BBVA Innovation Edge. APIS (English)

MARCH 2015
also
in this
issue
Trending issues
Technology trends
HELLO THERE,
DIGITAL!
WILL YOU
MAKE ME API?
<!The digital economy & APIs>
<!APIs help companies to address change>
<!The business benefits of APIs>
<!
The digital
economy
& APIs
Software is becoming the business
and, as a result, businesses are becoming
programmable. To gain competitive
advantage, leading businesses are
becoming increasingly digital. In other
words, everyone seems to be obsessing
with APIs, the building blocks
of the digital economy.
innovation edge | APIs | centrodeinnovacionbbva.com
Software is Eating
the World
(Marc Andreessen, 2011)
Operating a modern business, by in large, has become
a software affair; it allows companies to better create,
deliver, and capture value from their business models.
In the near future, software will enable organizations to
radically improve the way they operate.
While softwar
e used to be e
xclusive
to inherently
digital busine
sses
or Internet er
a businesses s
uch as
Amazon and S
alesforce.com
, it now
permeates alm
ost every indu
stry
and product
Increasingly, all
businesses are
becoming soft
ware-driven.
As a result:
Internal proce
sses are
starting to be
automated,
the first step t
o becoming
optimized.
Ancillary IT
functions are
gaining new
efficiencies.
Processes tha
t used to be sl
ow
are now takin
g place in real
or near real tim
e.
The workforce
is now fully
mobility-enab
led.
An increasing
ly large amou
nt of
data is becom
ing available f
or
making busin
ess decisions,
and
data quality is
improving ste
adily.
APIs: what are they?
APIs, at their core, provide two main

types of benefit:
APIs are the building blocks of the digital

economy. They make existing capabilities
fungible, so that it is possible to use them in
new ways, quickly and easily, thereby spurring innovation and new value creation.
(Laura Merling, AT&T).
They
According to a leading subject matter expert, an

API (Application Programming Interface) at its
most basic level, allows your product or service
to talk to other products or services. In this way,
an API allows you to open up data and functionality to other developers, to other businesses or
even between departments and locations within your company. It is increasingly the way in
which companies exchange data, services and
complex resources, both internally, externally
with partners, and openly with the public.
restructure and organize internal systems to support innovative new projects in

a uniform mannerreducing maintenance
costs and increasing agility.
They
provide new opportunities to generate new ways to reach customers, generate revenue and build partnerships.
In other words, they create programmable

businesses. Specifically, they execute software
strategies structured around extensive internal
and external interfaces. These interfaces (APIs)
are the key to unlocking the power of the software itself.
As we see, in the near future, all businesses are
going to be programmable. At its core, the digital economy is powered by APIs. As such, companies that manage APIs well will enjoy differentiation and be competitive; and companies that
dont are simply asking themselves to be taken
out of the digital economy altogether.
Source: 3scale and Kin Lane
Some recent news

The management of APIs drew much attention
throughout 2014, and continues to do so this
year. Actually, if we look at the intense pace of
news generated about this subject, it seems
that the business of managing APIs is not
negligible..
Save Time with Easy Maps API

Integration from Java
and Python
(January 7, 2015)
The Google Maps API provides a
rich set of web services that allow
developers to integrate them into
connected applications
Sony launches API for

programming embedded
applications on their devices
(January 5, 2015)
API LifeLog monitors your daily
activity, and now it has a new
interface with an open API, based on
HTML5, which optimizes the user
experience and visual
Mother returns and opens

its API to developers
(January 5, 2015)
The home automation kit Sense
connects to your router and is paired
with devices that detect nmovimientos
and temperature. In February will open
its API to developers to improve
updates intelligent home appliance
Facebook Graph API V2.0

tools ease Dev Transition
(December 29, 2014)
Facebook recently made a new tool available to developers that it hopes will kickstart
the migration from Graph API version 1 (v1)
to Graph API version 2 (v2). The tool lets developers see how things will behave in the
v2 environment before they actually make
the switch and publish their updated app
How the UKs government

is leading api security
(December 29, 2014)
As modern information exchange is relying
more and more heavily on APIs, security for
these web services is critical for
ensuring proper identity authentication and
for controling varying levels of API access.
The United Kingdoms government has
become a well-known leader in carefully
implementing these measures
Seldon aids data scientists

with predictive API
(December 23, 2014)
A new open-source API, Seldon,
wants to remove the demand on
data scientists by making it easy to
plug-in algorithms which can recommend content to customers, offer app personalisation, and other
complicated-but-powerful features
APIs help
companies
to address
change
More than ever, external realities
are forcing companies to adapt;
its not if your industry will get
disrupted; its a matter of when.
Today, APIs are helping companies
adapt to both incremental and
disruptive change.
Disruptive
changes are upon us
Large corporations are currently experiencing many disruptive changes at different
levels and at different areas of the business
model, all at the same time.
Change in productivity model:
Industry
Knowledge
We are currently moving away from an industrial-based productivity model and we are moving towards a knowledge-based productivity
model, where knowing is more important
than having. In a sense, knowledge-based
businesses capture most of their margins
from knowing things; conversely, industrialbased businesses capture most of their margins from having things. This change in the
productivity model has been much discussed
and, in the end, it seems that EVERYONE wants
to become a digital business. EVERYONE!
Change in technology paradigm:

PCs
Devices
According to Gartner, the Nexus of Forces (Social, Mobile, Cloud and Information) describes
the convergence and mutual reinforcement
of four interdependent trends: social interaction, mobility, cloud, and information. The forces combine to empower individuals as they
interact with each other and their information
through well-designed ubiquitous technology. These forces are causing a major shift
in the computing paradigm: we are moving
away from PCs and moving towards devices
(smartphones, tablets, wearables, etc.).
Source: Gartner
CUSTOMERS
MO
BIL
E
PARTNERS
EMPLOYEES
THE
DIGITAL
ENTERPRISE
L
A
I
C
SO
A
T
A
D
G
I
B
CL
OU
D
Change in business models:

Web
Apps
In the future, Apigee, the API management company, is projecting a
world with over 1 trillion devices,
each with several apps installed.
In essence, these apps help businesses to deeply understand and
build a meaningful relationship
model; offer better delivery models (directly or through partners);
and ultimately, create new value
propositions, leading to new revenue growth. This change generally
affects the customer-facing areas
of the business model. And guess
what? APIs enable this transition.
Change in business models:

IT
Platforms
In traditional IT, computing resources are viewed as scarce and expensive; perhaps this is one of the
reasons why IT projects are measured in years. Whereas Platforms,
computing resources are viewed
as abundant and cheap; interestingly, these projects are measured
in weeks. The strength of the Platform model is that it allows companies to better manage people, time,
and costs. This change generally affects the company-facing areas of
the business model. Again, APIs are
behind this as well.
Source: Apigee
APIs & the

dynamic view
of corporations
A dynamic view of the corporation assumes that companies must constantly adapt to
their environment to ensure
their long-term survival and
economic success. Generally
speaking, corporations must
have the capability to adapt to
two types of change:
Change which is characterized by long periods of slow,
incremental change; and
Short periods of rapid
discontinuous or radical change.
Given all the stuff that is going
on right now, its pretty safe to
say that we are in a prolonged
period of rapid, disruptive
change. In that regard, APIs offer technology enabled solutions to manage both types of
change at different levels and
in different parts of the business model.
Source: Rene Rohrbeck, 3scale, and Apigee
Today, APIs are at the

heart of innovation
IBM, in their recent global survey of C-level executives, discuss 3 themes that will most likely
help organizations shape their futures. Not surprisingly, innovation was discussed. The study
explains, the intersection between the digital
and physical is the leading edge of innovation.
As the digital infuses the physical, and vice
versa, organizations are transforming the customer experience, understanding and engaging the customer as an individual rather than
as a category or market segment. For example,
smart pills and smartphone heart monitors,
intelligent vehicles and crowd-sourced traffic

routing, books that respond to a readers location and apps that enhance the in-store experience: the possibilities are enormous. At the
same time, companies are also facing rising
customer expectations and decreasing tolerance. This means that both customer-facing
and company-facing areas of the business
model must become programmed to meet
new challenges in the digital world. In other
words, they have to be API.
Source: IBM
Digital ambitions: CMOs want to put

the components of a strong digital
strategy in place
TODAY
Integration of
crosschannel touchpoints
Analytics to capture
customer insights
Digitally enabled
supply chain
87%
16%
83%
13%
Social networks to foster collaboration

