As December winds down, the team at Octo North America wraps up a very successful 2017! It was a busy year for the Company overall, with numerous partnerships, multiple new products delivered, the announcement of a new IoT platform, and the acquisition of Willis Towers Watson, including its market-leading DriveAbility® solution and the DriveAbility Marketplace.
Highlights of our year include:
- February: Octo joined Guidewire PartnerConnect™ as a Solution Partner and delivered a Ready for Guidewireaccelerator for Guidewire PolicyCenter® 8.0.
- March: EMC Insurance Companies chose Octo as a fleet telematics partner for its commercial telematics program, Peak FleetTM.
- April: During Distracted Driving Awareness Month, Octo enabled a new Distracted Driving scoring and analysis feature across its suite of in-vehicle and mobile telematics solutions.
- May: Five million cars were connected to Octo’s telematics platform across the globe, a 25% increase since 2016.
- June: The Company was named the Best Insurance Telematics Product or Service of the Year at TU-Automotive Detroit 2017.
- July: The Company delivered an IoT insurance platform, called the Next Generation Platform, which allows for complete flexibility in the selection of sensors, analysis and output of data for all insurance and automotive services.
- August: Octo partnered with Ana Seguros, part of Grupo Valore, to deliver a new fleet telematics program, signifying strong market demand and growing Octo presence in Mexico. Also, Octo announced a partnership with Agero, the largest B2B provider of roadside assistance services to automotive manufacturers and insurance providers in North America, to deliver an integrated crash management solution for carriers.
- September: Octo released Vantage – formerly Glimpse plus – a cutting-edge, digitally enabled telematics service that provides a reliable way for insurers to gather accurate data on driving behavior, as well as more detailed crash detection and claims analysis. The smartphone plus smart tag solution also enables consumers to use their smartphone to monitor driving habits and become safer drivers.
- October: Octo announced the acquisition of the UBI assets of Willis Towers Watson and will partner with them on insurance-related products. The acquisition closed in December.
- November: North America operations surpassed the activation of three million usage-based insurance (UBI) users.
- December: CAA Insurance Company launched CAA Connect for Ontario, Canada participants, a usage-based insurance program powered by Octo.
We’re excited to close out a busy year of impactful news and milestones. In North America, we’ve continued to partner with tier one insurers and helped them to extend the value of telematics beyond UBI. Crash and claims is one example – there is growing demand for the use of telematics to reduce the cost of claims by identifying and eliminating fraud, decreasing bodily injury claims, and cutting legal costs associated with contested claims.
2018 Predictions and Insurtech Expectations
As we look to 2018, we also analyze the direction of insurtech and telematics. A few of our predictions:
- The addition of more sensors and smartphone capabilities that, like Vantage, deliver a superior ability to collect quality data – making the telematics offering more accurate than those based on a smartphone alone. Tag sensors are easily installed in a vehicle, pair with a user’s smartphone, and make the detection of trip events and data incredibly reliable – even if the smartphone is not in the car, improving data use and providing a better user experience.
- The continued evolution of telematics services to improve crash data capabilities and optimize claims processing – showing a significant financial impact for forward-thinking insurers.
- The use of telematics expanding beyond auto and transforming customer experience and insurer-to-insured relationships in other insurance verticals such as home, pet, health and on-demand insurance.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! We hope to see you again in 2018 for another exciting year in telematics and insurtech!