Insurance + APIs: How Superior Data Is Key to Distribution Channel Management

Distribution channel management relies on real-time producer data

For insurance organizations looking to optimize their distribution channel management, having access to accurate, up-to-the-day producer data across multiple systems isn’t just a “nice to have.” If you’re working with a tech stack that includes everything from agent onboarding systems to policy admin systems to commission and compensation management systems, your producers’ information likely lives in several places that require manual updates and cross-referencing. 

Manual and repetitive data entry isn’t ideal for anyone, much less so for insurance carriers and their large numbers of downstream distribution channels, including agencies, MGAs, and individual producers. When you add in the complexities of a highly regulated industry like insurance, and disjointed systems with potentially conflicting or inaccurate producer data, it’s a recipe for disaster. 

The solution: real-time producer data drawn from industry sources of truth, with the ability to feed this data into any and all of your internal systems.

For many insurance businesses, a roadblock to realizing the benefits of accurate producer data across every system is the fact that they’re using multiple platforms, often built in-house and sometimes using legacy technology. Without ripping and replacing a solution that’s been working for a long time, it’s difficult to imagine getting the necessary producer data to flow between a single source of truth and every software an organization uses on a daily basis. 

Luckily, the world of modern application programming interfaces (APIs) can remove this roadblock more quickly and easily than ever before.

ProducerSync API: The power of AgentSync connected to your systems

For businesses with existing tech ecosystems that largely meet their needs, you don’t want to reinvent the wheel. You do, however, want your system to be able to use and analyze your producer data to make intelligent decisions about your distribution channels. If that’s the case for you, ProducerSync API offers a solution that enhances your current distribution channel management technology (from onboarding to writing business to paying commissions) with unparalleled data quality. 

ProducerSync API is a modern REST API that provides access to licensing, appointing, and other producer data from the industry’s single source of truth, the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR). ProducerSync API makes it easy for users to have this up-to-date producer data straight from NIPR with a simple API integration. 

Read more about the ProducerSync API–download the info sheet.

On top of feeding the data into your system, ProducerSync API also contextualizes the data, meaning you don’t have to spend hours researching whether an Ohio resident license with a property LOA is the license equivalent to a Nebraska P&C license, or whether auto insurance is separated into a personal lines license or transacts on P&C. The ProducerSync API makes those connections for you thanks to AgentSync’s contextual data layers, allowing you to cut down on the kind of fact-finding missions that would otherwise weigh down your speed to market and inflate your overhead.

ProducerSync API can meet you where you’re at

ProducerSync API works for insurance organizations of all sizes. Large or small, young or old, regional or national, ProducerSync API can be the additional piece you need to turn the data you have on the producers across your distribution network into actionable insights that help you optimize the way you do business – and do more of it!

Why small insurance organizations choose ProducerSync API

While AgentSync’s core platform, Manage, gives users a single place to view and transact with NIPR data, some carriers, agencies, and MGAs don’t need the transactional functions and prefer to simply use the data to power efficiency in their current processes. This may be due to a company’s size, with smaller companies needing to address their most immediate pain point (access to up-to-date producer data) before reaching a stage in their growth where implementing the entire AgentSync Manage solution makes sense. 

ProducerSync API is also the fastest way to start getting value from NIPR data. With AgentSync’s team working on onboarding and preparing the sync, and the insurance org’s team adjusting their internal tech and processes to consume the data, anyone that’s ready to move quickly can be live with ProducerSync API in as little as two weeks. 

Why large insurance organizations choose ProducerSync API

Some of the largest insurance businesses have been around for well over a hundred years. This often means they’ve invested decades, and millions of dollars, into developing the technology they use to power every aspect of their business. It hardly makes sense to throw the baby out with the bathwater if it’s mostly doing what you need. On the other hand, legacy systems often don’t have the modern capabilities that make managing producer compliance more efficient than ever before. Nor can they enable teams to use their producers’ data in actionable ways to intelligently expand, contract, or reorganize their distribution channels. 

ProducerSync API fills this need precisely because it can be integrated into existing systems. In essence, insurance carriers, agencies, and MGAs can power their existing infrastructure with the most modern and accurate industry data. 

Read about how one AgentSync customer transformed their infrastructure with ProducerSync API.

Larger organizations with bespoke internal software often don’t need the all-in-one platform that AgentSync Manage provides. Rather, they want AgentSync’s data fed into one or many of their existing systems to give actionable insights that staff can then proceed with. Without ProducerSync API, your employees may be spending excessive time moving data from one website, spreadsheet, or system to another. ProducerSync API eliminates the manual work – and the potential for errors – as your systems now include always-up-to-date producer compliance data. 

“We wanted to work with a partner who would bring the data to us and make it work with the processes we already use. AgentSync brought a willingness to work with the system we’ve been using for years while adding a modern and flexible solution. With ProducerSync API, we save time, create revenue, and make it easier to do business.”

Chief Information Office, ProducerSync API customer

What it means to activate your producer data

Insurance organizations that use ProducerSync API to feed accurate-to-the-day producer information into their existing systems achieve benefits such as: 

• The ability to identify non-productive producers and stop paying appointment fees year after year (with the click of a button). 
• Ongoing accurate-to-the-day compliance checks at each stage of the journey from insurance application, to underwriting, to commission payment to ensure producers have valid licenses at all times.
• The ability to identify gaps in distribution channel partners based on geography, LOAs, and other factors, and quickly scale up as needed to fill those gaps. 
• The ability to bring new products to market more effectively based on real-time data about their distribution channel. 

The result is, insurance businesses can save money, increase efficiency, remove compliance risk, and put all the data and intelligence they have about their entire distribution channel to work for them. 

Optimize your distribution network by activating your producer data with AgentSync

Your distribution channel is filled with data on every downstream partner you work with. If that data isn’t flowing through your existing systems, it’s not doing you any good. From eliminating manual and error-prone data entry, all the way to highly sophisticated analyses on how to optimize your distribution channel for maximum success, ProducerSync API can be the enhancement your business needs. See how.

Ready to speak to one of our experts today? Contact us to start the conversation and learn how your organization can benefit from ProducerSync API.