5 Challenges with Unified APIs and How RootFi Solves Them

TL;DR

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In our Introduction to Unified API, we discussed some of the potential challenges to using Unified APIs. In this blog post, we’re going to tackle every hurdle Unified APIs can pose and show you how RootFi addresses each issue.

As a recap, a Unified API is a one-stop solution for aggregating B2B API integrations in the same software category, allowing you to authenticate and access normalised data from a single entry point.

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Advantages of Unified APIs

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A Unified API, as opposed to building in-house integrations, provides a wealth of benefits including:

1. Lower maintenance costs,
2. Consolidated documentation,
3. Simplified webhook experience,
4. Fewer integration hurdles, and
5. Data normalisation to enable more straightforward integrations

Ultimately, adopting a Unified API allows you to focus on your core product instead of wasting tech bandwidth on building and maintaining individual integrations.

However, competitors like Paragon point out some challenges to Unified API. Here are RootFi’s solutions for each of these potential hurdles.

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How RootFi Solves Challenges with Unified APIs

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1. Potential Latency Issues

Latency refers to the total time the system takes to respond to requests. Introducing an extra layer in your setup could lead to latency issues.

We address these concerns by syncing in the background. At RootFi, we understand that every business has unique needs. Our platform provides various customisation options to ensure that you can tailor the data and functionality to your specific requirements.

When you use our platform, you can set defined intervals for how often you want your data models to sync. These options range from syncs daily to every few months. You can prioritise higher-frequency syncs based on the data models most relevant to your needs. This customisation effectively ensures the most relevant data is fresh and mitigates potential latency issues.

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2. Data Privacy Concerns

A Unified API allows you to access and utilise standardised data from all your customers from a single access point, regardless of the platforms they use. Sharing confidential data with a third party like us may lead to increased data privacy concerns. Financial data is especially sensitive and requires the highest level of security.

RootFi is committed to the highest security standards and is ISO 27001:2013, GDPR, and SOC2 certified and compliant. These certifications attest to the highest level of security and compliance across the globe. In addition, we can send data directly to you using webhooks and not save any data on our end.

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3. Reliability of the API Aggregator

Crudely designed systems lead to breaks in connections within the Unified API. This results in the unavailability of data when it is needed most. In other words, this leads to low reliability.

Our developers spend countless hours in integration and maintenance to ensure the highest possible uptime for our platform. You can view our uptime tracker here. Service Level Agreement (SLA) contracts are also available for our enterprise-level customers.

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4. Limited access to Specific Data

Since Unified APIs aggregate data from a variety of APIs, data fields are likely to be non-uniform. This leads to employing a lowest common denominator approach, where standard schema merges information from underlying systems to normalised data fields. This may lead to limited access to data specific to a particular API.

Our platform design allows you to read underlying raw data when accessing data from the accounting platforms. Further, you can write custom fields, allowing you full control over reading and writing data for each underlying platform.

Passthrough requests are APIs that we forward to the underlying platform using our authentication management. With Passthrough requests, you can make any API calls to the underlying platform. This gives you complete flexibility and allows you to access custom functionality and custom data that we have not unified.

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5. Code-heavy solution

Since RootFi’s platform is built for developers, our solution is code-heavy. While workflow automation tools and embedded IPaaS solutions like Tray.io, Paragon, Alloy are low-to-no code, they have limited flexibility.

With our solution, developers have the ease of use and complete flexibility to interact with the underlying platforms and develop their core products.

RootFi’s dashboard has also been designed with customer success teams in mind. Customer success teams can inspect the data, view error logs and manage integrations. Our Help Center has video guides that walk you through the platform, and our documentation has been designed to be simple to read and understand.

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Final Thoughts

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While there are potential drawbacks to using a Unified API, RootFi is designed to address all of them. With the right platform and approach, you can seamlessly access and utilise data from various sources, saving time, money, and resources. RootFi provides a reliable, secure, and customisable Unified API solution that enables you to focus on your core products and services while still accessing the data you need to succeed.

Access all the accounting integrations you need through our unified API, including a Tally integration, a Zoho Books integration, a  Quickbooks integration, and more. Our team adds new integrations every week and handles all technical requirements for each integration, so you don't ever have to worry about updates or maintenance.

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To get started with RootFi’s Unified API, sign up for a demo here or email us at contactus@rootfi.in.

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