Workforce aligned
to opportunities
3-5 YEARS
78%
20%
13%
11%
73%
69%
The
business
benefits
of APIs
In the API world of today,
innovations are currently focused
on two main areas of the business
model: the company-facing area
and the customer-facing area.
Lets take a quick look at some the
benefits that APIs have to offer to
organizations.
The company-facing
benefits of APIs
As previously mentioned, APIs restructure and
organize internal systems to support innovative new projects in a uniform manner - reducing maintenance costs and increasing agility.
Some benefits of internal consumption of APIs
include:
Source: 3scale and Apigee
Custom integrations
are costly to
establish and
maintain, inhibiting
change. An API
allows greater
experimentation
and internal and
external innovation.
New
opportunities
Controlled
access to close
partners and
contractors
Improved
change
management
Reduced
complexity
In many cases,
businesses need to work
with external contractors
for new functionality or
distribution (such as in
the rollout of a new
iPhone app or
syndicated content).
With API-supported
collaboration, both
parties have a clearly
defined foundation for
partnership, reducing
the security risk.
New
opportunities
Controlled
access to close
partners and
contractors
Improved
change
management
Reduced
complexity
APIs can provide a

common root so that
transactions can flow
from wherever they
originate: mobile apps,
integrations with
clients, the clients
website or physical
devices. All mapped into
unified internal systems.
New
opportunities
Controlled
access to close
partners and
contractors
Improved
change
management
Reduced
complexity
Since user interfaces are added or

changed frequently
across a company,
APIs provide a way
to stabilize core
transaction services,
for a much more
solid platform that
enables rapid iteration at the edge.
New
opportunities
Controlled
access to close
partners and
contractors
Improved
change
management
Reduced
complexity
Mobile
Enterprise without API

Mobile applications for specific platforms, each with a separate
code base and ad-hoc server back end.
Enterprise with API
In the backend, through the API, it is possible to program applications with third party data.
Customer
Integration

One-to-one custom integrations at high cost, using rigid pointto-point integration technologies such as SOA.
Enterprise with API
Provision of different services through an API, allowing customers and partners to integrate them as a self-service adapted to
their particular needs.
Digital Distribution
Channels

Limited choice among automated advertising style channels
and expensive, custom integrations with each partner. Limited
opportunity to reach new audiences.
Enterprise with API
Provision of content and transactions via well-structured APIs,
often with software development kits (SDKs) added to speed
partner integration of the content or tansactions.
Direct Access
to Infrastructure

High capacity infrastructure is accessible only internally within
the company through restricted interfaces.
Enterprise with API
APIs are used to open up core infrastructure directly for use
by outsiders, so it can be turned into a key business. Amazon
has done this with its Elastic Compute Cloud and companies
like Twilio do this with cloud communications.
Internal
Development

Direct to database and backend systems applications across
multiple departments, creating fragile interdependencies, security issues and slow-moving innovation.
Enterprise with API
Creating an API, you can separate the access to backend services and new applications, creating a development environment for apps more modular, flexible and better documented.
The customer-facing
benefits of APIs
If the benefits of internal consumption of APIs
wasnt enough to convince you wait, theres
more. There are also customer-facing benefits
APIs, including the enablement of an organization to create powerful new external partnership, distribution and transaction channels.
Ultimately these changes mean organizations

become platforms in the truest sense: providing their core value to customers and partners
in the form these entities need it.
APIs can transform businesses into powerful platforms that support partners, customers and
the wider world. The organizations that seize this opportunity are joining the API Economy. In
so doing, these organizations:
Enable
flexible APIs as a major channel into their business,

enabling transactions to be driven from anywhere.
Provide mobile, web and other client interfaces as a
flexible layer of channels on top of this API.
Allow customers to integrate directly to core systems, providing
more value and creating a strong provider-customer relationship.
Grow strong ecosystems of partners that repurpose, resell and
re-bundle assets to reach new audiences that the original
organization could never have reached alone.
5 most common
business use of APIs
Mobile Enablement
The backend API must be defined as the baseline platform for all of an organizations mobile applications. If organizations define the
backend API as such, they create a stable abstraction layer between internal resources
and a changing set of external applications.
As a result, this architecture provides a stable
backend baseline for multiple applications on
different device types; fosters agility for the development of new applications; and creates a
natural boundary to the edge of the organization, which is critical when the organization
partners with external design or development
agencies.
5 most common
business use
of APIs
Customer and Partner
Ecosystem Growth
Here, were talking about building a platform. A
platform essentially creates an arena in which
others can create value, either directly for
themselves (customer platforms typically) or
for others (partner platforms). There are three
broad audiences for which an organization can
open itself up as a platform: customers, reseller
partners, and integrators & software partners.
Platform means
Exposing key sets of content or transactional capability in a programmable
way such that customers or third par-
ties can create long running integrations on top of the functionality.

Providing support for these integrations
and related business engagements.
Helping to promote particular partner integrations.
Business Benefits of Platforms

Grow functionality without writing code.
Cross-connect with complimentary solutions.
Enhance value for customers.
Increase stickiness.
Grow reach.
5 most common
Developing Massive Reach
for Transactions and Content
Building APIs that accelerate reach fall into two broad categories, depending
on the type of product involved:
Content and Data

Content and media businesses are continually seeking new ways to reach
their audiences. While a companys own web property and mobile applications may provide the primary means to reach audiences, in the API Economy this is no longer enough: Consumers expect content to be available
whenever and wherever they need it, and companies that become adept at
delivering this have a powerful advantage, be this on new hardware devices
or through partner channels or aggregators.
Business Benefits of API Powered Distribution
Low cost partner integration.
Reach niche channels quickly.
Place familiar branded content and purchase opportunities wherever customers wish to access them.
Use context to add value to the customer and your business.
5 most common
Developing Massive Reach
for Transactions and Content
Transactions
Providing inventory and transaction capabilities in a programmatic way and
using both to drive transactions is a powerful strategy for businesses, and it
can also be beneficial to brick-and-mortar retailers. Since business success
is strongly correlated with transaction volume, APIs can enable increasingly
powerful affiliate models to drive businesses, or even more radically, wholly
self-sufficient third party resellers.
Business Benefits of API Powered Transactions
APIs enable third parties to pull inventory, pricing and description information, as well as ratings and much more.
This, in turn, enables resellers to build sophisticated new niche shop fronts.
Sales are subsequently tracked via affiliate links that attribute the
sale and result in revenue share payments to the third parties.
Other partners can embed simple product search or purchasing links
in their sites, whose main purpose is not to sell but to engage a specific type of audience. The API allows the powerful, flexible selection of
the product listing that results in the best fit for the niche audience.
5 most common
Powering New Business Models
Emerging Business Models in the API world
Fixed Cost-PerMonth and Tiered

Rate Pricing
Different levels of access based on tires of

fixed cost-per-month and
providing varying numbers of transactions per
month.
5 most common
Fixed Cost-Per-Month
Tiered Volume Rate
Pricing With Overages
The same as the previous model, but allowing

price overages when an
account is above quota.
5 most common
Providing different types

of return data (richer vs.
simpler) for different subscription fees.
Data Quality Based

Tiered Pricing
5 most common
Up-front purchase of a
certain number of usage
credits which are then
burned down by calls
made on the API or other
events.
Credit-Based Systems
Accelerate
projects
Create a safety layer
around key assets
Create a
structure that
supports the
engagement
of external
contracts
5 most
common
business use
of APIs
Achieve greater
agility and
maintainability
Driving Internal Innovation

The low-hanging fruit of APIs are
generally associated with internal
use of APIs. Actively defining the
nature of the interfaces to different
internal systems, departments and
processes creates an environment
that is ready for change and innovation.
Predictive
APIs: the
mirror in
which
companies
see their
future
Can you imagine that we could
identify those individuals most
likely to commit a crime? Or
what employees may leave a
company within the next six
months? What a few years ago
would be just a science fiction
challenge today is a reality.
The technology sector...

