Duck Creek makes Inc. 500

Duck Creek Technologies Inc. ranked No. 63 on the Inc. 500, based on a three-year growth rate of 1,131 percent.

To be eligible for the Inc. 500 listing, companies had to be U.S.-based, independent and privately held through their 2004 fiscal year, and have had at least $500,000 in net sales in the base year, 2001. Also, 2004 sales had to exceed sales in 2003. Companies were ranked on cumulative three-year sales growth from 2001 to 2004. The magazine verified company information using tax forms and audited financial statements from certified public accountants and through interviews with company officials.

Though Duck Creek was founded in 2000, it put out its first product in 2001.

“I think that year, we probably did $500,000 in revenue,” said CEO Doug Roller.

In 2002, the company posted roughly $1.5 million in revenue, which doubled to $3 million in 2003.

“In 2004, we went to about $6.5 million, and this year, we’ll finish up at maybe $11 (million) to $11.5 million,” Roller said, noting that projections for 2006 have the company’s revenues in the mid-$20 millions.

Duck Creek helps the insurance industry in the development of rating, underwriting and policy processing services for multiple lines, in the form of policy administration software.

“Everybody has an insurance policy for their automobiles and for their home, typically. Those are created and priced by the insurance carrier,” Roller said. ‘What we provide (carriers) with are tools that let them design and price the policy and create the rating and underwriting software for those projects. Once they have finished designing the product, we also provide them with the software that supports selling it and marketing it and servicing it. ”

Growth factors

The company’s growth, Roller said, is being fueled by three factors: timing, technology and the team of employees.

“There are lots of insurance carriers that are on old technology, and because of that, they’re all looking for ways to get their products to market faster and to reach new insurance channels,” Roller said. “Our company, from its founding, had a vision of building a very technologically sophisticated design system for enabling insurance carriers to build products more quickly to enlist their business users in the building process, and to provide them with a platform where they could then deliver insurance services that they designed with our tools to their customers and their agents.”

The company’s Example Platform supports all aspects of product definition, including data capture, rating, rules, interview screens, documentation, work flow and transactions.

But it’s the third factor – the team – that Roller credits most with the company’s growth. “I think that in Bolivar, Missouri, and in the surrounding (area), we have found remarkable people who have provided creativity, energy and dedication that has really fueled our growth,” Roller said.

Duck Creek has 110 employees, including about 35 in the Farmington, Conn., sales, marketing and support office, Roller said.

Duck Creek employs a full-time recruiter to assist with staffing needs.

“I think that it’s always easier to find prospective employees in a larger labor pool than, say the Bolivar-Springfield market, in a field like ours. There may not be a huge labor pool of technology people and insurance people,” Roller said. “But I think the other side of that is that by being one of the few employers of those people in significant quantities, it makes us a good alternative for people when we do find them.”

Roller said Duck Creek has customers on both coasts “and everywhere in-between.”

Tim Erickson, president of the Bolivar Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, said Duck Creek’s growth is important to the Bolivar-area economy, and it’s great for that growth to be recognized.

“We’ve known that they are a company that’s doing great things, has a good idea and has done a good job of implementing their ideas,” Erickson said.

“It’s nice to see it come out as a number and have it be recognized … so that the whole country knows that there’s a thriving, growing business in the Bolivar community,” he added.

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