Standard Bank Concludes Successful 9th Annual Group Wide Hackathon
Standard Bank Group recently hosted its 9th annual Kuunda Disrupt Hackathon. The two-day event held in Johannesburg saw a record breaking 274 ideas submitted from across Africa. From these, the top 42 teams consisting of 229 hackers were selected to participate in the Hackathon.
Each participating team was bound by four pivotal criteria for their proposals. The proposal submissions had to be anchored in a cloud platform. Secondly, they were required to leverage one of the organization's contracted hyper scalers to establish real-time connections with clients. Thirdly, the ideas submitted should align to the Standard Bank Group's Strategic Value Drivers. Lastly, the envisioned outcomes should ideally lead to improved costs and efficiency, and an enhanced client experience.
Following rigorous reviews and judging, 42 teams were reduced to 15 finalist teams. From those 15, the final 3 were selected.
The first-place team’s idea sought to address the frustration clients experience in insurance when claiming and the inability to track or update claims. The team proposed the use of an integrated solution into the Standard Bank App, from which customers could scan/retrieve multiple documents as well track their claim.
The second-place team sought to address the scarcity of interactive platforms that effectively educate and empower children in the field of personal finance. The team proposed a client-led app designed to revolutionise financial education for children aged 7 – 18.
The hackathon saw an unprecedented tie for third place in which two teams proposed ideas that sought to empower users to personalise their interaction with the platform by setting up custom rules and innovate the payment of fuel at merchants via an add-on to the current Standard Bank app.
The energy and innovation at the event reaffirmed Standard Bank’s evolving commitment to continue to drive Africa’s growth.