The automotive retail industry is thriving, and both auto manufacturers and auto dealers are reimagining ways to gain a competitive advantage and win new customers. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) help achieve these goals by transforming business workflows, enhancing employee and customer experiences and driving innovation.

Dealerships in particular have an increasing need to streamline their business processes. APIs create a secure exchange for synchronized data that helps reduce manual input and increase efficiency. For example, the CDK Payment Settling API allows dealerships to update parts and repair order payments in the CDK Drive dealer management system. This cuts down the time it takes to process payments and provides a superior user experience for both the dealers and their customers.

API technology can help auto manufacturers, dealers and software developers discover insights to that can lead to limitless opportunities and enable growth.

Internationally known author, speaker and API expert Michael Amundson spoke about the power of APIs at our most recent (dev)day. During his talk, Amundson shared valuable insights and explained why APIs are vital to an organization’s growth and digital transformation. Here are some of the highlights from his presentation.

Embracing Digital Transformation through APIs

According to a survey from market research firm IDC, 75% of the organizations surveyed are currently undergoing a digital transformation. This digital transformation involves using APIs to pull actionable insights and solve business problems using the data your organization already has access to.

The report iterates that automotive organizations that ignore the importance of API value will fall behind in modernizing their business’ technology infrastructures and lose a great opportunity to reach a greater market share.

The 4 Ms of APIs

The rest of Amundsen’s talk covered his article on the “4 Ms of Monetization: Make, Manage, Monetize, and Market”. He shared a variety of strategies that developers in the automotive industry can use to leverage APIs to enhance their business operations.

Amundsen concluded his presentation with an interesting quote from Warren G. Bennis, “In life, change is inevitable. In business, change is vital.” The dynamic between business and technology is evolving to become synonymous with one another. To be an innovator in the industry, you must be willing to embrace these vital changes and integrate new technologies.

Watch Michael’s Talk