Roadblocks to Implementing Modern Digital Infrastructure: Exploratory Study of API Deployment in Large Organizations

Abstract

Application programming interfaces (APIs) are an important component of digital infrastructure. Extensively employed in diverse industries, APIs are a boundary resource that enables new business models, enhances efficiency, and generates new sources of revenue. As little is known about how organizations deploy APIs, we conducted an exploratory examination of organizational deployment challenges of this important component of digital infrastructure. Analysis of semi-structured interview data collected within two large organizations reveals managerial challenges involving data, incentives, shared knowledge, and supplier management. Overall, our study contributes to knowledge about boundary resources while informing management practice concerning this emergent business imperative in the fourth industrial revolution.

Responding to Healthcare Emergency Outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic with Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

“…RPA was chosen over the standard system integration, as it was faster to develop. The time it takes to prepare for an API change has already been discussed by Melville and Kohli (2021) who quoted: "You have to give us enough time because we have to change the application, we have to test the application, and deploy it.' Thus, it was not efficient to deploy any other technology than RPA when according to Informant 5 "the process should be implemented within 1 week when we are dealing with many systems, and normal integration would be taking several months".…”

“…The modelled and improved processes, with eliminated waste are then reviewed with process experts or key users that participate in the initial process definition, aiming at obtaining final process version that works as basis for RPA (Wanner et al, 2018) The key drivers of implementing RPA in the commercial setting are cost reductions, increased compliance, quality, stability and predictability of processing results, speed of delivery, improved productivity, or economic efficiency (Kedziora et al, 2021). Moreover, its reported high organizational success compared to traditional methods often lays in its short return on investment (ROI) and deployment time (van der Aalst et al, 2018), as opposed to traditional system integrations over application processing interfaces (APIs) that requires more resources and time to implement (Melville and Kohli, 2021). Tasks with the highest automation potential are based on logical rules, repetitive, mundane, straightforward, and high-volume (Rutschi and Dibbern, 2020).…”

Distant but close: Locational, relational and temporal proximity in cloud computing adoption

“…Cloud services are not isolated technologies, but a suite of complex services 14 increasingly integrated within complex organisational digital infrastructures (Tilson et al, 2010). These often employ complex boundary resources (such as APIs) which connect an ecosystem of services (Melville and Kohli, 2021). In this way, today's adopted cloud service is unlikely to be isolated and is more likely to form part of an emerging incomplete and complex ecosystem and infrastructure (Constantinides et al, 2018) with resultant complex work practices which requires learning and integrating into organisational routines (Feldman, 2000).…”

Putting humans back in the loop: An affordance conceptualization of the 4th industrial revolution

“…The concept of connection has been used in the 4IR literature to describe ubiquitous connectivity that blurs biological, physical, and digital boundaries (Pauli et al, 2021), including extensible interconnection between systems (Melville & Kohli, 2021a), cyber‐physical connections (Malope et al, 2021), and new relationships between machines and humans (Kassner et al, 2017). Generically, machines are emulating dimensions of human relationships and teaming (Edmondson, 2012), such as a disembodied human‐like voice forming a relationship with a homebound senior citizen over time and improving well‐being, or three geographically separated machines responding to an online purchase to create a dopamine hit for a shopper via personalised inline advertisements spanning diverse digital platforms.…”