The document summarizes how online price comparison works, the main challenges, and how to get started with a comparison service. It explains that comparison sites collect customer and product details, send this data to multiple partners, translate the results into a standard format, then display the consolidated quotes. Accuracy is a major challenge given the large scale of thousands of quotes daily. Key aspects are making the system easy for both customers and partners to use while handling complexity, and ensuring timely, accurate results. The vision is to save customers time and money through an informative comparison tool.

1. Comparison
master class

2. Contents
What is online comparison? How does it work?
1. Hands-up 5. Behind the scenes
2. Purchase behaviour 6. Process examples
3. Why use PCC’s? 7. 35k times a day
4. Our process
What are the challenges? How do we get started?
8. Scale, accuracy & forensic 11. Key points re-cap
9. The effect of errors 12. Vision, philosopy & concept
10. Across products & seas 13. Our advised tool kit
14. Q & A

3. What is online
comparison?
What is online How does it work? What are the main How do we get
comparison? challenges? started?

4. Who has used a
comparison service recently?
ME! Yep!
I have!
I have!
Yes! ME!
Yes!
Yep! Yep
I used one last
week!

5. 2012 car insurance purchases
Roughly Price comparison
2/3rds of all car insurance
premiums in 2012 were Internet
purchased via one of the main
PC sites.
Offline
*Graph data taken from Admiral annual reports

6. Compared to five years ago...
Offline
Internet
Only
that’s a paradigm shift from just
a decade ago where premiums
were almost exclusively bought
via brokers or directly.
Price
comparison

7. Why do people
use PCC’s?
Control Convenience Price
CL EAR EASY CHO ICE
TIME
SAVI
NG DE TAILED
HELPFUL USER FRIENDLY
SIMPLE PROCE
SS

8. A look at our
car insurance process

9. Car insurance results
We give them access
to dozens of quotes,
with enough data
to show you what
services and extras
each has.
It’s not static. All the
prices are dependent
on all the data we’ve
captured so it’s
totally tailored to
the customer.
But more than that,
it’s about allowing
them to make an
informed choice.

10. How does it
work?
What is online How does it What are the main How do we get
comparison? work? challenges? started?

11. Behind the scenes in 15 seconds!
Car details
Driver details Price & Options
Customer
Cover
Partners / Insurance providers

12. Partner no.1 of 134 Translation process
Rules
1. Only transmit data with
special numbers for parts.
2. Don’t send data between 12
am and 6 am.
3. Throttle your service, don’t
overwhelm me with data. This is translated into
language that we can put
4. Use my way of naming levels
into comparison results.
of cover.
These are just 4 examples
of 100’s of potential rules.
Language partner speaks:
Each provider gets sent our data
and makes a decision on what to
quote – then the data is sent back,
consolidated and displayed.

13. 35,000 47,000
Possible combinations
CAR QUOTES A DAY

14. What are the
main challenges?
What is online How does it What are the How do we get
comparison? work? main challenges? started?

15. Challenges summary
1. How do you make a system that’s easy for customers to use?
2. How do you make a system that’s as easy for partners to plug
into?
3. How do you deal with all the potential complexity?
4. How do you deal with the potential for large scale?
How do you ensure that data returns in a timely fashion
5. (under 15 seconds) given the above considerations?

16. It’s not just about scale Forensic about data
We need to be forensic about our data.
Scale Accuracy
We cant just bombard them; fire quotes at the
customer and forget about it – even on the scale
of the operations we have.
It’s about accuracy too. Accuracy is critical to
our business.

17. If customer who was involved in a bad accident,
and who put through on our site that they had
several claims and convictions but we missed a
few out when we sent them to the insurer.
My policy details for my car insurance are:
Registration Number: VA04 HFD
Select the car make: Pegueot 206
Fuel Type: Unleaded petrol
The car is worth: £1000
The car has 5 seats, has no modifications,
has a right hand drive and 1 conviction.
My name is: John Smith
I am 39, married and live in Liverpool.
My policy details for my car insurance are:
Registration Number: VA04 HFD
Select the car make: Pegueot 206
Fuel Type: Unleaded petrol
The car is worth: £1000
The car has 5 seats, has no modifications,
has a right hand drive,
1 conviction (actually has 3!).
My name is: John Smith
I am 39, married and live in Liverpool.
We’d be liable.

18. Consequences should errors occur
What if our prices were not an accurate representation of what the provider quoted?
This could hurt our competitiveness if we consistently failed.
This is proven to be a commercially viable model, and errors are
therefore not acceptable.

19. Across products Across countries

20. How do we get
started?
What is online How does it What are the How do we get
comparison? work? main challenges? started?

21. Key points summed up
Easy to use Robust model Portable
It’s commercially viable because It’s easy for consumers to use and it’s easy for partners to plug into.

22. Our vision & philosophy
Price comparison
website in the uk!
Saving customers time Saving customers money Keeping customers informed

23. Could this work in
the public sector?
The union of your knowledge & our expertise.

24. Our advised tool kit
1. What information do you need to compare?
2. What do you need your users to achieve?
3. What technical considerations do you need to make?
4. What regulatory and audit requirements need to be
considered?
5. Who are the key stakeholders for this project?
6. What does success look like?

25. Come see us at stand number 10 in foyer B
This presentation & the speakers notes will be available to view and download from the Programme page of the
Social Care 2013 website following today’s conference (www.socialcarereform.co.uk)
Q&A
Visit us at:
www.confused.com
Chris.lewis@confused.com
Tamsin.jones@confused.com