Sircon Renews Partnership with NIPR

Okemos, Mich.-based Sircon Corporation (a subsidiary of Bothell, Wash.-based Vertafore) and the National Insurance Producer Registry (Kansas City, Mo.) have agreed to a long-term extension of an existing authorized business partner agreement between the organizations. Together the companies provide producer licensing and compliance automation services to state regulators, insurance companies, agencies, and individual producers, including access to the NIPR Producer Database and Gateway. Sircon did not respond to an inquiry about the terms and duration of the contract.

The agreement will expand the existing relationship between Sircon and NIPR, according to a Sircon news release. NIPR's Producer Database consolidates participating state regulatory licensing systems into one common repository of producer information, and the NIPR Gateway links state insurance regulators with the entities they regulate to ease the electronic exchange of producer information.

"NIPR has been a strong, effective partner, and we are excited by the additional benefits we can together provide to state regulators and the industry," comments Bob Nero, president, Sircon. "We look forward to releasing new real-time solutions for the industry, such as ProducerEDGE, a personal compliance portal for producers and agencies that use the re-engineered Producer Database and NIPR Gateway to ensure compliance with changing regulatory environments." "Our long-term relationship with Sircon has played an important role in advancing the NIPR's goal of one-stop shopping for the industry," says Maryellen Waggoner, NIPR Executive Director. "We value Sircon's commitment to supporting and extending our core services that provide the industry with innovative, tightly integrated solutions."

The number of state departments of insurance accessible directly through Sircon or through the NIPR Gateway for online resident licensing and renewals has doubled to nearly 40 owing to the Sircon-NIPR partnership, the Sircon news release claims. NIPR and Sircon have agreed to work cooperatively to aggressively open new electronic services for the insurance industry, according to the release. Sircon has been a key NIPR business partner since the Producer Information Network pilot in 1997 and has processed over 40 million producer related regulatory transactions, the release adds.

The National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) is a non-profit affiliate of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). NIPR was established in October 1996 to develop and operate a national repository for producer license information (PDB) and to establish a network to facilitate the electronic exchange of producer information (NIPR Gateway).

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio