Back in the last decade
Dovetail Software, then going by the name First Choice Software,
started creating APIs to extend Clarify CRM
systems in new ways that went beyond the feature and function sets
coded into the Clarify software. This was immediately acclaimed by
grateful IT departments throughout the market.
Software and especially networked distribution have come a long way since our early days in the field, but the humble API still remains front-page headline news every day.
“Three new APIs were listed on the site today: one
helps you see where $14 trillion in your US taxes go, another gives you
search access to 7 million hours of videos, and the third can help you
manage and integrate email marketing campaigns.” – New APIs
API stands for
application programming interface, and it’s a small piece of
programming that performs one or more specific functions. The API presents an interface into the larger body of source code that makes up the entire application. The genius of the API is that a simple line of open-standard
script usually is enough to call it into action, and it performs its
functions within the running application, while the application code
itself doesn’t have to contain the API
function. This allows for afterthoughts and improvements without
extensive overhaul of vast systems of code – but it requires coding in
context of the larger body.
APIs are often released by
their application vendors, because they generally know the code the
best. In the case of Clarify, Dovetail engineers have always known the
Clarify code as well as its developers, perhaps even better. We
developed APIs to supply functions that Clarify users wanted but
couldn’t get. You want to be able to close an open case and open a new
one, for example, and let the database know the connection between the
two, and you want to do this with a customer waiting on a phone line or
sitting across a desk from you.
There are over 600
Dovetail APIs, performing an array of functions at the agent’s
fingertips that were never built into the Clarify code, and that can
often only be realized through the Dovetail APIs. Because we have
always developed to assist the area of customer service and support, the Forgotten Space of CRM,
our APIs group in toolkits aimed at extending these areas of the
Clarify install: ClearSupport; ClearQuality; ClearLogistics;
ClearContracts; Field Operations; Depot Repair; ClearSales; Interfaces.
All
of this additional Dovetail functionality ultimately has to communicate
with the Clarify database, either retrieving or storing data. The heart
of the CRM system is its database, and
enterprise data is its greatest stored wealth. Nowadays, the Clarify
database is the only part of the original install that a Clarify owner
needs to retain: the Dovetail enhanced functionality that began with
the humble API is now compiled into Dovetail CRM, a full-fledged, thin-client application suite that simply replaces the Amdocs Clarify applications.
Today,
the desktop computer has exploded – in the way that a technical drawing
of a machine shows an exploded view – to become the Web. Users now find
a use for pieces of functionality supplied by applications not even
running on their desktop, and the idea of the mashup, composite
applications, in the web browser comes into play. APIs that extend
applications (such as Google Maps) are suddenly valuable as a way to
retrieve data at a distributed distance.
“Respondents were asked to rate on a scale of one to
five the degree of challenge faced when integrating live data into
their applications and enterprise mashups [...] Over 65 percent of
respondents listed ‘quality of available data’ and ‘relevancy of
available data’ as the most challenging aspects of data integration.” –
Enterprise Mashups
Indeed. Function requires data to perform
against, and data requires updating when function changes status. We
titled this piece Data Massage, but really that’s too narrow, implying
a fixed amount of data being reworked. The Clarify database is the
center of a live system of customer relationship, with new data
constantly created.
Data flows both ways, and needs to get
“mashed up” within the department and the larger enterprise in
countless ways. With the APIs, and now Dovetail Web Services, and the
legendary extensibility that Dovetail Software brings to the Amdocs
Clarify install, the mashups are almost infinite.