has been working for some time now on making the most of APIs (Application Programming
Interfaces), those complex algorithms that are revolutionizing the lives of software developers
and entrepreneurs. 2014 was definitely the year of those startups that have seized the opportunities offered by open APIs.
Among the companies dedicated to providing services through these applications, those
working within the field of predictive APIs and
machine learning
are at the forefront of
innovation. Startups like Big ML, Clever Task,
Scaled Inference, Datagami, Indico or Dataiku
lead a discipline that will change forever the
criteria for business investment, management
and process control, risk assessment, obtaining predictions of demand, diagnostic, recommendations, stock market, sports results... A
true revolution. In fact, large companies with
great economic potential such as Google, Mi-
crosoft, Facebook or IBM have been experimenting in this field for a while.
Predictive APIs allow the creation of simple
tools to process data and create patterns to
make decisions. They are also able to learn
and predict needs and goals. That is their real
power: they not only handle data, they also
anticipate it thanks to the design of predictive
models based on statistical patterns. Industries such as automotive, banking, insurance,
energy, healthcare or retail are already using
these APIs.
innovation edge | APIs

centrodeinnovacionbbva.com
The case
of Big ML, from
theory to practice
One of the companies with more potential in
the use of these applications and their adoption in machine learning is Big ML, founded
by Francisco J. Martn , a Spanish expert in
Big Data renowned worldwide. Before launching this startup, Martn led Strands , a pioneer company in the research and application
of social recommendation technologies in areas such as music, finance or sports. Always involved in innovative entrepreneurship projects,
he also founded iSOCO , dedicated to Artificial Intelligence and the semantic web.
Martns current team has actually become one
of the major players in the industry: Big ML has
been rated as one of the nine startups that
have improved our lives in 2014 and a report by The Bloor Group
states that it is
one of the companies to watch in 2015 .
We have
customers in
the US whose
market value
is greater
than all
the Ibex 35
in Spain
says Martn, highlighting the strong
commitment to predictive APIs on the
other side of the Atlantic.
Among the practical cases Big

ML is working on now is:
THE REDUCTION OF NON-PERFORMING ASSET RATIOS of

banks or financial institutions. In many cases, credit risk
departments fail to evaluate candidates for a loan or mortgage.
By using APIs and predictive models, they can detect the
customers most likely to default and act accordingly.
They are also working in the retail sector, to ASSIGN PRICES

WITH HIGHER LEVELS OF SALES AND DEMAND.
Another of the reasons why large corporations often hire Big ML

is for the DETECTION OF FRAUD in procurement systems,
guarantee programs or budget management. According
to Martn, in large companies it is not unusual to detect scams
related to negotiations with distributors or suppliers, who may
receive cheaper budget proposals aside from the company.
Big ML solutions allow managers to detect these frauds easily.
Easy and
scalable solutions
The success of this startup lies in making complex things
simple. Big ML has grabbed APIs and algorithms related to prediction and machine learning existing for 10
or 20 years, scientific tools for scientists as defined by
Martn, and simplified them so that they can be used
by anyone: Now they are easier to program and are
scalable, therefore they work well with large volumes of
data. This allows dragging data to an interface intuitively,
make projections about what will happen in a company
and propose initiatives.
The data scientist that many companies are looking for,
somebody who knows how to program and also knows
statistics and mathematics, is a very complicated profile. Superman doesnt exist says the Spanish entrepreneur. The truth is that creating your own algorithm to
take full advantage of data is very expensive and takes
a long time, he explains. Hence, solutions like Big ML,
which seamlessly blends predictive APIs, statistical patterns and data visualization, are tools of great value to
any company.
The future of predictive APIs

In a cutting-edge sector as predictive APIs, businesses are always looking to the future. For Martn, the next steps are working on the composition of APIs; to be able to create meccanos
of applications that allow us to develop smarter solutions. At
present, there are more machine learning professionals focused
on leveraging algorithms that already exist than on the creation
of new ones. When somebody makes an improvement in an
algorithm, the leap in quality can be measured in hundredths,
says the CEO of Big ML.
Another key element in 2015 will be the standardization process of predictive APIs. It is possible that we move towards the
creation of models that regardless of who, how, when and why,
everyone is able to use them, says Martn. A recent study by
the Open Data Institute and Fingleton Associates stressed
the need for advances in the standardization of APIs in the financial sector. Based on this analysis, the British government
issued a document calling the banking sector to make an
effort in this area. It is most likely that something similar will
happen with predictive APIs and all the work done by the community of developers in this technological field.
Global
Snapshots
Well take look at key API management
vendors, some examples of API usage
from the financial services industry, and
notable examples from other industries.
Leading API
Management
Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Other
Industries
3scale
3scale is a young API management vendor. It features a distributed architecture (part of which is open source) with onpremises agents and policy management in the cloud, which
is different from the cloud intermediary model of most other API management vendors. The company markets a free
3scale Connect (a standard, self-service product with a ceiling on functionality, usage volumes and restricted SLAs) and
3scale Enterprise (a fully featured platform with strong SLAs,
24/7 phone support and higher transaction volume ranges).
The offering is sold worldwide using a Web-based model.
Leading API
Management
Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Other
Industries
Apigee
Apigee was an early entrant and has been a visionary player in
API management, since the market started developing more
than six years ago. It offers a fully functional API management
platform (Enterprise), a tool to integrate data from different
sources to provide business analytics of developer/customer/
product behavior (Insight) and API Exchange (for the telco
industry). Offerings are available in the cloud or on-premises.
Most of Apigees clients are in the U.S. or Europe.
Leading API
Management
Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Other
Industries
Axway (Vordel)
Axway acquired Vordel to mix integration, governance and
cloud functions in a B2B infrastructure offering with API
management capabilities. The Vordel API Server (renamed
Axway API Server, which is available on-premises and in the
cloud) provides integration engine services. It is part of the
Axway 5 Suite, which offers control and optimization of the
flow of data within the enterprise, and externally through
integration, community management, visibility, policy and
security. Axway (Vordel)s main markets are in Europe and
North America.
Leading API
Management
Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Other
Industries
CA Technologies (Layer 7)
CA Technologies (Layer 7)s licensed, on-premises technology
is sold under the SecureSpan product name; the cloud entrylevel API CSB and SaaS offerings are sold under the APIfy.co
brand as they typically have different buyers. CA Technologies (Layer 7)s offering in the cloud is already used by CSBs,
mainly telcos and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers.
CA Technologies (Layer 7) sells mainly in North America, and
increasingly in Europe.
Leading API
Management
Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Other
Industries
Intel (Mashery)
Intel (Mashery) is at the forefront of API management, and its
cloud-centric offering features several areas of functionality
that fall under the SOA governance umbrella. An on-premises
version of Mashery has been available since October 2011. It
offers a wide set of services and policies that span the whole
service/API life cycle, with particular attention to the promotion
of APIs, and the business issues behind them. The Intel acquisition of Mashery closed on 9 May 2013. However, this report
evaluated Intel (Mashery) as a separate entity from Intel (Expressway). Being mainly a cloud offering, Mashery, in theory, is
available worldwide (and has some traction with clients in the
U.K.), but the majority of its clients are in the U.S.
Leading API
Management
Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Other
Industries
MuleSoft
MuleSoft offers software subscriptions and cloud services built
on the open-source Mule technology. In the application services governance space, the main offerings are Anypoint API
Manager and Anypoint Service Registry. Both products are
drawn from the same code base and provided as SaaS in support of on-premises and cloud-based services, and API deployments. MuleSofts offering is designed to be usable worldwide.
Leading API
Management
Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Other
Industries
Genoa - Beeva
Genoa is a Beeva manager designed to maximize the benefits
of the cloud: fast deployment, maximum performance and
flexibility at a lower cost. The client can launch his own APIs
platform within hours. It also offers a package of services such
as API Proxy, with which you can control and protect the APIs
traffic, and use the Traffic Manager, Authorization Manager and
Mapping Manager modules to centralize them under a single
domain.
Besides, Genoas developer-friendly philosophy facilitates the
access of programmers to APIs, enabling them to debug code
and test them easily, and locate potential errors in applications
more quickly.
Some examples
from the Financial
Services industry
Leading API
Management Vendors
Other
Industries
A Financial Services Institution: Improving the user experience and the bottom line
40,000 employees service more than 20 million individual and corporate customers for this
institution, which offers hundreds of mutual funds via 5,000 channel partners. The institution
achieved its success with a combination of comprehensive service offerings and personalized
customer service at competitive prices. The institution believes in the adoption of mobile technology to not only deliver the best possible customer self-service experience, but also to keep
pace with the latest customer engagement innovations.
With the Axway API Gateway, this financial institution was able to simplify its security architecture, while saving software license, software maintenance, hardware, andadministration costs.
In addition to hard-dollar savings, the institution also improved the user experience and accelerated delivery of new mobile service offerings. The institution improved its overall security
posture and governance with better auditing, monitoring, and reporting capabilities.
Some examples
from the Financial
Services industry
Leading API
Management Vendors
Other
Industries
API Labs at Level39 (Anthemis Group & Pivotal Innovations):

