What Is a REST API and Why Should Your Operations Team Care?

A REST API is how modern software systems communicate with each other. If your business uses more than one piece of software, understanding APIs is a business skill, not just a technical one.

What REST means

REST stands for Representational State Transfer. It is a set of conventions for how software systems request and send data over the internet. A REST API is a contract: if you send a request in this format, you will receive a response in that format.

Every major business software platform has a REST API: Salesforce, Dynamics 365, Business Central, Plex, Slack, your payment processor, your shipping carrier. These APIs are how integration is possible without custom development that reaches into the internals of each system.

How a request works

An API request has four parts. The URL identifies the resource being requested. The method (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) describes what the request is doing - reading data, creating a record, updating a record, or deleting one. The headers provide authentication and format information. The body (for POST and PUT requests) contains the data being sent.

The response comes back with a status code (200 means success, 404 means not found, 500 means something went wrong on the server) and typically a body containing the requested data in JSON format.

Why this matters for operations

When your sales team closes a deal in the CRM, does that automatically create a customer record in the ERP? When a supplier confirms a shipment in their portal, does that update your purchase order status? These workflows are only automatic when the systems are integrated, and APIs are usually how that integration works.

Understanding that APIs exist, what they can do, and roughly how they work lets you ask the right questions when evaluating software and designing business processes.

If you want to connect two systems in your business that are not currently integrated, reach out. We build API integrations as a core part of our work.