How Do APIs Work?

APIs play an important role in many of the products and services we use today. For example, you use APIs when you check the weather, or use a social media application on your phone. The API connects the consumer asking for a service to the source or database.

The following analogy of a customer at a restaurant is a simple way of demonstrating how APIs work.

The customer sits at the table in a restaurant and has a choice of menu items to order from. The waiter takes the customer’s order and conveys it to the kitchen. The kitchen prepares the order and the waiter brings it to the customer.

The waiter in this scenario is the API, shielding the customer from the complicated processes of the kitchen, while still enabling the customer to interact with the kitchen and get the meal that they want. The organisation is the entity asking for the service, and is therefore the customer. The menu that the waiter hands to the customer in the restaurant is the documentation which explains what you can ask for from the API. The kitchen is the system that holds information and runs processes.

APIs can be grouped under the following categories:

Inbound APIs – From a Camms perspective, it is something which brings data into the Camms ecosystem from any number of potential source systems. While it is an incoming call to Camms which our inbound APIs need to ‘listen’ for, it is also an outbound call from the perspective of the external source system.

Outbound APIs – An outbound API therefore, allows you to take data out of the Camms ecosystem. Camms outbound APIs nee to ‘transmit’ this data so the external source system can pick it up as an incoming call.

How Do APIs Help Your Business?

Essentially, APIs help to get systems talking to each other. APIs connect otherwise disconnected systems such as ERPs, CRMs, finance, HR and marketing platforms and get them communicating with each other. You would want something happening in one system to automatically drive information into the other systems you use, without someone manually having to manage that process. And that is precisely what APIs do. They save time and money for the organisation overall, in terms of efficiency gains and improved experiences.

What is Camms.Connect and How Does it Work?

Camms.Connect provides your organisation with access to robust business services via standards-based, real-time APIs. These APIs provide opportunities for interaction with many critical areas of Camms, including staff, financials, projects, incidents, risks and measures. What Camms.Connect really does is provide the means for software to read information from inside Camms, input information from outside Camms and automatically react when things change.

How Can You Use Camms.Connect?

There are many ways to use Camms.Connect APIs. Here are some:

• Extracting data for use in third party BI solutions such as Power BI or Tableau.
• Extracting data from within a Camms solution for input into any other processes, such as ERP solutions.
• Bringing in staff, user and organisation structure details into Camms from your HR system.
• Bringing in financial information, including accounts and budget, expense figures, for use in Camms.Strategy and Camms.Project.
• Bringing in information to automatically update actual values for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Create incidents in Camms.Risk based on events and triggers captured in other source systems.

APIs Currently Available on Camms.Connect

• Incident Connectors – APIs which enable reading data from Camms.Risk Incident capability. This includes Incident data from a variety of areas including Incident Details, Actions, Tasks, Custom Objects and Workflows.
• Project Connectors – APIs which enable reading data from Camms.Project. This includes Project data from a variety of areas including Project Details, Board and Team, Tasks, Risks, KPIs, Implementation Budget, Custom Objects and Workflows.
• Financial Connectors – APIs which enable you to bring Financial data from third party systems to Camms, as well as read and modify Financial data already existing within Camms. This includes data on Accounts, Ledgers and Balances.
• HR Connectors – APIs which enable you to bring Human Resource data from third party systems to Camms, as well as read and modify Human Resource data already existing within Camms. This includes data on Staff, Users, Permissions, Positions and Organisation Hierarchy.
• KPI Connectors – APIs which enable you to bring KPI data from third party systems to Camms. This includes creation of Normal, Trend, Calculated and Rollup KPI which also allows to add periodic actuals to a specific KPI.
• Camms Strategy Action Connector – APIs which enable you to read Action and Task data from Camms.Strategy. This includes Action details, Action Filters, Action Targets and Task details.
• Custom Hierarchy Connector – APIs which enable you to create Custom Hierarchy in Camms as well as read Custom Hierarchy details and nodes already existing within Camms.
• Risk Connector – APIs which enable you to read data from Camms.Risk. This includes Risk data from a variety of areas including Causes, Consequences, Actions, Controls and Treatments.

Security and Usability of Camms.Connect

The Camms.Connect APIs have been built with security in mind, and have all standard security measures in place. We use SSL communication tunnels and Camms API token to validate authority prior to data access.

In terms of usability, there is some level of technical expertise that is required to set up the APIs, especially if you are integrating with another system. But if you do not have that expertise in-house, Camms can provide that service for you.

If you are interested in learning more or would like to request a demo, please get in touch with us via cammscollege@cammsgroup.com You can also find out more details by visiting developer.cammsconnect.com.au.