In February 2022, IT integration and management firm Torry Harris published a blog post making a bold claim. The article, We Are All System Integrators In the Age of APIs, discusses how most businesses use some mixture of products from different vendors and cloud-native applications, all of which need to be connected to one another.

Companies need to be able to make informed, data-driven decisions to remain competitive. APIs are the infrastructure that makes connecting all these components possible, so it’s not a stretch to state that APIs are the cornerstone of a system integrator’s toolkit.

Systems integrators aren’t the only ones relying on APIs to make their jobs possible, either. Value-added resellers (VARS) also rely heavily on APIs to bring value to their customers. But what are system integrators, exactly? What about value-added resellers? Let’s dig in to find out how boosting API knowledge can elevate their products and services.

What Are System Integrators?

System integrators are individuals or businesses that design systems for their clients using a mixture of software, hardware, networking, and storage. It’s not uncommon for each of these pieces to come from a different vendor, so they need to communicate with one another in some way.

Systems integrators usually create a series of subsystems, allowing various tools to work together. This prevents companies from having to create custom tooling for every application. This could potentially save a great deal of money, as it allows business owners to use off-the-shelf components that tend to be much cheaper than their custom-made counterparts.

System integrators can either work with a company to upgrade their existing network or they can build an entirely new system from the ground up. The process is similar either way. It typically begins with a consultation, where the systems integrator discusses the company’s goals and any problems they’re potentially having. This is followed by a thorough inventory of the organization’s infrastructure. Once the systems integrator knows all the components they’re working with, they’ll be able to create or design a system, allowing them to connect each component plus any new equipment to existing hardware.

What Is a Value-Added Reseller?

Value-added resellers (VARs) improve third-party tools and resources and then resell them to end-users. Like system integrators, VARs tend to use a range of software, applications, and hardware in addition to providing consultation and maintenance.

You might think of a VAR as a mixture of IT, tech support, vendor, and systems integrator. VARs are popular with both customers and vendors, as VARs can customize vendor tools, making them more valuable and easier to use. VARs and system integrators have a lot in common, but some key differences can help illustrate both of their roles and how APIs play their part.

System Integrators vs. VARs

The main difference between systems integrators and VARs is that VARs tend to be licensed to resell both software and hardware, making them move like vendors who will also set up the infrastructure. System integrators tend to focus more on creating or designing the tools to make the system work. It’s also a good illustration of how difficult it is to draw a neat line between the two, as many systems integrators are also VARs and vice-versa.

They’re still two distinct entities, though, each using APIs in their own way. Generally speaking, VARs tend to focus more on small and mid-sized businesses, while system integrators are more likely to work with large organizations. Vendors often offer partner programs for systems integrators, while VARs might more closely resemble traditional sales programs. Both involve APIs for a wide range of functions. Let’s look at a couple of examples to give you some ideas on how using APIs more effectively can benefit systems integrators and VARs.

How System Integrators and VARs Use APIs

First, let’s look at Azumo, one of the leading system integrators on the market. Azumo offers API-first design for their SaaS clients, letting clients connect virtually any data source or third-party application to their analytics platforms. They also offer microservices and containerization for their clients, all of which run on APIs.

With this configuration, Azumo can set its customers up for DevOps, helping them get products to the marketplace more quickly. They also build custom UI/UX, as they did for Angle Health. Angle Health, a healthcare technology provider, needed to get products more quickly while still offering quality customer service compliant with medical data privacy standards. To do this, they built a new React website, frontend, backend, and custom software. This is a good example of how system integrators and VARs can improve products by intelligently using APIs since the React website and frontend use APIs to perform all of their functions.

A systems integrator might improve such a product by using APIs cleverly. For example, every country has its own regulations around medical data compliance. They might create an intermediary layer that detects the user’s location and automatically formats their data to be compliant without the need for additional input from the user, making everyone’s lives easier while reducing the likelihood of error. They could also use APIs to send data to multiple locations if they liked, reducing the need for unnecessary repetitions.

Let’s finish by looking at some of the examples offered by Workato, a popular integration-platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) provider. One example is a fairly straightforward system integration scenario — connecting a sales platform like Salesforce to a marketing platform like Marketo. A system integrator might make it so that a marketer receives a message when a sales lead has been updated in some capacity, for example.

Markato provides many more examples of how system integrators might use an iPaaS, which functions more similarly to a webhook app like Zapier. For instance, that same sales trigger that messaged the marketing platform might integrate with the company Slack channel. For one final example, it could create a ticket in Zendesk if a customer has an issue.

Final Thoughts on System Integrators and VARs Using APIs

There are endless ways system integrators and VARs can improve their products by optimizing how they use APIs. They can eliminate redundant tasks, allow tools to communicate with one another, even improve customer service, and get products to market more quickly.

Using APIs intelligently allows system integrators and VARs to maximize their tools and resources when paired with proper security protocols like customer identity and access management (CIAM). CIAM allows system integrators, VARs, and their customers to use decentralized tools like containers and microservices to add services to existing resources via API while remaining efficient, easy to use, and — most importantly — secure.