My API Story: Product Catalog Management API

We interviewed Jonathan Goldberg, Principal Integration Architect, Amdocs, about how the company is developing its new digital products using cloud-native technologies, exposing capabilities with APIs designed based on TM Forum Open APIs.

Tell us about yourself and your job

As an Integration Architect, I am concerned with ensuring that software systems can communicate reliably, whether legacy or modern, and whether Amdocs or non-Amdocs. This requires design of models that stand away from particular silos and instead express the business semantics of the problem domain. Mapping can then be done between the business models and the internal system models. Additionally, I must consider the full business flow between systems. Such analysis often uncovers the need for APIs and gives confirmation for APIs that have already been identified.

Which TM Forum Open APIs are most valuable to your company?

As an independent software vendor, Amdocs does not concentrate on a particular API. Rather, we strive to implement all the APIs in the business domains that we are covering in our new digital software suite.

With that, we see a robust product catalog component as a critical powerhouse for a digital BSS [business support system] offering.

Why did you choose to highlight the Product Catalog Management API?

I have good domain knowledge of product catalog business functionality, and as a result I was happy to take up the leadership of the Product Catalog Management API in the TM Forum program.

How do you use this API?

We use it to allow authoring of product catalog materials in our ground-breaking CatalogONE product catalog, and to expose the catalog contents at runtime to sales and ordering, including our DigitalONE Order Capture offering. We also use it to allow federation with other catalogs to create innovative bundles, and isolate API consumers from the complexity of integrating with multiple catalogs.

How have you benefited from using this API?

A consistent information model and API across the business domain reduces the barriers to integration between heterogenous systems. All involved parties understand the meaning of entities such as ProductSpecification, since they are defined centrally in the API model. Similarly, the use of consistent patterns across the API model makes it easier for consuming developers to understand how the API operations work.

Where do you use this API?

Since the API is part of our new digital offering, it will be used in modernization/transformation projects for our service provider customers. It is already being used in live projects.

Have you used it in conjunction with any other APIs?

Amdocs sees a strategic imperative in designing its business domains and APIs for our new digital offering to align with TM Forum’s Open API data model and individual APIs. We use the API model as a starting point for our design process, and we continue to contribute our designs to improve the APIs where relevant and possible. We use the catalog API alongside Shopping Cart, Product Order, and other APIs in our Order Capture offering.

Why do you believe in TM Forum’s Open API Program?

The program promotes cooperation between vendors and service providers and ensures that the business needs of the service providers will be met.

To learn more about TM Forum Open APIs visit www.tmforum.org/open-apis