New fintech lab opens in London
API Labs will give UK and international financial services firms a venue to
develop ideas from their own technology teams, while also helping them
to engage with startups and other external developers and designers.
The move is the latest initiative aimed at supporting Londons growing financial technology sector, as large financial institutions look for innovative
solutions to deal with new business and regulatory challenges. API Labs
will help foster greater collaboration among financial services firms. API
Labs is the specialised platform providing expertise to these companies
to develop, test and go to market with new products and services in short
time frames to remain competitive and keep up with the pace of technological innovation.
Some examples
from the Financial
Services industry
Leading API
Management Vendors
Other
Industries
MasterCard: OTP Bank Hungary Launches First Digital Wallet

in Europe to Integrate with a
MasterCard and OTP Bank Hungary introduced OTPay, the first digital wallet in Europe to leverage the API of MasterPass. This application is customized to the unique needs of the OTPay
customer, making the online use of payment cards easier and more comfortable for cardholders. OTPay will provide consumers a new way to pay online, as well as creating options for bill
payment, prepaid top up and person to person transactions.
The OTPay mobile application will be available for download not only for OTP Bank customers,
but for clients of other banks too. The application will allow cardholders to shop and pay at over
30,000 MasterPass accepting merchants around the world. The application was developed by
Cellum, the Hungarian company group known for delivering mobile payment solutions with
banking-grade security, also a developer of a MasterCard Mobile solution, which has been running for more than two years.
Some examples
from the Financial
Services industry
Leading API
Management Vendors
Other
Industries
Incomm | Cashtie
Cashtie API helps you to get paid and to sell your digital goods
via major retailers. The Cashtie API connects your application to the cash registers (POS) of major retailers leveraging
Cashtie barcodes.
Some examples
from the Financial
Services industry
Leading API
Management Vendors
Other
Industries
Mambu
Mambu is a SaaS platform for financial institutions. Mambu
REST APIs enable its partners to easily integrate local financial services such as credit scoring, mobile money, POS or
ATM networks for their clients.
Some examples
from the Financial
Services industry
Leading API
Management Vendors
Other
Industries
Motley Fool: Using APIs to Build the Worlds Greatest

Investment Community
We want a team to decide they need an API, build it, and
launch it the same day its finished.
Mark Kennedy, Software Architect, Motley Fool.
Motley Fools APIs are mostly for internal use, but they also have
some that are public facing and for partners. A good example of
the latter is the stock quote API, which makes stock information
available to websites around the world. Motley Fool essentially
provide a white label stock quote service through an API.
Some examples
from the Financial
Services industry
Leading API
Management Vendors
Other
Industries
Open Bank Project (TESOBE): Bank as a platform.

Transparency as an asset.
The Open Bank Project is an open source API and App store
for banks that empowers financial institutions to securely and
rapidly enhance their digital offerings using an ecosystem of
3rd party applications and services.
Some examples
from the Financial
Services industry
Leading API
Management Vendors
Other
Industries
Plaid: The Modern API for Banking Data

The startup is building a developer platform that allows developers to integrate with data from financial institutions and
use it to build applications. Banks are traditional difficult to
work with. An API is smart way to start making them more
developer-friendly.
As developers in financial technology ourselves, we struggled
with the lack of a unified bank API and the low quality of transactional data so we decided to build the infrastructure to fix
it, said founder Zach Perret in an email. Financial technology
has always had significant barriers to entry, and by simplifying
the infrastructure were helping developers transform the way
businesses and consumers use their financial data.
Some examples
from the Financial
Services industry
Leading API
Management Vendors
Other
Industries
Standard Treasury: bank tailor

new technologies
Each year banks spend hundreds of billions of dollars on information technology and services. Yet, it is the poor quality
of the products offered by bank vendors that creates much
of the friction between banks and their customers. Standard
Treasury is bringing bank technology into the 21st century.
Standard Treasurys product is a white-labeled, SAAS, API and
developer experience for your customers. For the first time,
Standard Treasurys technology enables enterprises to interface with their bank accounts over RESTful API. For our bank
partners this increases the volume of transactional revenue,
decreases churn, and creates a marketable differentiator.
Some examples
from the Financial
Services industry
Leading API
Management Vendors
Other
Industries
TradeKing: Using APIs to Deliver Next-Generation

Trading Experiences
Online retail brokerages are seeing more and more traffic
moving away from the Web platforms to apps and mobile
platforms. Very soon, there will be a new breed of traders
who will be completely dependent on mobile apps - were
at that juncture. Dan Raju, CIO, TRADEKING
TradeKing is a nationally licensed online broker/dealer dedicated to empowering the independent, self-directed investor.
The TradeKing platform features powerful online equity, options, ETF, mutual fund and fixed-income trading tools, along
with a rich set of news, research and analysis capabilities.
Some examples
from Other
Industries
Leading API
Management Vendors
Financial
Services industry
AT&T: Using APIs to Help Developers Build Great Apps Quickly

The culture around development and delivery is changing. We are accelerating the pace of
innovation at AT&T. The transformation that is underway here is about unlocking the value
of our platform and delivering new capabilities to our customers faster than ever before.
Jon Summers, Sr. Vice President of Applications and Services Infrastructure, AT&T
AT&T, the worlds largest communications holding company by revenue, has embarked on an
aggressive campaign to expand its internal innovation capability by opening up its vast telecom
network to standard web application program interfaces (APIs). In doing so, it has accelerated
innovation by allowing more developers to quickly produce apps that run on the AT&T network.
Through the AT&T API Platform, which runs on the Apigee Enterprise API management service,
AT&T now has a rapid deployment method for value-added mobile applications, many of which
are designed by small firms that previously did not have the resources to commit to AT&T.
Some examples
from Other
Industries
Leading API
Management Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Cisco
Watch Ciscos Support APIs Product Manager, Alok Patel, explain how API management facilitates the Support APIs program to increase stickiness with partners and grow revenue
for the company.
Some examples
from Other
Industries
Leading API
Management Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Coca Cola Enterprises

Coca-Cola Enterprises CTO Kevin Flowers shows how APIs
enable multiple units within the business and how API management delivers security, governance, and ease of use to
the program. With APIs, Coca-Cola Enterprises has increased
the speed of the business, allowing projects to go from taking months and years to just days and months.
Some examples
from Other
Industries
Leading API
Management Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Dell: On Using APIs to Provide a Access

& New Capabilities
Dell is using this technology to change the face of our online assets, including Dell.com, and to provide multi-channel
access and new capabilities that extend beyond the scope
of Dell owned properties. Mohamed Ayadi, Director, Online
Product Engineering, Dell
For more than 28 years, Dell has empowered countries, communities, customers and people everywhere to use technology
to realize their dreams. Customers trust Dell to deliver technology solutions that help them do and achieve more, whether
theyre at home, work, school or anywhere in their world.
Some examples
from Other
Industries
Leading API
Management Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Orange: Empowering Emerging Markets through API Publication

Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the worlds leading telecommunications operators. As the number three mobile operator and number two provider of broadband internet
services in Europe, as well as a global leader in telecom services for MNCs, Orange Groups strategy is characterized by a strong focus on innovation and working to develop its position in new
growth activities.
One area of growth opportunity lies in a. In much the same way that publishing a Web site can
expose a local business to a global marketplace, making APIs available online can help drive new
partnerships, improve customer satisfaction and build value added services around a brand, all
of which can lead to increased revenue opportunities. Oranges Nursery initiative is aimed at just
that publishing their telecom services, provisioning, management and configuration APIs in
order to foster innovation and reduce cost of/time to market for new services.
Benefits have been quick to accrue: by providing developers with secure access to telecom service and data APIs via the Nursery, Orange has created a far more agile IT platform on which to
develop new offerings faster and at less cost by reusing/recomposing existing services.
Some examples
from Other
Industries
Leading API
Management Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Pearson: Plug & Play Platform

