Why Insurance Companies Are Betting Big on Duck Creek Migration Strategies

The insurance industry faces a critical crossroads. Legacy systems that once powered operations are now becoming bottlenecks, preventing companies from scaling rapidly, launching new products, or leveraging emerging technologies. According to the 2025 ISG Provider Lens research, the solution is increasingly clear: insurers are accelerating their duck creek migration journeys to replace these outdated platforms with modern, cloud-native alternatives.

The Pressure to Transform

Insurance companies operate under mounting pressure. Customer expectations have shifted dramatically. Competitive threats loom from agile fintech players. Regulatory demands continue to evolve. Legacy core systems—often built on outdated architectures with years of custom modifications—simply cannot keep pace. These platforms impose significant technical debt, making it harder to integrate new capabilities, maintain data quality, or respond to market changes.

The ISG report identifies this transition as industry-wide: enterprises recognize that modern platforms like Duck Creek offer the agility and flexibility needed to compete in today’s market. But recognizing the need and executing the migration are two very different challenges.

The Duck Creek Advantage

Duck Creek has positioned itself at the center of this transformation by emphasizing cloud-native and SaaS capabilities. The platform offers out-of-the-box functionality that reduces customization overhead—a sharp departure from the legacy approach of building custom solutions for every unique requirement.

This shift opens new possibilities. Companies migrating to Duck Creek report improved operational efficiency, better data-driven decision-making, and the ability to offer more personalized customer experiences. The platform’s modern architecture supports rapid product launches and seamless integration with third-party systems—critical capabilities for insurers seeking competitive advantage.

Why Professional Services Matter

Here’s the reality: duck creek migration is not a simple lift-and-shift operation. The technical complexity is substantial. Companies must address data migration challenges, manage extensive testing, handle system integrations, and contend with years of accumulated technical debt. Many insurers lack the internal expertise to navigate these obstacles alone.

This is where service providers play a pivotal role. According to the ISG research, successful migrators partner with providers across multiple dimensions:

• Consulting and strategy – Defining migration roadmaps, assessing current state systems, and planning the transition
• Implementation and integration – Managing data migration, system cutover, and third-party integrations
• Change management – Addressing process redesigns, workflow changes, and workforce training

Leading providers are increasingly adopting a streamlined “factory” approach to migration, moving away from extensive customizations. Instead, they leverage reusable tools, accelerators, and automation—many powered by AI—to reduce project timelines and deliver faster value.

The 2025 ISG report identifies six Leaders in Duck Creek Services: Accenture, Capgemini, Coforge, Cognizant, EY, and LTIMindtree. Additionally, Xceedance was named a Rising Star for its promising portfolio and high growth potential in this space.

Critical Success Factors

Insurers that have completed successful migrations emphasize several key elements:

Strategic Planning – Understanding the full scope of change required, not just the technical lift Data Governance – Ensuring data quality and integrity throughout the migration process Integration Excellence – Smoothly connecting Duck Creek with existing point solutions and third-party systems Change Leadership – Managing organizational resistance, retraining teams, and optimizing new workflows

The most overlooked factor? Change management. Migrations often trigger significant shifts in business processes, employee roles, and operational workflows. Organizations that underestimate this dimension frequently experience project delays, efficiency losses, and lower adoption rates.

Emerging Trends in the Ecosystem

Beyond core migration, the Duck Creek Services ecosystem is evolving in important ways. Demand is rising for Duck Creek OnDemand, a more flexible deployment option. Simultaneously, providers are expanding point solutions to address specific business challenges, allowing insurers to build customized capabilities around a solid Duck Creek foundation.

AI and automation tools are becoming table stakes, enabling providers to accelerate timelines and improve quality. However, maturity varies significantly across providers—companies evaluating partners should scrutinize the proven effectiveness of these accelerators.

The Path Forward

For insurance companies still running legacy systems, the question is no longer whether to modernize, but when and with whom. The duck creek migration pathway offers clear advantages: operational efficiency, faster time-to-market, and the flexibility to compete in an increasingly digital insurance market.

Choosing the right service partner is the first critical decision. Organizations that combine thoughtful strategy, experienced implementation partners, and strong internal change management are seeing migrations deliver measurable business value—enabling them to reimagine what modern insurance operations can achieve.