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Global insurance SaaS solutions, platform and core technology provider Duck Creek Technologies (Boston) has announced new capabilities to help U.K. pet insurers stay ahead of the competition, achieve operational efficiencies and capture share in a rapidly growing market.
Shreyas Vasanthkumar, Managing Director, EMEA, Duck Creek.
In a statement about the new capabiltiies, Duck Creek notes that accelerated growth is expected in the U.K. pet insurance industry, with some estimates suggesting that by 2025 the sector could generate £1.5 billion gross premium per year. With a significant majority of household pets currently uninsured, this remains a largely untapped market, the vendor says. According to Research and Markets Pet Insurance Global Market Report 2022, released Sept. 9, the global pet insurance market is expected to grow from $5.91 billion in 2021 to $6.94 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.34 percent. The pet insurance market is expected to reach $11.18 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 13.90 percent, the report says.
Duck Creek says it is seeking to make a positive difference in this expanding class of business for insurers and policyholders of pet insurance, underpinned by its core principles of accelerating speed-to-market, improving operational efficiency, and delivering excellent customer experiences across the policy and claims management lifecycle—all of which, the vendor says, are vital for this class of business.
“We know from our own research that the pet insurance market in the U.K. is ripe for transformation but one which presents insurers with a golden opportunity to provide customers with products that are relevant, affordable, transparent, and easy-to-access and manage throughout the product life cycle,” comment Shreyas Vasanthkumar, Managing Director, EMEA, Duck Creek Technologies. “What is very clear is that while price and affordability are key issues—particularly against a backdrop of high inflation and spiraling household bills—customers are not always thinking about or being made aware of other factors in the purchasing process including, for example, a vaccination plan for a pet, the wearing of a smart collar or online veterinary consultations which are as important as simply taking out insurance to cover the costs when a pet needs veterinary treatment.”
“What consumers want is an holistic, seamless service that covers all eventualities—not multiple products and touch points with their insurance provider,” Vasanthkumar continues. “The key for optimum customer experience is having a ‘single view,’ simple bundled products and seamless interactions with their insurer where the customer can clearly see the value-add and benefits. Insurers need to deliver all of this rapidly and easily through multiple channels of choice.”
Three Key Investment Areas:
Duck Creek reports that to meet the U.K. pet insurance market’s emerging needs, it has invested in three key areas. The vendor describes these areas as follows:
Out of the box content: this includes pre-built content for all four standard Pet Insurance plans including lifetime cover, time limited, accident only and maximum benefit. In addition, the ability to offer embedded coverage for protection of smart collar devices with predefined dashboards for pet activity and comparison with the benchmark for the same breed to improve renewal underwriting is also available.
Partner ecosystem: a well-established partner ecosystem and pre-built integrations to enrich pet related underwriting and pricing information, real-time pet tracking, together with online veterinary and vaccination support services. This enables straight-through processing and provides a single window of service for policyholders.
Intelligent user journeys: seamless customer and agent experience offered with pre-built digital journeys for sales, policy service and claims through digital channels of choice having a mobile first design.
Victoria Mills, Director, International Product, Duck Creek Technologies.
“For a market that is ripe for disruption, the solution lies in modern, cloud-based, low-code configurable core systems that deliver the agility and data granularity needed to make pet insurance policies more relevant, affordable, transparent and easy to engage with over the lifetime of a pet,” says Victoria Mills, Director of International Product, Duck Creek Technologies. “Such systems make the policyholder’s user experience not only more efficient but also stress-free and streamlined. Modern core systems that connect the data dots from the inception of a policy to renewal, add-ons and claims can help deliver the transformation that this market needs. Cloud-based SaaS systems with open API architecture can also give insurers the option to easily tap the InsurTech ecosystem and integrate cutting-edge innovations such as AI into underwriting and claims processing to improve profitability, reduce claims costs and make products more easily accessible, affordable and relevant for consumers.”