The world is changing - becoming more open. There has
been an important shift in the ecosystem around us, and
APIs are becoming the norm. Diana Stepner, Head of Future
Technologies, PEARSON
Pearson is the worlds leading learning company. Pearson delivers content in a range of forms and through a variety of
channels, including online services, ebooks, books and newspapers. It provides consumer publishing through the Penguin
brand, educational materials and services, and business information through the Financial Times Group.
Some examples
from Other
Industries
Leading API
Management Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Samtrafiken: APIs Providing a Path

to Innovation in Public Transportation
Weve realized that APIs are the cheapest and fastest way
to build applications. And most importantly, APIs let third
parties extend our products and services.
Elias Arnestrand, Innovation Manager, SAMTRAFIKEN
Samtrafiken is a non-profit organization jointly owned by 34

public transport operators and authorities in Sweden. Samtrafikens vision is that public transport will be seen as simple, reliable, and convenient and become the number one choice for
every journey. Their goal is to bind all of Sweden together by
allowing the public to easily travel between destinations using
a single ticket for any mode of public transportation.
Some examples
from Other
Industries
Leading API
Management Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Sears: Leading the Retail Industry Transformation Through Technology

Over the past few years, Sears has led the transformation of the retail industry through technology adoption. We recognized early that embracing APIs as an organization-wide glue for
building applications enabled unprecedented scalability and flexibility.
Kandarp Bhatt, Director, eCommerce Product Management, Sears Holdings Corporation
Sears Holdings Corporation is a leading integrated retailer with almost 2,500 full-line and specialty retail stores in the United States and Canada. Sears is the leading home appliance retailer
as well as a leader in tools, lawn and garden, fitness equipment and automotive repair and maintenance. Key proprietary brands include Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard, with a broad apparel
offering, including such well-known labels as Lands End, the Kardashian Kollection, Jaclyn Smith
and Joe Boxer, as well as Sofia by Sofia Vergara and The Country Living Home Collection.
Some examples
from Other
Industries
Leading API
Management Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Tom Tom
Watch TomToms Fellow of Location Based Services, Peter Moeykens, explain how the company went from managing APIs
in-house to signing on with Mashery and creating pyramid of
technology that enables TomTom to leverage and monetize
its data. TomTom currently sees 13 million transactions per day
through its Mashery-powered API and expects that number to
double in 2014.
Some examples
from Other
Industries
Leading API
Management Vendors
Financial
Services industry
Walgreens: Putting an API Around

Their Stores
The goal is to drive customer interactions. It doesnt matter
where it starts from because its all flowing into your business.
Joe Rago, Senior Product Manager, WALGREENS MOBILE
Walgreens is the largest drugstore chain in the United States,
operating more than 7,900 drugstores across the country.
Each day, Walgreens provides nearly 6 million customers with
convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness
services and advice. In July, 2012, Walgreens built on its tradition of technology innovation with the introduction of its first
open API, QuickPrints.
BBVA Experience
BBVA aims to lead the transformation of the banking
industry by playing an active role within the digital
ecosystem and open platforms. The challenge is to
be able to add value to an ecosystem where APIs are
the bonding glue. To achieve this goal we need to be
closer to the real needs of customers, developers and
potential partners.
One of BBVAs approaches to become a refe

rence in banking APIs is the Open Platform
strategy. This is a project that arises as a result of the banks intention of exposing its assets (information, services and products) and
sharing them with all actors involved (partners, developers and customers.)
Experience with datathons

BBVA is a pioneer in the organization of open
innovation activities such as datathons. So far
there have been two editions of the Innova
Challenge competition, for which an API of
transactional data was opened in Spain (2013)
and Mexico (2014).
The goal is that companies and individuals located anywhere can build products using these
assets, enriching their ideas and talent, BBVAs
offering, and what the end users finally see. All
this ultimately benefits innovation, the industrys digital transformation, and the own BBVA.
The
This is possible because APIs can be, on the

one hand, facilitators of new business models,
but on the other hand they are also a channel that can greatly increase the distribution
of the banks current products.
aggregated transactional data

made available by BBVA doesnt identify
specific persons or business.
These
experiences with datathons allow

BBVA to identify new talent, validate hypotheses, discover new ways to leverage
information, and know better the potential
users of the APIs (developers and small
software companies), besides fostering
a community of collaboration between
developers, startups and BBVA.
Open the bank

The bank has been using APIs to facilitate different technological developments. For instance, APIs for internal use are being applied
in webpages and mobiles, providing significant levels of efficiency.
The bank is also preparing to open certain
services not only to partners, but to all the
developer community. By doing this, BBVA
aims to add value, diversity, and encourage
the development of applications and services
unthinkable until now:
The
first example of partnership is

Dwolla , an innovating company in the
payment systems field that uses BBVAs
APIs in the US to offer real-time services,
such as transfers to BBVA Compass clients,
who dont need to wait 3 or 4 days to send
or receive funds. Since April, users of this
service can transfer money instantly
paying a flat rate of 25 cents per transaction if its over 10 dollars, while for
smaller amounts the process is free.
Not trivial
Creating banking APIs
is not just simply packaging
the banks assets and launching
them as services. It requires to define
clearly what services will be offered, study the
demand and follow a common strategy with
the other digital banking projects.
Therefore, the Open Platform project is working with agile methodologies such as Scrum,
and with a strong coordination across many
areas of the bank. There are teams working on
this project in several countries, and very soon
we will be able to announce new develop
ments in this exciting and ambitious project.
Innovation
Forecast
As seen, there are some interesting
stuff going on with APIs and
innovation. Though it seems that
all of this is just starting, there are
some key lessons learned. Here
what some experts had to say:
After going at it for a while,

API experts offer the following
eight recommendations
When analyzing digital landscape, it becomes
clear that leading companies create and maintain interfaces to their businesses.
They create programmable businesses:

Enforcing the disciplined, internal
usage of well-structured interfaces.
Providing powerful integration
points.
Establishing clear strategies
for partner and customer
engagement.
1. Serve both internal and external needs

Organizations need to make sure that resources
can be managed appropriately so they fit into the
overall picture of company operations. In particular,
they need to deliver internal efficiencies as well as
new opportunities for topline growth. For example,
they may need to balance the needs of a newly
mobile workforce with increased external access to
customer data.
3
5
4
7
6
2. Work towards defensible
strategic advantage
Organizations must put structures in place that
leverage key company strengths and assets in
a powerful and agile way. They also need to enable these assets to be put to use as fully as possible.
3. Align IT with business goals

Organizations must ensure that the overall infrastructure of the company is streamlined to enable and process the key types of transactions
the company is aiming to fulfillbe they transactions for physical goods/ services or digital items.
4. Future-proof investments
As software systems are built out, organizations
need to make them modular and re-usable, to
avoid large IT budget hits further down the line.
8
6. Move to innovative cloud service
suppliers
Shifting cloud infrastructure often allows organizations to reduce cost and increase functionality.
In doing so, however, they need to avoid fragmentation and infrastructure risks, which complicate corporate internal IT.
7. Provide increasingly real-time access

Enabling fast, on-demand access to remote facilities, supply systems and external providers,
while avoiding rapid escalations in cost and
complexity.
8. Enable others outside

5. Find efficient, cost effective solutions
Organizations need to keep costs under control,
to avoid wiping out productivity gains with investments that have hidden costs over time.
the organization to connect to,

and use, the deployed software
Enabling third parties with various levels of trust
to create new innovative services.
Books &
publications
In depth
A list of links to other useful tools and resources that you
may find useful as a supplement to the information offered
on the Make me API report.
On the
web
Books & publications

