As businesses continued to adopt various solutions and applications to manage the complex work of their enterprises over the past several decades, they were frustrated by the fact that each application existed within its own silo, unable to communicate with other applications doing companion work.
Today, developers rely on application programming interfaces (APIs) to facilitate communication between programs and do so in a whole host of ways.
By the way, APIs are not new. The foundation for API documentation was first identified by Maurice Wilkes and David Wheeler in the 1940s while working on the EDSAC computer, although it took another 50 years before the modern API became a reality.
Today, APIs are an integral part of the tens of thousands of systems we use to communicate and conduct business everywhere and that is because they are so versatile in their application.
Types of API useful in the title insurance industry
The reason it’s crucial to understand APIs, at least from a 30,000-foot view, is because they are peculiarly valuable in the title insurance industry. “Cookie cutter” is simply not a term used in the title, escrow and closing business. Working with a complex cast of clients and service providers on each transaction requires a flow of data and information that is new and unique for each transaction.
APIs address this issue and here are a couple of examples.
Internal APIs
Just as the name implies, internal APIs are constructed privately inside a company’s own systems to share data across existing applications within the company. This could be as simple as gathering data from a variety of sources to create a monthly report that management uses for ongoing business forecasting. It could also provide a method by which data is moved from one application to another to avoid re-keying information throughout the title and escrow process.
Partner APIs
Partner APIs can be hugely helpful in the title industry, as they connect title agents with their lender or real estate clients for the purpose of giving each partner access to data that will help facilitate the escrow and closing process seamlessly. Partner APIs are different from internal APIs in the sense that they go beyond the company’s borders, but they are not open to the general public. These APIs allow limited and protected access – governed by a validation process – to each partner’s data only for the specific purpose intended.
Open APIs
Open or public APIs allow developers to access and communicate with applications without being able to “see” the underlying code. Some classic examples are the way in which a company communicates with customers through social media such as Facebook or classic e-commerce transaction applications or websites.
As noted above, APIs can be particularly valuable in the title insurance industry, as agents of every size work towards streamlining an extraordinarily complex process.
VizionX’s TitleOS, which will be available soon, is API-based, which allows it to communicate with any third party service provider using an API. Just another layer of flexibility at a time when agility is the name of the game. Contact us today to learn more!
