Many people have heard of APIs, but many don’t actually know what they are. If you’re one of the “many,” don’t worry, you’re not alone! Let’s demystify APIs with some quick facts.
API stands for Application Programming Interface.
An API is simply a piece of technology that allows two different systems to talk to each other.
Here’s an analogy: Imagine you’re sitting at a table in a restaurant with a menu in front of you. The kitchen is the part of the “system” that will prepare your order. What is missing is the critical link to communicate your order to the kitchen and deliver your food back to your table. That’s where the waiter, or API, comes in. The waiter is the messenger / API – that takes your request or order and tells the kitchen / system – what to do. Then the waiter delivers the response back to you; in this case, it’s the food. (Gee I’m starting to feel hungry!)
At Hectre, we’re all about empowering growers and enterprise with awesome data. That’s why the Hectre app has so many real-time features, where you can capture data and then review it straight away.
Our QC API takes data to another level, enabling users to pull all of the QC data they’ve captured through using the Hectre app, into their data systems, providing an even broader picture, greater depth of information, and the ability to analyze data for decision making.
Customer Example: Less fruit damaged - more fruit to market.
In today’s times, when the labour market is super tight due to border restrictions, you can’t always get the skilled labour you need. During busy times like harvest, you may need to take on workers who have little, if any, picking experience. At the same time, you may be experiencing higher costs throughout your business due to Covid impacts, so ensuring you get as much fruit to market as possible, becomes more critical than ever before.
One Hectre customer is using the Hectre QC API to do just that. They’ve set up the API to pull data every hour and are analyzing what % of fruit being harvested, has picker defects. If they feel it’s too high, they’re taking immediate proactive action to identify which specific pickers have high rates of picker defect, and supervisors in the field are then coaching for improvement. Less fruit is being damaged – more fruit is making it to market. They believe having this level of insight and being able to take those immediate actions is providing a 3% improvement in yield.
The Hectre API is now available.
If you’ve got someone in your business who is familiar with APIs – Business Analysts, IT staff etc – they’re your go to people.