3scale | Winning in the API Economy, 2013.
Apigee | Apigee Insight - Data as Currency and Catalyst in the App Economy, 2013.
Apigee | Are You Where Your Customers Are?, 2013.
Apigee | Digital Transformation, Getting in Shape for the Digital World, 2013.
Apigee | Programmable World, Programmable Enterprise, 2013.
Apigee | Securing the Digital Enterprise, 2013.
Apigee | Three Keys to Digital Transformation, 2014.
Boston Consulting Group | The 2013 TMT Value Creators Report: The Great Software Transformation, 2013.
Forrester | Forrester Wave: API Management Platforms, Q1 2013, 2013.
Gartner | Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Services Governance, 2013.
Gartner | The Nexus of Forces: Social, Mobile, Cloud and Information, 2012.
IBM | The Customer-activated Enterprise - Insights from the Global C-suite Study, 2013.
Daniel Jacobson, Greg Brail and Dan Woods | APIs: A Strategy Guide, 2011.
Mashery | Accelerated Commerce: Key API Strategies for Digital Retail.
Mashery | Driving Real-World Enterprise & B2B Results with APIs.
Mashery | Success Guide: Seven Reasons Leading Companies Manage APIs in the Cloud.
Mashery | Success Kit: How to Get People to Love (and Make Money) from Your APIs.
Mashery | Turbocharge Your Mobile Strategy with APIs.
Mulesoft | The 7 Habits of Highly Effective API and Service Management.
Mulesoft | The Blueprint to Becoming a Customer Company.
Mulesoft | How to Make Your App Enterprise Ready.
Mulesoft | The State of Cloud Integration 2013.
Rene Rohrbeck | Corporate Foresight: Towards a Maturity Model for the Future Orientation of a Firm, 2010.
Vision Mobile | The European App Economy, Creating jobs and driving growth - sizing the European App Economy and
advocating policy options to drive growth, 2013.
Audrey Watters and Kin Lane | Business of APIs, 2011.
Web
3scale | API Predictions 2014, Diciembre 2013.
3scale | Identity and The API Economy, Noviembre 2013.
3scale | The Age of Context and the API Economy - One cant exist without the other, Noviembre 2013.
API Strategy & Practice | blog, 2014.
Apigee | Apigee Acquires InsightsOne - Doubling Down on Big Data, Enero 2014.
Manfred Bortenschlager | The API Economy explained and how to capture its value, Febrero 2014.
CA Technologies | CA Technologies to Acquire Private-held Layer 7 Technologies,
a Leader in API Management and Security, Abril 2013.
FinSMEs | 3scale Raises $4.2M in Funding, Abril 2013.
GigaOm | The rise of mobile-first infrastructure, Marzo 2014.
IT Business Edge | Five Reasons a Business Needs APIs (and an API Driven Strategy).
Kin Lane | The API evangelist.
Layer 7 Technologies | The State of API Design, info infographic.
McKinsey & Co | Competing in a digital world: Four lessons from the software industry, Febrero 2013.
McKinsey & Co | Ready for APIs? Three steps to unlock the data economys most promising channel, Enero 2014.
Mulesoft | Mulesoft Acquires ProgrammableWeb, Abril 2013.
Programmable Web | Private, Partner or Public: Which API Strategy Is Best For Business?, Febrero 2014.
ReadWriteWeb | Intel is Buying Mashery to Get Deeper Inside the Data Center, Abril 2013.
ReadWriteWeb | What APIs Are And Why Theyre Important, Septiembre 2013.
Salesforce.com | Why every business is an API business, Marzo 2014.
Techcrunch | Microsoft Acquires Apiphany - An API Management Service to Integrate with Windows Azure, Octubre 2013.
VentureBeat | MuleSoft raises $50M to connect every business app to every other business app, Marzo 2014.
YouTube | The App Economy in 5 minutes (Apigee), Octubre 2011.
1 Trending issues
Summaries of the most relevant news
of selected topics that have been
published over the course of the period
based on its relevance to the Banking
industry. The summaries were prepared
by the editorial board. Further
information is made available for
each given topic.
also
in this
issue
2 Technology trends
In the following section,
we outline the upcoming
technologies that will change
everything, with predictions on what may come of
them in financial industry.
Innovacin
Highlighted in this section some

of the actions in which BBVA
Innovation Center takes part, on
innovation and entrepreneurship.
Through this section we also
provide direct access to the BBVA
Innovation Center events.
Trending issues
In this section, readers will find summaries of the most relevant news of selected topics that have
been published over the course of the month based on its relevance to the Banking industry. The
summaries were prepared by the editorial board. Further information is made available for each
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Mobile Payments
CustomerCentricity
Brands &
Branding
How to standardize
the systems of core
banking platforms
BIAN, an international organization that develops
standards for providers of banking technology,
is creating a framework to give independence to
banks and avoid their reliance on a technology
supplier. This framework is intended to integrate
different technology components that are
compatible thanks to open standards. PNC
Financial Services Group is one of the financial
groups working with BIAN in these regulations.
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Mobile Payments
CustomerCentricity
Brands &
Branding
Beacons and videos on

social networks set the
course for the future
of m-commerce
According to Appsbuilder, beacons (devices
that broadcast a short-wave signal in Bluetooth)
will take a great leap this year, integrating
user data and customizing push notifications.
Video ads will be another star format in 2015,
thanks to the development of previews on
social networks. These are two of the trends
that will mark the future of mobile commerce,
not to mention the rise of wearable devices.
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Mobile Payments
CustomerCentricity
The growth of
m-banking in the US
A report by the Carlisle & Gallagher
Consulting Group highlights that 55%
of Americans are accessing their bank
accounts two or three times each week
through mobile devices, either from
laptops, tablets or smartphones, while 26%
of them log-in up to four times a week.
The main reason: instant gratification.
Brands &
Branding
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Mobile Payments
CustomerCentricity
The rise of social

graphs in business
The value of social reputation in the area of
business is on the rise and brands are trying
to take advantage of this boom with social
applications that help them enhance their brand
among users. For example, TripAdvisor leverages
Facebooks social graph to ensure that when you
search for hotels, restaurants, etc., any comments
posted by people you know appear at the top.
Brands &
Branding
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Mobile Payments
CustomerCentricity
The consumer, the

obstacle to overcome
for mobile payments
One of the reasons why in 2015 payments
through mobile devices will remain one of the
most innovative trends will be due to consumers.
Everything will depend on the confidence that
consumers have in these new technologies, the
safety and ease of use of these applications. In fact,
the exchange of money through smartphones
with specific payment apps is increasing.
Brands &
Branding
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Seven steps to lead

the customer-centric
experience
Social Business
To lead a change of culture focusing the strategy

on the customer, seven steps must be followed:
Mobile Payments
1. Decide to promote this change in the company.

2 Spell or explain in one sentence the challenge
you want to achieve with this change.
3 New business decisions have to be thought or
oriented keeping this new strategy in mind.
4 The customer-centric experience values must be
instilled in each of the employees of the
company.
5 Standardize as much as possible, in order to
be able to deviate from those guidelines
when a situation requires a different
approach.
6 Commitment to empower employees,
so they can know what is needed even
if they dont know how to do it.
7 Maintain the momentum of the
new strategy.
CustomerCentricity
Brands &
Branding
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Four professional ways

to improve your digital
brand strategy
There are digital platforms that can become
crucial to digitally enhance your brand if you
know to take advantage of their full potential.
We present you four, so you can start to try:
Mobile Payments
CustomerCentricity
Brands &
Branding
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
1. YouTube: although the content may

be more difficult to create, it can be
a great gateway for your brand.
2 BuzzFeed: creating a channel is
free and a great way to appeal
to many users.
3 Playbuzz: creating one of these tests
and sharing it with your followers can
be fun and give a different image to your
brand. It can be a fun way to inform.
4 Udemy: you can be an instructor,
as you are an expert in your field, and
share your knowledge on this online
education platform.
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Mobile Payments
Indiegogo opens
the door to financing
personal causes
This crowdfunding platform has launched
a new service for users who need to raise
money for a personal cause, such as medical
expenses, tuition fees or even a vacation. Its
called Indiegogo Life, and its free of charge. P2P
(person to person) funding to its fullest extent.
CustomerCentricity
Brands &
Branding
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Mobile Payments
CustomerCentricity
A solution to
generate sales
With the new DPS for Sales Enablement
solution, Adobe allows to create a customized
application for interactive sales presentations
that drive business sales. The aim of this
solution is to transform business sales
efforts, allowing more interactions to attract
customers attention. Furthermore, this
solution enhances sales by presenting
all interactive materials updated, which
benefits the ROI of the company.
Brands &
Branding
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Mobile Payments
CustomerCentricity
Brands &
Branding
Crowd Finance
Four gadgets for

frequent travelers
1. August Smart Lock: your smart home must
have this keyless entry system, which works
thanks to a tool that is installed in the lock of
the door and a mobile app. It allows you to
give access to friends, neighbors, family, etc. for a
number of days and change the settings remotely.
Perfect for watering the plants when you travel.
2 Petcube: connected to the Wi-Fi, it allows
you to monitor your pets while youre
away from home through a video. It even
lets you to talk or play with them remotely.
3 GoPro Hero4: perfect for photography
enthusiasts, as it lets you take pictures with
little light, at night or with custom settings.
4 Print Smartphone: it turns your mobile device
into a camera and an instant photo printer.
It doesnt require an internet connection and
includes an internal rechargeable battery.
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Mobile Payments
CustomerCentricity
Brands &
Branding
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Number26, a new
banking experience
A native application that you install on your
phone and with which you can open a new
banking account in less than eight minutes.
You need an email, a password and some basic
information. Your identity will be verified during
a video-call in which you will have to show
your passport to a customer representative
who will take a picture of both the document
and you to complete the process. A few days
later, you will receive a credit card and will be
able to make transfers with your new account.
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Mobile Payments
CustomerCentricity
Whats after Big Data?

