Data silos within organisations are holding back their digital transformation, according to new research from Mulesoft.
The software company’s fifth annual Connectivity benchmark report reveals that while nearly every enterprise (98%) is undertaking digital transformation or planning to in the next year, 85% are slowed down by integration challenges. In fact, the average organisation has 900 applications and only 28% are currently integrated.
Data silos and IT-business misalignment are among the top challenges cited by the 800 IT leaders surveyed, with 89% saying that data silos are an obstacle to digital transformation.
IT leaders are turning to public and/or private APIs to help integrate their applications, systems and data. Those that do so report increased productivity (54%) and innovation (47%). They are also more likely (81%) to complete all or nearly all projects, compared to those that do not use APIs (64%), Mulesoft found.
Additionally, teams that leverage APIs are 69% less likely to report significant integration challenges. And APIs represent a key revenue channel: IT leaders report that an average of 31% of their company’s revenue is generated from APIs.
Four in five (80%) organisations that have APIs also have some form of strategy in place, and the study showed that adopting any form of API strategy – such as project-by-project or mandated by leadership – is associated with better business outcomes including higher productivity.
The most effective API strategy is top-down: although only 12% of organisations have a leadership-mandated strategy, they are 36% more productive than those that adopt other API strategies and complete 67% more projects than those with a bottom-up strategy.
Further benefits include greater employee involvement, as 56% of IT teams with a leadership-mandated API strategy reported an increase in employee collaboration and engagement, compared to only 37% of those with a bottom-up strategy.
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Tags: digital transformation
