Thinking of Building Your Own Insurance Distribution Channel Data Integration? Read This First.

So you’re considering building your own integration to flow producer data from insurance industry sources of truth directly into your distribution channel management (DCM) workflows. Whether the question of data is just one piece of a larger “build versus buy” debate, or the missing piece that’d make your in-house software build fully functional, it’s a complicated part of the equation and deserves careful consideration. 

Note: If data is just the tip of the iceberg and you’re truly considering building your own insurance distribution channel management software in-house, read this first. 

So, whether you’ve successfully built your own in-house DCM system or you’ve already got a solution and just need to plug the most accurate producer data into it, here’s what you should know about taking the DIY route when it comes to data. 

Your system’s only as good as its data source

For a successful distribution channel management strategy, access to accurate, up-to-the-day data across your systems isn’t just a “nice to have”; it’s a necessity. For agencies and carriers, necessary data includes producer records from the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR), along with license information for dually licensed broker-dealers from FINRA, continuing education requirements from state-approved CE vendors, and more. 

To increase operational efficiency, these data points need to be available across insurance organizations when and where staff is validating information, checking compliance, or making appointment or termination decisions. By integrating distribution channel data into core systems, insurance enterprises improve its usefulness and drive greater efficiency in their distribution channel management strategy. 

These days, it’s pretty standard for commercially available DCM solutions to offer some level of synchronization with the National Insurance Producer Registry so that carriers and agencies can operate off the most accurate licensing and compliance data. For those that are fully dedicated to building core infrastructure themselves, it’s possible to get the data you need fed into your system by building your own integration. However, that doesn’t mean it’s quick, easy, or cost effective. Nor does it guarantee the data will be accurate, complete, or easy to interpret. 

4 reasons to think twice before building your own data integration

Reason 1: Because keeping up with regulatory changes is its own challenge 

The world of insurance compliance regulation is ever-changing. Case in point: In 2024, AgentSync tracked over 300 unique state changes to producer licensing and compliance in our Compliance Library. Our team then reflected each of those updates back into our products so our customers could continue operating off of the most up-to-date compliance data. Much of distribution channel management comes down to navigating these regulatory changes and mitigating the risk of noncompliance. If you choose to build your data integration, then you’re ultimately responsible for making sure those 300-plus relevant changes to licensing, appointments, continuing education rules, and more are reflected in your systems—a challenge that only multiplies as you grow your distribution force by bringing on more producers, licensed in more states, and for more lines of authority. 

Build on your own and not only are you responsible for monitoring, interpreting, and adapting to regulatory changes, but you’re also responsible for any penalties you face for failing to capture and act on them. 

Reason 2: Because it’s going to cost you more in the long run

“We can save money by building it ourselves” is a common, yet often inaccurate belief when it comes to the build versus buy debate. While it’s true that building your own integration might seemingly come with lower upfront costs, the ongoing maintenance and data contextualization needs of a DIY data integration along with the longer implementation time are going to drive up the total cost of ownership in the long run. 

To visualize, let’s say you hire a full-time engineer and pay them a salary of $100,000 to build your data integration. It takes that engineer 12 months to build the integration, and then you decide to keep them on your payroll for 10-15 hours a week to handle future maintenance needs. You also hire a part-time admin to monitor ongoing state rule changes and update your data integration to ensure your organization remains compliant (See Reason No. 1). Now you’ve added at least two additional expenses to your budget that could have been avoided simply by partnering with the right vendor.

Click here for a detailed cost breakdown.

Reason 3: Because not everyone speaks state regulatory data

NIPR’s Producer Database (PDB) is a vast trove of information. It houses historical records for hundreds of thousands of producers, many of whom are licensed across multiple states and with multiple lines of authority (LOAs), and appointed with multiple carriers. Essentially, trying to find the exact data you’re looking for is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. 

Once you manage to find what you’re looking for, you’ll need to spend even more time decoding the raw data so that it makes sense for your purpose. The PDB has its own language and unique codes for every piece of data. Unless your idea of a good time is spending hours upon hours researching whether an Oregon resident license with a casualty LOA is the equivalent of a Texas P&C license, or whether auto insurance is separated into a personal lines license or included under a P&C license in Nebraska, you might want to reconsider managing all of this data on your own. 

Reason 4: Because things break down

Building a data integration in-house is a large project that can take several months, if not more to complete, let alone start seeing any return on investment. And then there’s the ongoing maintenance and support you’ll need to dedicate to maintaining it. Even a platform as robust as the PDB incurs maintenance events that can impact the accuracy of the data it provides or the flow of that data into your systems. 

Within the first half of 2025, the AgentSync team flagged several NIPR integration maintenance alerts with the potential to delay our clients’ operations. Our team completes the troubleshooting and maintenance work on behalf of our clients, typically before they even notice there’s an issue. But organizations that choose to build their data integration in-house may lack the support networks needed to respond to these kinds of events in a timely manner. So before building on your own, ask yourself how much time and effort you’re able to put into ongoing maintenance. If the answer is little to none, know you could face significant operational downtime when an issue arises.

Furthermore, much of the data housed in NIPR is considered Protected Personal Information, or PPI. Exposing or mishandling PPI is a big no-no that could cause harm or loss for an individual. Poorly managing any ongoing maintenance for your in-house data integration increases your organization’s risk of a cybersecurity slip and consequent lawsuit. 

How to power your systems–homegrown or purchased–with the best data

If you’ve read this far, you may be feeling a little hesitant about building your own data integration to power your distribution channel management workflows. But what other choices do you have? You could swap out your entire tech infrastructure for a solution with the data layer baked in. But it hardly makes sense for organizations that have already invested significant time and money into developing their core technology to throw everything out and start anew. 

The better option: Using AgentSync’s ProducerSync API (PSAPI) to power your existing infrastructure with the most modern and accurate industry data. 

PSAPI provides accurate-to-the-day NIPR data to whatever you connect it with. That means you can plug it directly into your existing DCM software without spending the time and money to create and maintain your own integration. Whether you’re starting to consider what it’ll take to build your own software (including the data portion), or you’ve already got software and are trying to decide whether to keep using your current data source, AgentSync PSAPI provides the following advantages over creating your own data connection:

• Instant access, ready to go when you are: Building your own NIPR integration can be all-consuming and take your focus away from key business functions. With PSAPI, you get immediate access to the data you need, when and where you need it. 
• Contextualized layer makes producer data more actionable: PSAPI automatically contextualizes raw NIPR data so carriers and agencies can answer critical questions about their distribution channels, like which producers they should pay to reappoint and whether there are any geographical or LOA gaps in their current distribution strategy. 
• Built-in regulatory updates: Never worry about keeping up with the hundreds of state rule changes each year ever again. AgentSync does it for you and automatically reflects any changes that’ve happened directly into your records. 
• 24/7 maintenance support: Our support team works behind the scenes to ensure any integration issues are resolved before they interfere with your day-to-day operations.
• Ongoing data security and authentication: AgentSync provides multi-factor authentication and single-sign-on capabilities, compared to relying on usernames and passwords each time you log into NIPR.

To learn more about powering your distribution channel management workflows with PSAPI, schedule a personalized consultation with one of experts today.