case for a pan-public sector catalogue, or at least one that directs users towards all of those available.
Skills factor
Another priority is to develop the relevant in-house skills to reduce the dependence on suppliers providing APIs. Many organisations have worked on this, but there is also a challenge in retaining skilled people, and the need to adopt a strategy to maintain a pipeline of staff with the necessary expertise.
This is all underpinned by a need to further extend awareness of the value of APIs, so that public sector officials at all levels think of how they can be used in service delivery and strategic planning. Digital leaders should make a sustained effort to educate their colleagues on the basic functions and the great potential of APIs, so that everyone sees them as a crucial feature in efforts to make their organisations more efficient and effective.
They should be widely seen as a necessity in the transformation of public services.
UKAuthority and Cognizant have produced a new report on the issue, APIs in UK public services: a continuing challenge, which you can download from here or below.
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