diff --git a/smartassist/src/startservices.py b/smartassist/src/startservices.py
index f0bd39d..96ae6e2 100644
--- a/smartassist/src/startservices.py
+++ b/smartassist/src/startservices.py
@@ -52,18 +52,19 @@ def configure():
             logger.debug("configure(): This logger now has effective log level %s", logger.getEffectiveLevel())
 
     ####################################
-    # Extract and export API endpoint as 
-    # envrionment variable
+    # Extract and export backend API
+    # endpoint as global state variable
     ####################################
-    backend_api_ep = 'http://localhost:5005/api/chat'  # Default API endpoint
     if isinstance(updated_config.get('backend'), dict): # Look for 'backend' key
         if isinstance(updated_config['backend'].get('url'), str): # Look for 'url' key
             url = updated_config['backend'].get('url')
             if isinstance(updated_config['backend'].get('api'), str): # Look for 'api' key
                 api = updated_config['backend'].get('api')
-                backend_api_ep = url+api # Extract API endpoint if defined
-    logger.debug("BE_API_ENDPOINT is set to '{}'".format(backend_api_ep))
-    os.environ['BE_API_ENDPOINT'] = backend_api_ep # Look into alternative way to share this with backend.py
+                # backend_api_ep = url+api # Extract API endpoint if defined
+                logger.debug(f"Constructing endpoint address as url+api: {url+api}")
+                global_state.set_backend_api_ep(url+api) # Extract API endpoint if defined and set in global_state 
+                logger.debug(f"Backend API endpoint is set to {global_state.get_backend_api_ep()}")
+    # os.environ['BE_API_ENDPOINT'] = backend_api_ep # Look into alternative way to share this with backend.py
 
     ####################################
     # Extract Ollama parameters (url, api_key, model)