Now that Big Data has started to spread
across companies, the most dynamic ones
already begin to wonder what happens next.
The answer is not easy, but its always a good
idea to see what research labs are working
on. Until recently, processing and managing
Big Data has occupied an important part of
the scientific communitys research; now they
are also finding ways to obtain automatically
predictive and prescriptive analysis based on
large amounts of data which generally dont
contain metadata to facilitate their interpretation.
Brands &
Branding
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Mobile Payments
CustomerCentricity
New technology
companies rely on
freelance workers
Increasingly large technology companies are
changing part of their workforce and hiring
independent employees, freelancers, mainly
due to the savings they represent in fixed
salaries and the taxes involved. However, these
freelance workers lose social benefits and
tend to work a higher average of hours per
week if they dont have a good planning.
Brands &
Branding
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
Trending issues
given topic.
Core Banking
Platform
New Formats
Mobile Banking
Social Business
Mobile Payments
CustomerCentricity
Build your own Linux

handheld computer
A small computer which is basically a full Linux
system that fits in the palm of our hand and is
able to do almost everything we can do with a
normal computer. All components used to build
this device are available at most online stores. The
brain behind this invention is Raspberry Pi, the
reference together with Arduino in open hardware,
which will give us hours and hours of fun.
Brands &
Branding
Crowd Finance
App Ecosystem
Gadgetology
New Banking
Concepts
Big Data
Future of Work
DIY
EACH SECTION EXPLAINED
Core Banking Platforms

Here you will find articles related to basic IT infrastructure
which supports main banking processes, including
technologies such as SOA, WOA, digital platforms, etc.
New Formats
Based on design principles focused on customer insights,
New formats offers retail banking customers more channels
which are more granular and highly functional; a consistent,
simple, and collaborative universal user interface; real-time
intelligent processes; highly personalized solutions; and is
open to social networks and the web. Examples of these
new formats are provided here.
Mobile Banking
Relevant news about mobile banking platforms (which
enable customers to access financial services, such as
transfers, bill payments, balance information and investment
options) can be found here.
Social Business
Social Business is the integration and use of social
technologies by an organization, which includes social
media/work media, crowd listening, crowd intelligence,
crowd working, etc. Stay tuned to see how this space will
evolve.
Mobile Payments
The process of using a hand-held device to pay for a
product or service, either remotely or at a point-of-sale. Up to
date information is provided.
Customer-Centricity
Customer-centricity is the organizations understanding of
customers at a granular level and the capability to create,
deliver, and capture different kinds of value propositions
to different groups of customers, based on customer
understanding.
Brands & Branding

Marketing in the modern world have many channels to
reach consumers at their disposal: (smart)phones, tablets,
PCs and (smart)TVs and different ways to communicate
their brands, such as traditional ads, banner ads, SMS/MMS,
etc.
App Ecosystem
There are 5 main components in the current Apps
Ecosystem: connectivity, devices, OS platforms, app
platforms, and apps; along with related products and
services providers (MEAPs, Mobility as a Service providers
etc.).
Gadgetology
Gadgets are everywhere and it seems that there are more
and more each passing day. We are moving towards a
contextual computing environment and, as a result, the
number and functions of gadgets are poised to grow
(thanks in part to the internet of things). In this section, we
share a word or two about gadgets.
New Banking Concepts

Banks around the world continuously explore new
approaches to strengthen customer relationships, both
in the virtual and the physical worlds; including Virtual
assistants, natural language search tools, new marketing
tools, different segmentation (children, gen Y,) etc. This
section will cover news along these lines.
Big Data
It been said, what gets measured, gets managed. The Big
Data trend offers organizations an opportunity to manage
just about everything. Here well share stories about Big
Data capture, curation, storage, sharing, analysis, and
visualization.
Future of Work
Work, increasingly, is not about where you do, but
what you do. The future of work is more flexible and
collaborative; and values are going to play an important
role, especially corporate values. The way we work is
changing fast stay tuned.
DIY
Do It Yourself (DIY) refers to a trend of people doing
projects to either be creative/recreational and/or costsaving activity. This trend becomes really interesting
as new technologies enable new functionalities such as
3D printing, health/wellness, etc, which help empowers
individuals; this may even change the we think about
businesses in the future.
Crowd Finance
A process where small amounts are money raised for a
definite purpose, Crowd finance sources funds collectively
from individuals. In other words, the money comes from a
wide range of individuals and not from a single entity. Read
more about it here.
Technology trends
The following section outlines the upcoming technologies that will change
everything, with predictions on what may come of them in financial industry.
Wearable Tech, as Big

as the Smartphone
More and more consumers are interested in tracking their routine
activities, and more and more mobile applications allow monitoring
them. Besides from knowing oneself better, measuring parameters
such as the blood pressure, pulse and steps helps individuals take
care of their health and improve their physical condition.
Todays smartphones can measure large amounts of data, but data is
not useful if you cant see it when you need it. Thats why wearable
devices were born, and with them a new way of using technology.
Wearable technology allows us to have the smartphones screen
continuously in our field of vision, keeping our hands free at all times
and liberating us from uncomfortable actions such as having to take
the phone out of the pocket or typing on the screen.
Its clear that wearable technology will revolutionize the world. The
same way mobile phones and tablets have replaced PCs, wearable
tech will replace smartphones, and will do so sooner rather than later.
Thats why were seeing such a sudden explosion of these devices in
the market.
Google has invested millions in its Google Glasses, Samsung and
Apple have introduced yours smartwatches. These devices not only
allow us instant access to information about the world surrounding
us - they go beyond: they observe behaviour patterns, scan our
agenda, provide additional information to our physical reality, they
know the users needs, and they are even able to send instructions
when these are about to ask for them.
The first wave
earable technology is still in its infancy,

but here are some of the products you
may already be seeing on the street.
Fitbit Force ($130) and Zip ($60) Fitbit
makes a range of activity trackers, from the
Force, which can double as a watch, to the
Zip (left).
Jawbone Up24 ($150) This new fitness

tracker stays connected with your phone
via Bluetooth, letting the app ping you with
personalized inspiration.
Shine
Fitness Tracker ($120) Sonny Vus

graceful aluminum disc matches the functionality of other trackers in a stylish, minimalist form.
NFC Ring (Price TBD) This simple metal ring
comes embedded with a radio chip that lets

it open doors, make payments, and more.
BSamsung Galaxy Gear ($300) With its
bright screen and wristband camera.
Pebble ($150) With more than 250,000

sold, the Pebble has attracted a huge community of developers, who make apps that
migrate functions off the phone and into the
open.
In purely technological terms, the wearable

revolution could take shape much faster than
the mobile revolution that preceded it. Thanks
to what former WIRED editor in chief Chris
Anderson has called the peace dividend of
the smartphone wars, sensors and chip sets
are cheaper now than ever, making it easier
for small companies to incorporate sophisticated hardware into wearable devices.
MetaWatch Frame ($230) With its steel

case and leather band.
And while smartphone manufacturers had

to master the
tricky art of providing dependable mobile Internet service,
wearable manufacturers can piggyback on those innovations
using simple Bluetooth or other protocols to
communicate with a smartphone and thus
with the outside world. With all that prebaked
hardware and wireless connectivity - and huge
preorders from crowdfunding platforms like
Kickstarter - it has become possible for tiny
companies to dream up, build, and sell wearable devices in competition with big companies, a feat that was never possible with smartphones.
The rise of the

personal cloud
ervices like Dropbox, iCloud and Google

Drive have become essential to society.
Even other more specialized services such as
Evernote, Wunderlist and Pocket are increasingly being used by consumers. But few people are familiar with the concept of cloud.
There are three main types of cloud:
PUBLIC CLOUD Where my data is stored

along with everybody elses data.
PERSONAL CLOUD Built from your own
hardware and software. Its a cloud entirely
yours, and from no one else.
PRIVATE CLOUD To which only a specific
group of people have access.
So it was just the beginning. A new generation

of wearable tech is coming and it will transform the way you experience the world.
Source: www.wired.
com/gadgetlab/2013/12/
wearable-computers/
PUBLIC CLOUD
PERSONAL CLOUD
PRIVATE CLOUD
According to Gartner, consumers

only upload 7% of their files to the
cloud. Indeed, there are a number
of obvious reasons for not uploading them. Among them: cost, security
and complexity. People have a lot of data
spread over a large number of devices, and although in recent years the low cost leaders in
cloud storage (Amazon, Microsoft and Google) have reduced their prices by an average
30-40% each year, consumers data is growing fast, almost 50% annually. Storing all data
in the public cloud would cost them hundreds
of dollars a year, and its expected to increase
in the future.
If we add the absolute control users want over
their data, the personal cloud becomes the
most attractive alternative.
According to a Forbes interview with Gartner,
the personal cloud will entail the unique collection of services, web destinations and connectivity that will become the home of computing and communication activities.
Gartner also predicts that the personal cloud
will be fully adopted in 2015, although less than
10% of consumers will use cloud services as
their primary storage this year.
Sources:
www.thenextweb.com
www.forbes.com
The cloud will become the centrepiece of our

digital lives, and for this reason its a force to
be taken into account in the business technology scene. IT executives, suppliers and analysts alike are trying to keep up to determine
what it really means and where its leading us.
The personal cloud will challenge companies
to be more attentive to new technologies and
consumer services.
The emergence of smart devices and of the
popular tablet in the workplace is just the tip
of the iceberg. The tablet announces a future
where the device is merely a point of access
to personal and private content. With the personal cloud the multi-device experience will
be easier, more effective and safer.
BBVA Open Talent

2014 reaches
entrepreneurs from
56 countries
The sixth edition of the BBVA Open Talent
startup competition has been a complete
success: more than 870 registered projects
in 56 countries between the two categories,
Digital Life and New Banking.
Open Talent is preparing its next edition
to be launched in May 2015. If you are
an entrepreneur and have an innovative
project, stay tuned to the web
www.bbvaopentalent.com!
BBVA Open Talent 2014 has seen how the international participation has intensified in this
call, structured around three editions targeting different regions: Central-South America,
North America & Rest of the World, and Europe. This new organization has allowed to
reach entrepreneurs in more places, from
Australia to Costa Rica and Cuba, Hong Kong
and Germany. Spain, Argentina and Mexico
were the countries with the largest representation in the competition, followed by the US,
which with 80 participants embraced vigorously this sixth edition, compared to the
scarce activity registered in previous years.
Another milestone for BBVA Open Talent

2014 was the boom experienced by the New
Banking category, which increased almost
80% over the previous edition and received
166 proposals about innovation in the financial sector. These figures position BBVA Open
Talent as an international benchmark for entrepreneurship within the field of tech-based
banking services and products.
If you want to see the highlights of BBVA

Open Talent 2014...
Dont miss this video!
The winners of the 6th edition are:
BBVA Open Talent

Central and South America:
Winner New Banking:
Bankity
It offers a service that helps to
control the costs associated with cards,
including a daily analysis of them.
Winner Digital Life:
Cloudgrid
A startup that allows to manage
energy resources and the electricity
network from the cloud, through realtime data analysis and monitoring.
innovation edge | APIs
centrodeinnovacionbbva.com
BBVA Open Talent Europe:

Winner New Banking:
Clausematch
A platform for negotiating trade agreements, with a system that facilitates
cost savings and market transparency.
Counterest
A tool that counts people and applies
web analytics to retail stores, measuring
in real time the effectiveness and impact
of advertising and marketing campaigns.
BBVA Open Talent

North America & Rest of the World:
Winner New Banking:
Socure
An artificial intelligence system that protects
against online identity fraud and reduces false
positives/negatives in selection processes and
businesses, thereby reducing costs and time.
GridMarkets
A platform that allows users to share in
an affordable and convenient way the
excess capacity of the cloud throughout the world, in fields such as engineering, finances and animation.
The most voted project online was
the Mexican startup: Crsame
These seven winning projects along with the

six runners-up had the opportunity to enjoy
a program for startups in New York specially
designed for them: the NY Crash Acceleration Week. During one week they were able
to contact investor networks, receive training
on how to develop their startup... and even
competed in the Empire Startup Summit.
One of them, TransferGo , an application
for sending money easily, actually won the
competition. It was the perfect finale for BBVA
Open Talent 2014.
Coming BBVA
Open Talent
2015
InnovaChallenge
MX, an example of
open innovation and
implementation of
Big Data in BBVA
Relocation Assistant, a system that allows you
to choose the best neighborhood to live in, and
Pear Campaigns, a solution to create geomarketing
campaigns, are the winning apps in the citizens and
business categories of the InnovaChallenge MX
datathon organized by BBVA.
BBVA Bancomer offered 378 developers from 36 countries dissociated

and aggregated card transaction data from Mexico City, Guadalajara
and Monterrey to create their applications.
More than 50 apps were finally submitted to the challenge using the
data offered by BBVA. In fact Innova Challenge is a clear sign of the
banks commitment to open innovation and the application of Big Data,
providing real commercial activity data to developers.
The quality of the works submitted surpassed the expectations of the
jury. The awards were divided between two categories: apps for citizens and apps for business, with three prizes of 15,000, 10,000 and
5,000 euros for the winner and runners-up. There were also five honorable mentions of 1,000 euros.
Winners in the
apps for citizens category
Relocation Assistant
by Luca Chiarandini (Spain)
This app allows to compare neighborhoods and add criteria such as
schools nearby, night life. The app is already operating in Spain (Madrid
and Barcelona) and Mexico (Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey).
Socio
by Rubn Sandoval (Mexico)
The P2P lending boom has also been visible in this datathon. This
crowdsourcing app helps users find financing and partners with common interests in nearby locations.
Optim
by Delta Hat SL, (Spain)
This app allows users to choose the best place to spend their leisure
time, according to their tastes and desires at any given moment.
Winners in the
business app category
Pear Campaigns
by Jordi Nin Guerrero (Spain)
An app that allows inexperienced users to design effective geographic
marketing strategies in a very easy way.
Flux MX
by Daniel Juli Lundgren (Spain)
A solution that provides interactive visualizations of the transaction
flows between the different zip codes of a city.
App Data
by Carlos Hugo Gonzlez Castell (Mexico)
A tool that helps business owners decide about opening a new business or expand their current one.
Crowdfunding,
a financing alternative
for entrepreneurs
and investors
Download
Crowdfunding is much more than a P2P (peer to

peer) financial alternative its the application of a
collaborative model in the financial field. This document
analyzes this innovative financial trend that both
entrepreneurs and investors area leveraging.
P2P Finance,
an alternative
ecosystem
P2P financial systems are becoming more
common in our economy. We would like
to provide you with the keys to a better
understanding this ecosystem.
Download
Download
Data, all about

Big Data ecosystem
Big Data and Data are two of the hottest words in the
innovation ecosystem and entrepreneurship. We show how
it is evolving trend.
The use of data and analysis to predict trends and behaviors
is already among us and promises to stay long. This trend
gets practice in different areas: social, economic or political.
Download
Internet of Things
The Web is now ubiquitous. It can be found in our homes,
our cities, our businesses... Even on our day-to-day
devices, from a refrigerator to our illumination systems.
have become a source of data with the objective of
making our lives easier. Its the new Internet revolution.
The Internet of Things has been no stranger to our ears
in the past years, but it looks like 2015 will be its big year.
Although we are familiar with what it has to offer, it still
has to face many great challenges.
Download
Wearables,
mobile revolution
Is it just a fashion trend or will be a now mobile
revolution? The wearable devices begin to be
gradually in some of our daily uses: at work, doing
sports or playing, in health centers ...

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MARCH 2015

innovation edge | APIs | centrodeinnovacionbbva.com

innovation edge | APIs | centrodeinnovacionbbva.com

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